Harvick, who was beaten by Blaney by 0.012 seconds in a photo finish Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, was disqualified by NASCAR after officials discovered his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford had unsecured windshield fasteners, which meant an unsecured windshield.
The disqualification comes for violating NASCAR Rule Book numbers 14.5.6.2.F Windshield and 14.1.E&P Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules.
Harvick loses all stage points earned in the race as is moved to 38th in the running order.
The revised top-10 finishing order of Sunday’s race has been changed to Blaney, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Corey LaJoie, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece, Riley Herbst and Daniel Suarez.
SHR has the right to appeal the penalty and there was no immediate response from the organization on Sunday night whether they planned to do so.
Sunday’s race was the final superspeedway race of Harvick’s career, which includes one previous win at Talladega (2010) and two victories at Daytona, including the 2007 Daytona 500.
While Sunday’s race featured 70 lead changes among 24 drivers, Harvick patiently waited his turn out front, not taking the lead for the first time until lap 161.
From there, he remained in the win for 61st career win, right down to the last few feet.
It's the first time this year that a Cup Series team has been disqualified, with the most recent DQ coming in the penultimate race of the 2022 season when Brad Keselowski lost his fourth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway.
Harvick's crew chief Rodney Childers took to social media to explain the issue, saying: "There have been times I’ve got caught doing something I shouldn’t have. Today got DQ’d for the car buffering in the draft all day and some windshield bolts vibrating out. My guys had silicon on the threads and gobbed on the tip. Still came out. Not sure what else we could do."
