Kevin Harvick's crew chief suspended for lug nut violation

Childers has been with Harvick since 2014 (Getty).

 

Kevin Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childers has been suspended for a race for a lug nut violation at Indianapolis on Sunday.

NASCAR announced the penalty on Wednesday in yet another example of the incongruity of some NASCAR rules. Childers, as has become standard since NASCAR changed its rules and penalties regarding lug nut violations in April, was suspended for a race after NASCAR found not all 20 lug nuts (five per wheel) were tight after the Brickyard 400.

At the race prior (New Hampshire), Matt Kenseth’s car failed post-race inspection. Kenseth won the race. Yet NASCAR simply penalized Kenseth 15 points and fined crew chief Jason Ratcliff, who was not suspended.

Childers noted that on Twitter after the penalty was announced. He’s been Harvick’s crew chief since the driver joined Stewart-Haas Racing from Richard Childress Racing in 2014 and the two won the championship that season.

	Rodney Childers @RodneyChilders4
👍🏼👍🏼 Guess I should have failed post race instead of having one lugnut loose.. Looking fwd to some 🎣🏌⛳️ twitter.com/nascar/status/… 7:02 AM - 27 Jul 2016

He also predicted his penalty when NASCAR announced crew chiefs would be suspended this spring.

	Rodney Childers @RodneyChilders4
All the years of hitting 5, and hardly ever was all 20 on post race.. I will sit at home for a week at some point.. twitter.com/2spotter/statu… 2:51 PM - 25 Apr 2016

Childers, who was also fined $20,000, will not appeal the suspension and miss Sunday’s race at Pocono. If it’s any consolation, Stewart-Haas teammate Kurt Busch won at Pocono in June with an interim crew chief as Tony Gibson was suspended for the race because of a lug nut violation. Per NBC, team engineer Dax Gerringer will serve as Harvick’s interim crew chief on Sunday.

Harvick currently leads the points standings by 24 points over Brad Keselowski.