NASCAR says that it has no problem with the controversial final restart at Talladega on Sunday, when defending series champion Kevin Harvick triggered a multi-car accident that ensured his progress into the next round of the Chase.

Race report: Logano takes Talladega win

The field had formed up for an attempt at a green-and-white-checkered when the field tripped over itself before the leaders had reached the start/finish line, sending Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson spinning through the infield and prompting race control to cancel the restart.

Harvick, who had suffered engine problems earlier in the race, had moved out of the way of the rest of the field on the first restart but on the second he held his line, and then moved high to block Trevor Bayne’s attempt to pass him. The pair made contact and triggered a pile-up that effectively ended the race.

The final classifications allowed Harvick to squeak through to the next round of the Chase; however, his move drew fire from many of his rivals who believed that his contact with Bayne had been deliberate.

“That’s a crappy way for Harvick to have to get in the Chase is to wreck somebody – what I believe to be on purpose; maybe it wasn’t,” said Bayne. “The restart before that, he had engine problems and got out of the way. I think he realized if the caution came out he was going to be fine, so I got by and get hooked in the left-rear. Harvick is a really good driver. I think he knows the limits of his car and where it’s at, so that’s why I think it was intentional.”

Denny Hamlin (wrecked at right), who along with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman was eliminated from Chase contention, expressed his displeasure via Twitter:

“What a joke we have a car with no motor wreck the field to end the race. Complete crap. Sorry to anyone who spent $ coming to this circus.”

Harvick insisted that he was merely trying to get out of Bayne’s way, and although representatives from several teams visited NASCAR officials after the race, the series’ vice-chairman Mike Helton insisted that an initial review of the incident had revealed nothing untoward.

“What we saw, there is no evidence right now that there was anything the 4 car (Harvick) did that was questionable, other than moving out of line,” said Helton. “Obviously there are some of the teams questioning what the 4 car did on the restart. We went back and walked through with them. Procedurally from NASCAR, we don’t see anything there that’s of suspect – so far. We haven’t seen anything. The only thing I mean by ‘so far’ is that I’ve been around racing long enough to know that something could crawl out of the woodworks in the next 24 hours.

“We believe so far we did everything procedurally correct and the 4 car did nothing wrong. It’s a high-pressure weekend to have this elimination round at Talladega. Everybody knew from last year and coming into this one this is an ultra-high pressure weekend, and Talladega lived up to it.”