NASCAR CUP SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS RACE WEEKEND PREVIEW
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2020
KEVIN HARVICK NASCAR ZOOM MEDIA AVAILABILITY
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Ford Mustang — WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS, OR HOW IS IT, THAT DRIVERS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HAVE MORE SUCCESS AROUND THE AGE OF 40 THRESHOLD THAT IS BELIEVED TO BE A POINT WHERE ABILITY CAN DIMINISH? “The things that I would tell you is that the sport has changed a lot. I think with less practice and cars changing and a lot of the things are done through simulation and things like that now. The experience level obviously comes into play. I think when you surround that with a good team and a good organization and are able to work those details out, I think the potential is to drive into your 50’s. Why not? I think with the health side of things and the way that people take care of themselves and workout, I think the longevity of the body on most of us going forward is going to be more durable than what it has been in the past. I think that experience for the most part is the biggest key. Especially when you surround that with a crew chief and team that are good. That is the situation that I am in. I think I kind of had a second life I guess you could say coming to SHR. That was very motivating and I think as you look at it now, for me it is still very motivating. You work your whole career to get into a situation like this and I had a long conversation with Mark Martin. You work your whole career to get in this situation, why would you want to give that up and just say, ‘I quit’? As long as Delana and my family are supportive, I don’t think the drive and enthusiasm as far as showing up to the race track every week will go away anytime soon. You just have to balance those things. I think as you look at Martin (Truex Jr.) turning 40 and Denny (Hamlin) and a lot of the success has been from that particular age group. I don’t think that is going to change any time soon.”
SOME TRACKS HAVE STRATEGY THAT PLAY A KEY ROLE. INDIANAPOLIS CAN BE ONE OF THOSE. WHEN THERE ARE DIFFERENT DRIVERS ON DIFFERENT CYCLES, IS IT EASY FOR A DRIVER TO JUST DRIVE OR HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORRIED OR THINKING ABOUT THE STRATEGY PLAY DURING A RACE? “We have talked about it before the race and during the race I typically just let them handle it because they have way more information. From a driver’s standpoint it is a little more stressful because you aren’t really around the cars all the time that you are racing. You know if you give up a little here and there, you don’t know how much they give up through lap traffic or coming back through the field or what strategy they are on. From a driver standpoint it is a little more stressful and you have to push every lap to make sure you get the most out of that lap to give up the least amount of time. It is just a different style of race, which is good, right? You have all these different elements that play in at different styles of race tracks that aren’t the same style and element that play at all the other race tracks. It is actually more stressful in my opinion because you can’t judge it off a car that is around you. It is somewhere else on the race track but it all cycles together.”
WHEN DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE OKAY TO SPEAK OUT AS A DRIVER? WHEN DID YOU START SAYING WHAT YOU THOUGHT? WAS IT RIGHT WHEN YOU CAME INTO THE SPORT OR DID IT TAKE SOME TIME? “Unfortunately when I started I talked too much. It was a thought that it was more fun to rile everybody up than it was to actually just worry about racing. My opinions were too many. Then it affects your team and the things you do. They start having to answer questions. I think there is definitely a balance and I would definitely consider myself a little bit of a loose cannon for the first several years because I didn’t care what I said, didn’t care what you thought and didn’t care about much other than just driving the race car. It was a pretty self-centered approach. I think a lot of that process changed when I came to Stewart-Haas Racing and then had kids. You have a whole different responsibility that comes with the things you say and do when you have kids. I think for me in the race car, in order to get Rodney convinced to come to Stewart-Haas Racing, his first questions were, ‘You don’t have a very good reputation with your team and you yell on the radio and do all these things. The first time all this stuff happens I am out of here and most likely we won’t even get started unless we can make some changes in that process.’ I think in order to get the right person and start building a team it was important to commit to not only for my family but for Rodney and his situation and our relationship. To have that kind of reset button in order to start over and really have a different reputation of how you handled yourself, it really didn’t affect the things you do on the race track but how you handled yourself and that observation that you put out to the world needed to be different. I think coming to Stewart-Haas Racing and Rodney are the biggest reason for that.”
THE DOUBLE-HEADER WITH INDYCAR AND NASCAR, ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO RUNNING INTO PEOPLE IN THE GARAGE AND WATCHING WHAT THE INDY CARS DO? “I am definitely not going to run into anybody. I know that for sure because they will all be gone by the time I get there. That part, I wish that I was able to be in the garage and go over and see what the Indy cars are all about and watch in person. We will definitely be watching on TV. It is a great situation for all three series’ to be together and a huge step for racing. As you look at IndyCar and Xfinity and Cup cars all at the same venue because we are all racers. We all want to see racing be successful and I think this is definitely a great step for both series’ to be in the same venue and bring our fans together and show both sides that it is not about picking sides, it is about watching a great show and being a part of a great event.”
DO YOU HAVE A CURIOSITY OF THE XFINITY CARS ON THE ROAD COURSE AND WHERE DO YOU WAY IN ABOUT POSSIBLY RUNNING THE 400 ON THE ROAD COURSE? “I would never vote for that because I love everything about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For me it is all about the oval, I guess you can kind of call it an oval, racing on the traditional track because for me I am kind of old school and I think that the Cup cars belong and really started the Brickyard 400. That was kind of what it was always meant to be, that iconic one-off just the Cup cars event. I think with the Xfinity cars and the trucks and K&N cars and all the things that used to race at IRP, it was a great event. Hopefully the road course can kind of take that role that IRP used to have and be able to bring the IndyCars and NASCAR together to add to that event at the speedway. For me personally, I would never vote for the Cup cars to not run on the oval.”
DO YOU THINK WITH THE LACK OF PRACTICE THAT YOUR EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN AN ADVANTAGE THIS YEAR? “I think it could go either way. I think the experience of our team being together going on seven years now is definitely a big part of that. Being a part of that evolution of the things I like in the car and things they like to do, the evolution of the race cars themselves and what they figure out on the engineering side kind of evolves naturally. You can’t set too far out on a limb and try a bunch of things like you would in practice on a normal race weekend. The other peiece of that is that you don’t have a bunch of people studying what you do with all the SMT data to try to copy it and drive their car and set their car up like what you are doing because the race is over by the time all that happens. It has been very unique and it has been something that plays well for our team to just show up and race because I think for the most part that experience is helping us get to where we need to be quicker.”
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS GONE RIGHT FOR YOU GUYS IN GENERAL THIS YEAR? “I think we have just been consistent. I think the other thing is for the most part when we have had chances to win races we have won them. I think Sunday was probably the only one that I could point to and say that we had the car to win the race and didn’t win the race. I think for the majority of the races that we have had chances to win we have capitalized on those situations and the days that we haven’t. We have collected some stage points and had a solid day to go with it. It is not anything out of the norm of what we have done in the past but I think capitalizing on those moments you have to win, we have done well.”
