NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PENNSYLVANIA 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
August 3, 2012
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, met with members of the media today at Pocono Raceway and discussed the Chase, road course racing and other topics. Full Transcript:
NEXT WEEK WE GO TO A ROAD COURSE DESCRIBE THE INCREASED EMPHASIS ON ROAD COURSES OVER RECENT YEARS AND HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED: “Well that didn’t really change much over the last four or five years. I think before that there was a big change just because of the points and the things are all still the same from every other week. There were a lot of people that were good at it. You had to become good at it to be competitive so you’ve got to put a lot of effort into it.”
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING YOU WANT TO WIN RACES. AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE CHASE DO YOU START TO FEEL ANYMORE PRESSURE? “I think for us we need to make our cars better. We need to get faster. We have been fortunate to be in the position that we are in points wise. You’ve got to kind of balance that with trying to get better and also trying to protect what you’ve got.”
DOES IT HELP THE FACT THAT THE TOP 10 HAVE KIND OF BROKEN AWAY FROM THOSE WILD CARD GUYS A LITTLE BIT? “Well it doesn’t hurt anything you just don’t want to screw anything up. When you are in that Wild Card position and you are trying to get in; not that we are no throwing everything at it that we have, but you are willing to take a lot more chances. You really don’t have anything to lose. It helps but you just don’t want to screw it up.”
YOU SAY YOU ARE TRYING TO GET THE CARS BETTER ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON? IS THERE SOMETHING ACROSS THE BOARD OR INDIVIDUAL TO YOUR TEAM? “No, I think it’s all three teams. I don’t think there is really one specific thing that you can put your finger on to say this is what we are doing. I think it’s a lot of things that need to get better. Everybody is working on them to make them better. We didn’t capitalize on the situations that were in to win races at the beginning of the year. Performance wise hasn’t been exactly where we needed to be. Everybody is working hard to try to get it to that point. Hopefully, we can do that over the next six weeks.”
HOW ARE YOU SLEEPING?
“I sleep fine. It’s definitely a handful during the day to tell you the truth. When he’s (son Keelan) not having a good day, on his good days it’s easy. There are definitely some challenges that go along with it. It’s been a fun process to be a part of with DeLana (Harvick, wife). We are experiencing a lot of new things together. Most of them are enjoyable. Some of them aren’t though (laughs).”
AFTER ALL THE PIT ROAD SPEEDING PENALTIES HERE LAST TIME ARE YOU CONFIDENT THAT EVERYBODY HAS A HANDLE ON THAT NOW WE WON’T SEE THAT AGAIN? “I’m not real confident in it. I think for me you have to be cautious in that particular segment especially under green-flag where you can lose a lot of time. We know what we did last time we just have to ease our way back into it and try to understand exactly where we are speed wise.”
AFTER ALL THE TALK ABOUT RESTARTS LAST WEEK IS THAT JUST GETTING CRAZIER AND CRAZIER OR DO YOU FEEL LIKE EVERYBODY HAS A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THEY CAN AND CAN’T DO WITH THAT NOW? “This will be worse than last week based upon the first race. Everybody kind of knows that going into this particular race. I like the fact that the (NASCAR Camping World) Trucks are here this week. That should help to spread the right rubber on the race track and the groove out a little bit more than the ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) cars did last time. That will probably get better, but it’s still going to be very aggressive on the restarts because that will be the easiest place to get the positions that you need.”
WHAT SECTIONS OR TURNS ARE THE MOST CHALLENGING AT THE GLEN AND WHY?
“It just depends on how your car is handling I think they can all present problems. I think as the race goes on I think turn one becomes more of an issue because it’s downhill and the brakes start to get worn out. The wheel hop becomes easier to start happening as the race goes on. That is the one you have got to watch for me during the race. They all present different challenges.”
THE OLYMPICS ARE GOING ON RIGHT NOW WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH AND WHY? “I was watching this morning and I didn’t know trampolines were or trampolining; I don’t even know what they exactly call it. I didn’t know that was an Olympic sport. I think really they are all weather it’s something like that or something that everybody watches like soccer or gymnastics or whatever the case may be just to get the whole world together and see who is the best at each individual sport is fun to watch and root on your country.”
IF YOU WERE AN ATHLETE IN THE OLYMPICS WHAT WOULD YOU BE COMPETING IN? “I don’t even know them all. I was reading there were 300 and some medals that they hand out during the Olympic games. Obviously, if I didn’t know trampolining was a sport I would have to do a little research and find out which one I think I might be capable of. I think I’m too old to do pretty much anything in the Olympics it seems anyway.”
HOW GOOD IS IT FOR THE SPORT RIGHT NOW THAT DALE EARNHARDT JR. IS THE POINTS LEADER? “I guess it helps.”
JUST IN YOUR TIME IN THE SERIES HOW HAVE YOU SEEN ROAD RACING EVOLVE? “I think over the last five or six years you’ve seen a lot of guys become good at it. I think if you are going to get the points that you need you have to take it under your arm and really be open to try to and get better at it. All the teams prepare individual cars and do a lot of things to try to do well at the road courses. It’s just something that pays the same points you have to be good at it.”
SEVERAL DRIVERS SAID LAST WEEK THEY SAW SOMETHING IN THE BACK OF JIMMIE’S (JOHNSON) CAR, THE YAW OR WHATEVER, THAT HELPED HIM GET MORE SPEED. DID YOU NOTICE ANYTHING? DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE FOUND SOMETHING? “Yeah, all the Hendrick cars have more yaw than the whole field. They have done a good job doing some R&D to get the things that they need, but that didn’t just happen last week. That has been going on for several weeks before we came here to the first race. That is what this sport is all about is finding an advantage and making it work on the race track. They have done that.”
DO THEY HAVE EVERYBODY ELSE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT EXACTLY WHAT THAT IS? “Well you definitely go to work. That is one of the things that we worked on in Michigan this week. They have got the garage scrambling a little bit right now to try and figure out how to achieve exactly what they are doing.”
FOUR OR FIVE YEARS AGO WHEN DALE EARNHARDT JR. WENT TO HENDRICK AND KYLE (BUSCH) WENT TO JGR (JOE GIBBS RACING) A LOT OF PEOPLE SAID THAT JGR GOT THE BETTER END OF THE DEAL BECAUSE KYLE (BUSCH) WAS A BETTER DRIVER. HAVE THE TIDES TURNED?
“I try to worry about myself.”
WHAT IS THE HAT DANCE LIKE IN VICTORY LANE? “Well when you get to Victory Lane you really don’t, especially at this level, you really don’t care how long it takes or how many hats they put on your head. You want to make sure you take care of all your sponsors, but it all happens pretty fast, but you’re happy to stay there.”
ARE THE ROAD COURSES STILL ODD BALL RACES? NOW IT SEEMS LIKE THEY ARE JUST ANOTHER RACE. “Yeah, pretty much just another race now. I think everybody knows that you are going to a road course and you’ve got a lot of different aspects from a driver’s standpoint, team standpoint that you have to pay attention to.”
IS IT A LOT MORE DANGEROUS GETTING A LAP DOWN (ON ROAD COURSES)? “There won’t be too many cars a lap down. You don’t count on as many cautions as you do on an oval. It’s definitely a lot more different than going a lap down on an oval.”
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