"What in the hell are we doing?": Kevin Harvick questions Denny Hamlin's Atlanta strategy amid Toyota woes

Kevin Harvick recently shared his take on Denny Hamlin's strategy at Atlanta. Joe Gibbs Racing took a pragmatic approach to the first playoff race and focused on getting maximum points. However, this strategy came undone after he was involved in a late-race wreck and finished 24th.

When Hamlin opened up on his strategy after the race, he received a lot of flak from names like Kyle Petty and Brett Griffin.

Moreover, Kevin Harvick has also joined the bandwagon. He said on the Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast:

"Listening to Denny's interview after the race, I went back and listened to it. Well, we just thought we needed to score 20 points. 20 points? What in the hell are we doing? Do you think there's more to this story? I don't know. And then we have the engine issues, right? They have the spark plug wires, and we've talked about the Toyota engine issues that they've had throughout the year. Now we have a new problem that they had this weekend with the spark plug wires. But man, I think that this is one of the most disappointing weekends I've ever seen out of the #11 car, and just the first round of the playoffs to lay an egg like that—it's not good."

Notably, Denny Hamlin defended and stood by his strategy on Actions Detrimental. The #11 driver claimed that his approach was based on running numbers.

And while it didn't come exactly to fruition, he was simply trying to make "the best decision" to help his cause of advancing to the next round of playoffs.

Kevin Harvick weighs in on 23XI Racing's situation amid charter fallout

Following his views on Denny Hamlin's strategy as a driver, Kevin Harvick addressed Hamlin's strategy as an owner.

With 23XI Racing being one of the two teams that didn't sign NASCAR's charter proposal, Harvick wondered where the team co-owned by Michael Jordan might be going with this decision.

"I don't know what it gets you at this point because everybody else has agreed. I think it's a very interesting scenario with everything that has gone on. From 2311's standpoint, you're dealing with a lot of legacy owners who have been here for a long time. You have these relationships with Richard Childress, Jim France, Rick Hendrick, Roger Penske, and Jack Roush. Whether you're the ringleader representing all these guys, they've all been here a long time," Harvick said. [21:08]

Harvick claimed that the legacy owners didn't expect to be in a position they found themselves in. And that they would've spent "an amazing amount of money" to remain a part of NASCAR.

But now with 23XI's decision, Harvick claimed it has raised a lot of questions and put certain individuals in uneasy situations. The former SHR driver added that this uneasiness could quickly spread through the 23XI shop and into the employees.

"They have to address that situation, or it’s going to spread a cancer through their shop like they’ve never experienced before," Harvick added.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see what 23XI Racing decides to do having rejected NASCAR's offer.