NASCAR MEDIA AVAILABILITIES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2020
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang — WHAT ARE YOU FEELINGS ABOUT TALLADEGA TODAY? “I think anything can happen, so I think it’s still definitely got that same stressful Talladega feel. I think as you go into the race you just have to kind of do the things that you have been doing and hope for the best. I think we all know that you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time and hope that you miss the wrecks and in the end we want to wind up in victory lane, so hopefully we can do that. We’ve just got to run the race to see what happens.”
DOES THE ADDITION OF MORE SHORT TRACK AND ROAD COURSES MEAN A CHANGE IN HOW YOUNG DRIVERS SHOULD BE DEVELOPED? “I think, first off, I’m excited to see the changes just because I think that the conversation that it creates, the markets that it puts us in is something that is great for our sport. I think as you look at the development side of things, I hope they keep mixing it up enough to where you can’t really pick one thing. I think that’s really what you want to see is you want to be as diverse as possible in the racetracks that we race on and I think locking yourself into a particular market, and I think we’ve seen the Roval is a great race, but it’s never gonna be as great as it was the first time that we were there because of the fact that all of the hype and anticipation and everything that came with that is not there after you do that one time. So, I think as you look at the dirt race you might have that with that particular race, but then just move on to a different racetrack in a different market. There are a ton of good road courses out there across the world that you can race on, and I think not locking yourself down to having to be at this particular racetrack on a given year is something that you want to be nimble, and you want to be able to kind of move away from those things that seem like a good idea and you do it one time and it was a great race and kind of leave that wont for you to come back and maybe do that again in three to five years and kind of keep that excitement around the event, instead of just grinding it into the ground and thinking that it’s gonna be as exciting year after year. Being able to mix it up and being nimble enough as a company to do that from the NASCAR side of things, I think, is a good thing because you look at Canada and you look at Mexico City and you look at those races that we did back in the day with the XFINITY cars, those are road courses and the thing, especially Montreal, when you go up there and you look at the amount of race fans that there are up there, there’s no question there’s a lot of race fans up there and there’s a lot of ovals up there that you could run on, and that’s just an example of one area that we could go to — there are a lot of great places we could go — but I think locking yourself into knowing what the development needs to be, you should be good at everything. That’s what the schedule needs to promote.”
DOES THE DYNAMIC CHANGE IN THE THIRD ROUND FOR YOU BECAUSE THE POINTS CUSHION SHRINKS AS YOU GO FROM ROUND TO ROUND? “We don’t change how we race. We go and we race exactly the same every week. The thought process, there is no thought process because we just don’t think about it. We want to try to put ourselves in position to win, score as many points as you can on the days when you’re not in contention to win and see where it all stacks up in the end. You’re not gonna do anything any different just because of the fact that you’re gonna go and race as hard as you can. We’re gonna bring the best car to the racetrack that we think we can build. We’re gonna put the best setup in it that we know how to do that. I don’t know what thinking about all that stuff really does because it wouldn’t change. Nobody is gonna try harder or do anything different than what we’re doing right now.”
ARE YOU AWARE THAT THE CFD LIMITATIONS OF 150 RUNS PER ORGANIZATION PER MONTH AND HOW MUCH IMPACT THAT COULD HAVE? “I am not. I do not worry about things that I have zero control over.”
WHAT OTHER MARKETS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE NASCAR GO INTO? “I think a couple things happened there. I think we went into the midwest and had just way too many racetracks that were in the same area, in my opinion, and obviously there’s a whole bunch of things around the Chicagoland Speedway that are very valuable from a land standpoint, and I don’t know any of this to be fact, but I just look at it from what I think and from the outside looking in, and I think when you look at Kentucky that went wrong the very first time that we went there when everybody couldn’t get in the gate, and since that day that everybody couldn’t get off the highway and didn’t get their tickets they haven’t come back. My point is that in the end there’s a huge business decision that goes with all of these things and in the end it’s butts in the seats and who is coming and who is watching and I think there’s a whole bunch of factors that come into play with the amount of racetracks that are in that area of the country and the types of racetracks and the things that happen there. For me, from a business standpoint, I think there’s more to it on that side of it than there is anything.”
KEELAN IS RACING, SO COULD THAT BE YOUR ENDGAME WHEN YOU STEP ASIDE — GET BACK INTO TEAM OWNERSHIP TO HAVE SOMETHING FOR HIM? “My thought processes are pretty simple and it’s in order to maintain control of the things that are directly surrounding me, so thinking about what that endgame is on that side of it would require a lot of thought. I think for me with Keelan it’s a situation that we’re having fun with it right now getting a foundation for racing underneath him and as a family it’s been fun for us to not only watch, but just be able to go do something and for me it’s been great because it really reminds you why you fell in love with racing and the things that happen with racing because of the fact that I can see these kids and watch these kids and watch them learn and grow and play and the things that they talk about and the time they’re spending with their parents. It’s a great environment to raise your kid in, so I think as far as thinking down a road of owning a race team or something along those lines is probably definitely not in the cards, unless it’s on somebody else’s bill. I can tell you that DeLana and I don’t want anything to do with that from a financial standpoint, but I do like the chess match of trying to put the people in the right places and those types of things that come with that.”
YOU AND MARCUS SMITH HAVE BECOME CLOSE, SO WITH BRISTOL GOING TO A DIRT RACE NEXT YEAR WILL WE BE ABLE TO TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS? “The bottom line here is the fact that that’s what everybody is talking about, and the change in the schedule and that’s been the thing that I’ve preached for several years is we have to mix it up. You have to keep it fresh and exciting and I think that the Bristol situation is not something that I would have done, but the thing that I do like about it is the fact that it’s different and it’s exciting. It’s not going to be like a dirt race in a dirt late model or a sprint car or anything like that. I’m still gonna be sitting in my car that I sit in every week with the same parts and pieces that i have to race with every week and figure out how to go around a dirt track. It’s not something that I have done a lot of, but as I watch Eldora and the trucks and the west cars and the things that they’ve done on the dirt, it’s not a pitch it sideways, throw it against the cushion and hope for the best. There’s a lot of finesse that goes into that, so I’m all about change. I’m all about doing things that are different and exciting. I think as we look at Bristol I think that’s what it is. It’s different and exciting and whether I like it or not doesn’t even really matter because of the fact that it’s different and exciting and it’s creating a lot of conversation about our sport, and that’s what I want. I want our sport to be good and healthy and exciting and something that everybody wants to watch, so whatever that takes I’m in.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT MARCUS GOING OUT OF THE BOX WITH THIS DECISION? “There’s a few moments that Marcus and I talk about racing, but in the end Marcus and I for the most part are friends and we talk about more things that aren’t racing than we do racing itself. Very rarely do we speak about things like that. We’ve talked about the go-kart track more than we have anything else on the schedules. We do have those conversations every once in a while, but for the most part Marcus and I are just friends and our families are friends and we spend time together and it’s fun to not have to talk about racing all the time, so there’s definitely a few of those conversations, but not as many as you would think.”
IN A RACE LIKE TODAY WHEN YOU’VE ALREADY ADVANCED TO THE NEXT ROUND DO YOU PUT YOUR OWN SELF-INTEREST BEHIND HELPING ARIC OR CLINT IF YOU’RE IN THAT SITUATION? “I wouldn’t say that everything has worked out to the point of being on to the next round, so I think you want to put yourself in a position to hopefully end the day in being in a good day going to the Roval, but the thing that I think everybody forgets and I’m not saying this trying to be selfish, but the thing that everybody forgets is if we don’t make the final four this whole thing reverts back to points and where you finish at the end of the year, so you still want to gather every point that you can because you just don’t know the outcome of where you’re going to be or how it’s going to shake out, so you have to try to get every point that you can. I want to help my teammates, but I also want to get every point that I can in every race in case it doesn’t all work out and you don’t go to Phoenix and race for a championship. You want to finish as high as you can in the points for your charter and for your team and everything that comes with that.”
