Kevin Harvick: Open-Wheel Crashes at Phoenix ‘Could Have Been Prevented’

Two crashes, four devastated drivers. On Saturday at the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway, Rinus VeeKay and Alex Palou collided as VeeKay tried to pass on the outside and Palou cut him off. Later, Christian Rasmussen tried to overtake Will Power for the lead of the race and Power ran him into the wall. Could those disasters have been avoided? “Both of those accidents could have been prevented from both drivers,” FOX Sports’ Kevin Harvick said on the latest episode of “SPEED with Harvick and Buxton.” [INSIDE THE GARAGE: Team Penske Relishes Phoenix Sweep but Loftier Goals Await] Yet on one hand, Palou “apportioned no blame” to VeeKay as Will Buxton put it, while Rasmussen was upset with Power. “I think it’s very clear what happened,” Rasmussen said following the race. “You can’t just run people into the wall. He ran me straight into the wall and I had damage.” [POWER RANKINGS: Who is at the top after Phoenix?] Harvick and Buxton agreed that Rasmussen’s incident was worse. They attributed Palou’s crash to “a communication breakdown between he and his spotter”, who didn’t alert Palou that VeeKay was coming around the outside. So how could these situations have been avoided? “I think that, when you’re that lead car, and you look in that mirror, and the spotters being late to those calls, or not even calling them, really puts those drivers in a tough spot… I would protect my car and make sure that I don’t damage my car,” Harvick said. “From the NASCAR side of the world, ultimately, you’re responsible for your car and the spotter is there to help you. I think, in INDYCAR, it’s a little bit harder to see out of those mirrors and things are happening a little bit faster.” These crashes took each of these drivers out of the top 10 of Saturday’s race, and for Palou specifically, it knocked the three-time reigning champion from atop the series points leaderboard.