Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Advance | Friday, August 25, 2023
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang, stopped by the Daytona infield media center before today’s qualifying session and touched on a number of topics as the NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end this weekend.
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU BALANCE THIS RACE WITH TEAMMATES NEEDING A WIN TO ADVANCE TO THE PLAYOFFS? “We have enough trouble serving our own needs (laughing). I think a lot of that stuff just plays out and when you have the opportunity to put yourself in a position to help, you try to help as much as you can and go from there. I’ve always found it harder to try to coordinate something and make it all work because it all seems to get mixed up, so you go race and see when those opportunities fall to push and stay in line and do those types of things.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE WAY WE DECIDE A CHAMPION IN NASCAR? “Well, you don’t win them like Earnhardt did. I think as you look at what we do it’s different, so we’re definitely in the entertainment business to make things exciting and I think as you look at the last race and there’s a lot that goes into it, but it definitely doesn’t reflect the whole year and I think our years are definitely probably proof of that just because of the fact in ‘14 we won the right race. In ‘15 we didn’t win the right race. In ‘20 we didn’t win the right race. I guess as long as you’re in it enough, it cycles out and circles back, so I could see it both ways. I’m gonna sit on the other side of the fence and want it exciting and I think from a competitor’s standpoint I’ve raced it both ways and I think it’s a long season and there’s a lot to it to come down to one race.”
HAVE YOU BUILT UP SPONSOR RELATIONSHIPS THAT WILL GO INTO THE KHI FOLD WHEN YOU RETIRE? “I don’t know that we will actually lose a sponsor. As you go forward, that will be different obviously. I think the partnerships that we’ve managed and are part of, I don’t know that I still won’t have a relationship with every one of them. I think as you move forward that’s one of the more rewarding pieces that has come out of this whole puzzle are the relationships and then also being a part of the conversations and the management group and helping find them things that fit their new budgets and new ideas and who and where you place those sponsorship dollars has been interesting, so there’s obviously a lot of moving pieces but we will have good relationships with many of our current partners as we move forward.”
WAS THERE A TRACK THAT YOU WOULD NOT EVER WANT TO RACE ON AGAIN? “Yes. The Indy Road Course.”
HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING DIFFERENT FROM STENHOUSE THIS YEAR THAN IN YEAR’S PAST? “Ricky is mature. He’s been around this a long time and I would put him in the mature category and I think from his standpoint I think that the car’s rolling a lot more this year for a number of reasons. I think they’ve done a good job in managing the days when the car is not running good. I think Mike’s done a good job with Ricky. I think Ricky has a lot of trust in Mike, so I think that whole group has kind of matured together and made more out of their situation than what they have in the past because they’ve finished a lot more races and obviously won the Daytona 500 and had several good runs throughout the season, so they’re just not all gonna be good. You’re just gonna show up on some of these days and you’re gonna be off and it’s hard to figure out what you need to do if the car is wadded up and you’re having to analyze something just by theory instead of everything that goes with having the car in one piece, so I think they’ve just done a better job as a total group and Ricky has fallen into that category, but I think that crew chief/driver combination is super important as to how the driver’s confidence goes and the way things work.”
HOW DO YOU MAXIMIZE YOUR RESULTS EVERY WEEK AND FINISH IN THE TOP 10? “I think it’s part of that same conversation that we just had. You have to keep the car rolling and you have to be able to just grind away and make your car better throughout the day and stay in the game and be able to reset as a group to hope that every time you pit, and when things aren’t going right that the car is going to get better. So, I think a lot of that comes with and I tell a lot of our young drivers this. They say, ‘Well, my car’s not good.’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, why? You’re a big part of that process.’ The driver is a big part of the process that really helps keep everything under control as far as the direction of the car. Is it tight for aero reasons, mechanical reasons and understanding how to push things forward to do that. So, I think for us we just grind away and keep ourselves in contention and do as many little things right and I think that feedback back and forth, driver-crew chief goes right back to that same conversation of making yourself useful as an asset inside the car to be able to give the information of what’s wrong with the car, so I think grinding away and just always believing that it’s gonna get better after this adjustment and resetting and going again.”
THOUGHTS ON DARLINGTON AS THE FIRST RACE IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I don’t have any thoughts. Every time I put thought into we should run good here or we should run good there it could be the opposite. Darlington has been a good racetrack for us in the past and we’ve had good finishes there and always been one of my favorite places to race, but I think looking at predicting what you’re gonna do is really not in the cards anymore because sometimes you show up and it’s completely different. Hopefully, it goes like it has in the past because Darlington has been a great place for us.”
DO YOU LIKE THE GROUPING OF THE FIRST THREE RACES IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I’m still worried about Daytona, so I haven’t gotten to the group of three yet. You got me to go to Darlington. Kansas and Bristol. It should be fine, but I’m not sure (laughing).”
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES OF YOUR CAREER AT DAYTONA? “When I first started we spent a lot of time here testing and preseason testing and we’d come back and test some of our superspeedway stuff. I think, for me, I still remember driving in that tunnel for the first time to test here and realizing that you were getting ready to race for real because when you drove into the Daytona International Speedway you knew that you were progressing in the right direction. So, if I think outside of the Daytona 500 and the summer wins and the Shootout and all the different things that we’ve been fortunate to be a part of from the success standpoint here and wins as an owner in the Busch Series and there’s just been a lot of great things, but this is the pinnacle of our sport and being able to race here has been an honor but always what you were shooting for in your career because you knew if you were racing at Daytona you were on a good path. But I’ll never forget driving in here the very first time and looking at the racetrack when it was empty and sitting on the grid out there because you used to sit there for hours as you waited for your turn to go out and I was sitting there and they said, ‘Alright, when you go you’ve got to go out and hold it wide-open,’ and I had never been here before and when you’re sitting at the end of pit road it’s half as narrow as Talladega, so it was an interesting first lap, but I’ll never forget it.”
HAS THERE BEEN A PLACE OR SOMETHING THAT WAS GIVEN TO YOU THAT HAS STOOD OUT AND HOW HARD WILL IT BE TO TAKE THAT SENTIMENT IN WHEN YOU’RE RACING FOR A TITLE THE LAST 10 RACES? “I think, for me, when you look around and you see the 4ever signs and you see the different things that each particular racetrack has done. You listen to the fans this year and you really get a great idea of just how important coming back and doing this last year and putting the 4ever logo around it and going to each track and letting them do what they want to do and be a part of that it’s important. I may have thought it was silly when we started and I think as you look back at it and I listened to those conversations with our group at SHR and the way that Tony did his and the way that he thought he should have done some things, those things are fun. It’s been fun, just because of the fact I don’t have to worry about what people think. You could just listen and realize that you’ve had a great impact on the sport and the fans appreciate the effort and the things that have gone into, whether it be driving or off the track or showing the emotion of being mad or whatever the instance is – to hear all those stories and let people tell you about all those different situations and see the different pictures and things at the racetrack from all the success at certain tracks. For me, that’s not something I would ever do because I look at it as bragging, but at this particular point it is what it is, right? It’s success at different places we’ve been very fortunate to be successful and win races and have an impact. I think being able to wrap my arms around all that and say, ‘OK, I’m good with this. Let’s enjoy it.’ It’s been enjoyable, just because of the fact that some of the things and pictures and different things that I’ve seen I forgot that we actually did – different moments or stuff that fans bring up or whatever the instance is it’s been fun to be a part and go back and think about all those things that were a part of that particular moment, so it’s been good. Marcus Smith was a huge part of saying, ‘You’ve got to come back and do this this way for the tracks and for the fans and for the sport.’ I was like, ‘Oh, man. I don’t know.’ Now that we’ve gone through this part of the season and been through all the things that we’ve been through, it’s been a lot of fun to go back and reflect on so many things.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING IN THE DRAFT WITH ALL THE CARS AROUND YOU HERE? “There’s a lot of information to process and I think when you’re in this every week you kind of take for granted everything that’s happening around you and the things that you do on a weekly basis. It’s just like Ross and I talking right there that we’re gonna go fire the car up and leave pit road wide-open and just go run a qualifying lap because that’s what it is. Typically, you would be somewhat cautious of trying to put yourself in a position to at least make sure everything was OK and today you put yourself in a position to just go out there and know that you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and if it’s not OK, it is what it is. But, as far as the racing goes, it’s different here than it used to be before they repaved it because handling was just so much of an aspect of what we did here with the bumps and the worn out asphalt and the pack would spread out. Now, the pack doesn’t really spread out and it’s a lot narrower than Talladega is and I think track position is super important and you want to stay up in the front and miss the wreck, but there is a lot of information that is going on inside of your head with the spotter and the crew chief. The crew chief doesn’t get to talk much. The spotter talks more than anybody, so there’s definitely a lot to process.”
YOU AND RODNEY HAVE HAD SUCH GREAT SUCCESS AT DARLINGTON. DOES HE LOVE DARLINGTON AS MUCH AS YOU DO? “I think when you compare that to some of the other tracks it’s probably not that good, but they’re still pretty good. But Darlington is just a place that I enjoy racing and he enjoys going to and I think there’s just places that things just click and, for me, that kind of fits my driving style and not having to worry about going super fast the first two or three laps and just making the car go over the long run and being precise and not taking too many chances as you go throughout the day to tear up your car and make it to the end, so it’s a racetrack that kind of fits what we do and I think through the years it’s just been a really good place for us, so hopefully it stays that way for one more.”
