Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Ford EcoBoost 400 | POST-PRACTICE MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Kevin Harvick met with media members after the lone practice session of the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Q: IT LOOKS LIKE, ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE BOARD, THAT OF THE FOUR GUYS, YOU HAVE THE MOST WORK TO DO. HOW DO YOU FEEL PRACTICE WENT?
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Ford Mustang: “It went good. We missed our travels a little bit the first run and got our car a lot better.”
Q: IN 2014 YOU SAID THIS FORMAT FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP WAS SHORTENING CAREERS FOR THE DRIVERS. HERE YOU ARE FIVE YEARS LATER. DO YOU STILL FEEL THAT WAY?
KEVIN HARVICK: “It is a lot easier now. You understand it. It is still stressful, you just learn how to deal with it better.”
Q: IS IT A BIG DEAL THAT YOU DON’T GET A PRACTICE SESSION AT NIGHT AND CAN YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM TODAY FOR THE RACE TOMORROW?
KEVIN HARVICK:“Half the race is in the day, so there is definitely something that can apply, for sure.”
Q: IS THE BOTTOM LINE A BETTER LINE OR IS IT STILL IMPORTANT TO RUN THE TOP AND HOW DOES THAT CHANGE FOR RESTARTS WITH LANE SELECTION THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO HAVE IF YOU HAVE THE CHOICE? KEVIN HARVICK: “I think that the line is probably not that much different, it is just following behind the cars is worse than what it has been before. YOu are going to have to be versatile on where you can run on the racetrack and be able to run bottom, middle and top because you can’t run behind every car.”
Q: HOW ABOUT ON RESTARTS?
KEVIN HARVICK:“Typically the bottom just doesn’t go as well with the traction so we will see how that goes with the higher downforce and less power.”
Q: YOU SEEM PRETTY UPBEAT THIS WEEKEND, WHAT IS THE EMOTION AROUND YOUR CREW?
KEVIN HARVICK:“It is just business as usual.”
Q: WHEN YOU GO INTO SUNDAY’S RACE, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU THINK OF DIFFERENTLY OR DO YOU TRY TO STAY ON THE SAME PATH YOU ALWAYS DO AND JUST DO WHAT YOU DO?
KEVIN HARVICK:“You can’t really stay on the same path because of all the things that they force you to do. You can’t really be in your normal routine and you have to know that coming into the week with all the things that are just way out of normal from what you would do on a weekend. So you just have to know that coming into the week and just deal with all the extra things and extra people and things that come with the week.”
Q: WHAT ABOUT THE RACE ITSELF THOUGH?
KEVIN HARVICK:“As soon as that starts you are like, ‘Thank God!, I can do what I normally do.’ So yeah, once the race starts, it is a little different because you don’t have the stages that you have to worry about, you aren’t worried about stage points. The strategy is really pretty straightforward as to what you are trying to do and that is be around to have a chance at the end of the race.”
Q: WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DECISION TO HAVE PRACTICE INSTEAD OF QUALIFYING? WHAT ARE ANY IMPLICATIONS OF NOT HAVING QUALIFYING?
KEVIN HARVICK:“I don’t really have any input on any of those so I don’t worry about things like that.”
