Kevin Harvick 'mad' over Parker Kligerman's misfortune, NASCAR concedes late Xfinity caution required earlier attention

Kevin Harvick expressed frustration over Parker Kligerman’s misfortune due to a late caution call at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick admitted feeling mad about how the race officials didn’t make the call 20 seconds earlier when they had spotters to report incidents around the track.

After two decades in the NASCAR Cup Series, Harvick called time on his career last year. His biggest achievement was winning the 2014 Cup Series championship in his first year with Stewart-Haas Racing. He is now an analyst for the FOX broadcast team and runs a show called Happy Hour.

In an X (formerly Twitter) post via Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the former NASCAR driver slammed NASCAR officials for the late caution call.

“I was distraught. I didn’t even know what… I was mad,” Harvick said.

Harvick argued that the yellow flag could’ve been thrown 20 seconds earlier, before the No. 48 Chevrolet of Parker Kligerman got close to the start/finish line to win the race.

“Look, the car was parked under the barrier. They could have thrown the caution 20 seconds earlier. And the fact that they said, NASCAR said that they have a tough time seeing that area from up top in race control just blew me away.”

He added:

“If TV is showing it, and they’re not seeing it up there, then they need to get more screens. They need to get more spotters. They need to get something because this was an absolute heartbreaker for Kligerman.”

Per SiriusXM NASCAR, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, admitted they took too long to make the call.

“It did take long,” Sawyer said.

According to Sawyer, the race officials wanted to gather the information before relaying it to the race director. Due to the limitations of the race control's camera angles, which initially missed Leland Honeyman's incident, the caution flag was displayed late at Charlotte.

Sawyer said that the officiating crew adjusted the camera angles for the reconfigured Charlotte Motor Speedway after Saturday’s Xfinity race.

“We made some adjustments overnight as far as camera angles so that our replay operator could get to that… be able to see that quicker, to be able to get that information to the race director. We made an adjustment over Saturday night, felt like we’re in a much better place on Sunday. Again, that’s a call that we wanted to get to quicker, but you got to have the information,” Sawyer stated.

The late caution call was criticized because Parker Kligerman was only a few feet away from winning the race. Had Kligerman crossed the line before caution, he would’ve won the race and advanced to the Round of 8. However, he was eliminated from the playoffs after Sam Mayer won in the overtime period.

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Parker Kligerman admitted feeling hurt after the misfortune at Charlotte

Following the Charlotte race, Parker Kligerman confessed that he felt like crying during the cooldown lap, as he had narrowly missed out on advancing to the playoffs. He said (via NASCAR):

“This hurts. I said on the cooldown lap I want to cry, but I won’t, and it’s gotten close a couple times as I think about it.”

However, the 34-year-old Connecticut native remained positive and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to drive in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“I just, I’ve really loved doing this, and I’ve been so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and to be at this level and to make a career doing this. And I just love the intensity and the pressure. And I really, really wanted that.”

Kligerman is set to retire from full-time competition at the end of the season. He still has four races left to try and secure his first win in the Xfinity Series.