NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
ADVOCARE 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 8, 2013
KEVIN HARVICK, NO 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed racing at Phoenix, the Chase Championship battle, his RCR career winding down and other topics. Full transcript:
TALK ABOUT YOUR FOUNDATION DONATION TO THE HIGH SCHOOL YOUR HOMETOWN OF BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA: “We had our yearly event at home. In the past, we have taken care of something at my old high school. This year we donated 21 sets of gold clubs and golf balls and things to the girls and boys teams. It was a good event. We’ve done a lot of work with the school. It was great to see it headed in the right direction. It is always fun to go home and be able to give back to your hometown.”
DEFENDING WINNER OF THIS RACE, THIRD IN POINTS GOING INTO THE SEASON, TALK ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY: “This has been a great race track for us in the past, and hopefully we can have another good weekend. The race track has changed over the last couple of years, so we have to do things a little bit differently than what we are used to. It is going to be a good weekend. We have the Nationwide car and the Cup car this weekend, so looking forward to getting in practice.”
IS WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINTS MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO GO RACE AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT ANYONE ELSE IS DOING? “It is definitely less stressful. We wish we were closer to being in the top-two. We had one bad race at Loudon (New Hampshire). I think we’ve averaged (finishing position) at seventh in the Chase as far as finishing positions. We haven’t been where we needed to be as far as keeping up with those two guys (Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth) as far as winning races and finishing a little bit better. Can’t complain about the season nor the finishes that we’ve had in the Chase. We knew we needed to win at least one race in the Chase, and we accomplished that. It just happens to be a year where you needed to win a couple or three races in Chases and finish in the top-five a lot. It’s not been anything to complain about. We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing, and try to win one of these or both of the last two races.”
AS YOUR CAREER AT RCR COMES TO AN END, AND YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR NEW TEAM, HOW ARE YOU FEELING? ARE YOU HAPPY? SAD? RELIEVED? EXCITED? “You know, Richard (Childress) and I were talking about it last week, just about the things that we’ve been able to accomplish and do, and win, and situations that we have been through. We had the incident at Martinsville, but it’s definitely not the hardest situation that we’ve been through as owner and driver, or friends, or whatever you want to call it. It is definitely something that we both have been fortunate to have a lot of success, and look forward to the next chapter. As we get to today for instance, this will be the last Nationwide race that we’ve run for RCR. We’ve won 30-some Nationwide races, a couple of driver’s championships. I think four or five owners championships. So it’s been very successful. It’s kind of like being a part of your family. You have some spats. You have some things. It seems like each instance makes you closer in some kind of way.”
WHEN YOU WON HERE LAST YEAR, IT WAS THE WEEKEND EVERYTHING BROKE YOU WERE LEAVING RCR. HAS THAT SET A TONE THAT HAS HELPED OUT THROUGH THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS DESPITE SOME DRAMA OR WHO IS MAD AT WHO? “Well, I think last year everything did come out. I think a lot of the emotion was pretty calm for the most part. I think as we’ve got through the year, the performance has been good. We’ve been able to win several races as we’ve gone through the year. I don’t know that anybody really knew what to expect as we went through time, and went through week-after-week to see how it was all going to work. It’s kind of been a week-by-week thing. I think everybody has worked through it fairly well.”
IS THE CHAMPIONSHIP REALLY A TWO-MAN RACE, OR DO YOU STILL HAVE A REALISTIC SHOT AT THIS? “I think 40 points is a lot to overcome. We can control how we run, and that’s about it. Having both of those guys have major catastrophes in two races is asking for all but a miracle in my mind. We still have a lot to race for and two great tracks for us coming up. Just control the things we can control and go from there.”
WILL IT BE DIFFERENT FOR YOU NOT TO HAVE THE SAME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP WHICH HAS HAD UPS AND DOWNS LIKE IT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN WITH RICHARD NEXT YEAR AT STEWART-HAAS? “Time will tell that. I think it is good to have somebody who challenges you. I think that Tony (Stewart) will challenge me in a different way. I think for myself and Richard, you push him; he pushes you and you meet in the middle and you finally have something that pushes the whole company forward. I think the roles will be defined a little bit more as we start racing next year, and understand how everything works and can start building on that. I think with Tony’s passion for the sport and the championships that he’s won and the things that he has done on the race track; that itself will push you to respect the things that he has done and talking about. Same thing with Kurt (Busch). He’s won a championship, and won a lot of races. I think with the whole group, it’s going to be a really new group of people from a lot of different areas as you look at the cast of characters going into next year. It will definitely take a while for it to kind of build into what it is going to be.”
ARE YOU INTRIGUED BY HOW THAT ALL MIGHT COME TOGETHER SINCE THIS JUST SEEMS LIKE A MOTLEY CREW (LAUGHTER)
“Well, I think the bottom line is it’s a group of racers. And that’s really what we’re here to do and I feel very comfortable with the crew chief choice for my car for sure. With Rodney (Childers), he’s very calm but he’s also very engineering-minded and very competitive and loves to race. So, I think that balance will be very similar. When you look at Gil (Martin), he’s kind of been that guy that can always corral everything and take it in-house and figure out how to fix and make it better. So, I look at Rodney as a very similar person in that respect.”
HOW POISED IS YOUR TEAM? WHAT’S THE MOMENTUM AND THE FEELING? WHAT’S THE FEELING WITH THE TEAM RIGHT NOW HEADING INTO THE FINAL TWO RACES?
“Through the years we’ve been through a lot of different situations, for sure. So, I think the nucleus of all that is still Gil (Martin). This is a whole different group of guys than what we had three years ago and he’s made it into another great race team. So, I think he’s the one that keeps all that stuff together. But everybody is in good spirits. The testing that we did over the last two months has kind of worn everybody out, but everybody in the garage is worn out at this point. So, it’s good that we only have two weeks left and everybody can enjoy some down time with their families over the holiday season.”
YOU WILL FIGHT TO THE VERY END FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. BUT IF YOU TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF THE EQUATION, DO YOU THINK EITHER JIMMIE JOHNSON OR MATT KENSETH HAS AN ADVANTAGE? WHO WOULD YOU PUT YOUR MONEY ON?
“If you look at the past, and I’ll use Martinsville as the example. Going into Martinsville, you look at it and say Jimmie is absolutely going to annihilate Matt at Martinsville, and Matt goes out and leads the most laps and has a chance to win the race. So, it’s just about who hits it the best on a particular weekend because those guys have run well all year and I think the part that everybody forgets are that the stats don’t really mean anything, especially on Matt’s side, and especially at Martinsville. Roush has never been very good at Martinsville and Gibbs has always been fairly good at Martinsville. So, it’s a crapshoot at this point. About the time that you think that Jimmie hasn’t won a race on a 1.5-mile race track all year and goes out and just absolutely crushes everybody at Texas. So, it’s just a matter of who hits it on a particular weekend. Obviously this race track can play a lot of havoc on track position and things happening and get caught up in something, but I think performance-wise, it’s a draw at this point.”
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