Kevin Harvick wins; craziness ensues

— -- CONCORD, N.C. -- The latest version of the Chase for the Sprint Cup has become a sadistic psychological experiment. Some are enduring. Some are coming unbolted. And maybe that was the plan all along.

Consider: As firebrand Kevin Harvick, ironically nicknamed "Happy," beamed in Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night, the genteel Matt Kenseth stalked and attacked fellow former series champion Brad Keselowski in the darkened garage after a postrace bumping incident, this minutes after Denny Hamlin was restrained in his attempt to accost Keselowski.

Race cars as weapons on the track and in the garage area, media relations representatives helping crewmen to suppress fisticuffs, green/white/checker finishes, playoff-round cutoffs. Pressure, pressure. It's becoming too much for several drivers to handle with the next cut-down race next Sunday at nefarious Talladega Superspeedway, of all places.

Except those who have already earned their position in the third of four rounds of the new Chase, like Kansas winner Joey Logano, and on Saturday, Harvick. And he even seemed more relieved than pleased. Such is life in modern NASCAR's prodded and poked postseason.

"It makes me want to puke every week is what it does," Harvick said of the new playoff format. "You know, when we first got this, we were sitting down in our team meeting with NASCAR, and [chairman] Brian [France] said, 'Here's what we're going to do, boys, we're going to have this championship format and we're going to have the elimination rounds, and Homestead is going to come down to the championship,' and I'm like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. And then he says, 'If you're going to have problems at Homestead, you're going to have them in any championship format.' And I'm like, 'OK.' And then you look at the intensity that it has added [for] every three weeks, and you know it's the right thing to do because it has been so intense and so crazy. And my wife can tell you, it's like you go home and all you do, you lay up at night and you think about, OK, what do I have to do next week; OK, what do we need to do, who do I need to talk to? And it consumes everything that you do."

Jeff Gordon was second, followed by Jamie McMurray, Logano and Kyle Busch.

Harvick's victory was one of the few things that made sense. After leading six times for a race-high 162 laps, at times by as much as five seconds, Harvick was running off for his third win of the season when a caution with seven laps left prompted one more pit call, one more restart. Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers elected to remain on the track, as did most of the leaders except Jimmie Johnson, who took tires and faded from fourth to a disastrous 17th.

In finishing 19th, Kenseth fell two spots to ninth in driver points and into the four-driver relegation zone, followed by Keselowski -- who finished 16th -- Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th). Whereas Earnhardt's woes were mostly borne from a midrace broken shifter that required several pit stops to mitigate, sending him a lap down, Kenseth, Johnson and Keselowski were in contention on Saturday and emotionally piqued throughout the race.

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, fierce competitors who have squabbled, reconciled and made each other six-time champions, sparred verbally over the team radio at one point to levels seldom heard in their 13 seasons together. They, like rest of the bottom four in points, will almost certainly require a win at Talladega to have any chance to defend their title. They sounded much more like their typical cohesive unit by the end of the race.

Things were decidedly more emotional for Keselowski and Kenseth afterward. Their animosity had apparently been sparked on a restart with 62 laps remaining when Keselowski made contact with Kenseth, causing body damage to his No. 2 Ford.

"[Kenseth] was in back of me and I wasn't mad at him," Keselowski said. "But when the last yellow came out, he got the wave-around and he came back and swung at my car and tore the front of the car off. And we started the fifth with no front, we fell back to 16th and ruined our day and gave us a big Chase hurt, which is unfortunate.

"And for some reason after the race, [Hamlin] stopped in front of me and tried to pick a fight. I don't know what that was about. And he swung and hit at my car, and I figured if we are going to play car wars, I'll join too. You know those guys can dish it out but they can't take. And I gave it back to them and now they want to fight. I don't know what's up with that."

Hamlin, who said Keselowski was "just acting like a dumb--- instead of a champion," said he brake-checked Keselowski on the cool-down lap because he had collided with him on the green/white/checker restart. Keselowski swiped Kenseth on the postrace cool-down lap, then brushed Hamlin, and in the process, Tony Stewart, who backed into Keselowski in response.

"And then he tried to spin us out," Hamlin said of Keselowski. "Then we got to pit lane and he plowed into [Stewart] and [Kenseth]. And [Kenseth], his belts were off, and he ran into him, and then ran into us again coming off pit road. And then he went through the garage and did burnouts and he knocked somebody's transmission clear through somebody else's pit stall. He's just out of control."

Kenseth grappled Keselowski into a headlock between Team Penske haulers before being subdued by crewmen and Keselowski crew chief Paul Wolfe. Kenseth said he probably put himself in a vulnerable position in racing where he did on the restart with 62 left, but he was most infuriated by Keselowski's postrace actions.

"The safety," he said. "He was doing something with Denny, and I don't know if he was mad at me. I had my HANS off and my seat belts off and everything. He clobbered me at 50 [mph].

"If you want to talk about it as a man, try do that.  But to try and wreck someone on the racetrack, come down pit road with other cars and people standing around with seat belts off and drive in the side of me, it's inexcusable."

But completely the new norm, Harvick said.

"When you see Matt Kenseth mad enough to fight, you know that this is intense because that's way out of character for him," he said. "But I was right behind that moment and lost two or three spots going into Turn 1, as well, when Brad basically took a right and shoved him into the fence.

"When you see that happen, I think that every moment matters in this Chase, and Matt Kenseth knew that that one particular moment could have been the end of his Chase. That's the bottom line. That's how intense this whole Chase is."