After dominating at Phoenix International Speedway, Kevin Harvick kept the momentum going as he topped the speed charts in Thursday’s test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Harvick admitted that he struggled at the beginning with trying to find the right feel of the car, but was able to find it after making some changes and had it right at the end of the day.
“I think the best thing that happened today is the car didn’t run very fast at the beginning of the practice,” Harvick commented. “We were three or four tenths off and had to kind of abort on what we were doing and go a different route. The next route was not as good and the third route finally wound up being good. I think those are good things that are, for us, important because it gives us direction when we go to other mile and a half race tracks so we don’t have to do like we did today. We can get to what has been working for us and just go straight from there to progress that package to make it even better. I thought that was probably the best thing that came out of today.”
Harvick added that he thought the progress through the session for him and the team was great to experience as they continue to learn how to communicate with each other.
“I would rather of had us struggle at the beginning of the day and have to work through things and communicate well with each other,” Harvick continued.
The test was critical not only for Harvick with his new team, but for other teams due to NASCAR’s rule changes that allow for more sensitive adjustments, including the jack screws.
“NASCAR has kind of given us some different things that will help us be able to make bigger swings at the car during the race that are very sensitive and still kind of fresh in the simulation,” he commented. “So it’s not 100 percent right as you go through some of the travels and different things.
“So our travels and things were off a fair amount, not a fair amount, but they were off in the beginning of the test. So we just got all those right and with the data and things on the car today you can kind of get a better idea of where you were and hopefully go back and zero in on all that and make it better as you go into the next few weeks.”
When it comes to rule changes, teams do a lot of tests and some times they go down the wrong route, while some work. Harvick said he thought after Charlotte that they were going down the right route – till now. The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet attributed that to things being different when you get to the actual track versus a test.
