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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 19, 2015Kevin HarvickKEVIN HARVICK: I had a lot of help with Tony and the experience of the team. I definitely think that that's a positive in our direction, having to have dealt with all that before. Q. You were respectful up there today. Is it because it is Gordon's last race? You've got an iconic figure there. KEVIN HARVICK: Well, and I mean, I've said this a number of times this year, but Jeff is just a guy that's meant a lot to the sport. Sure, I want to go out and win the championship and win the race, but you know, in the end, this is a pretty big moment for our sport, and to see‑‑ even though it's his last race and growing up a race fan and seeing all the things that he's accomplished in the sport and being able to be a part of‑‑ a little bit closer to that over the last couple years with the SHR relationship with Hendrick for me has been pretty neat. I think when you look at all that, you know, I think there's a demand for that respect that he deserves, and it's Jeff Gordon. So you know, I mean, this is a moment where it's about the championship, but it's also paying respect to what is going to be his last race and a pretty cool moment, whether he wins or loses, the way the year has gone for him has been pretty neat. Q. What is the pressure like this year compared to last year? KEVIN HARVICK: It's a lot easier. I think the hardest part is when you fire those cars up for practice on Friday, and you know, you're pretty intense about all the things that are going on and just trying to control those emotions and where your car is at and how it's handling. I think that's the part that I'm definitely looking forward to doing better at than what we did and what we did as a team with those circumstances last year. I'm looking forward to how it goes for those guys as far as how they've dealt with it and the things that go on because that's part of the week that's just so much different in that it's not just a normal race. It's for the championship. There's a lot on the line. Q. When your competitors say you're the favorite, how does that make you feel, and do you sort of embrace that? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think that as the last two years have gone, there's definitely been a lot of scenarios that Rodney and our team have had to deal with with those types of comments and things. It makes you feel good about the way that the team has run and the things that we have done. We're a confident group amongst ourselves, but you also have to be respectful because you definitely don't want to get run over by the karma train by spouting too many things off. It's definitely‑‑ it's flattering, but in the end, it's still got to run the race, and there's other teams that have run well, and I think as you look at the situation, obviously there's a lot of things that we've been a part of and done well in the past, but now you've got to do them again. Q. What would it mean to join the elite club of back‑to‑back champions? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think any time you can win a championship in this sport, it's a major accomplishment, and I think as you look at this new format, it's hard to get to this point, no matter how you line it up. This year was much different for us and much more of a scramble than it was last year, just because of all the things that happened and the problems and situations and scenarios. I think that that definitely made our team stronger having to deal with all that and managing that, and this Chase is much different to manage than it was before because it's a survive‑and‑advance type of situation. But there's only four guys, and so the odds is very slim that you get back here twice, and I feel like we need to try to take advantage of that, and hopefully we can do that on Sunday. Q. It's been said that a second championship is tougher than a first one. Do you agree with that? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, we haven't won a second championship, but I can tell you coming into this week and dealing with the second opportunity has not been near as hard or near as stressful as it was last year, and you know, I lean on Ricky Carmichael a lot, and what he told me, he's like, none of them will ever be as hard as the first one, if you're ever fortunate to win another one. But having that playbook of what we did last year and knowing that you can tweak on that a little bit and knowing how to manage the week is something that you can't put a price on that because you've been there, done that, and you have to try to get better each time. But I felt like we did a good job managing it. I can see it in my guys eyes, they're much more relaxed than they were last year, and I know Rodney will tell you the same thing. But it's a much calmer‑‑ still confident atmosphere, but I still to this day don't believe that after practice ‑‑ we qualified okay, and even in the race, I don't believe we had the fastest car by any means. The circumstances definitely came down to a pit call and things at the end, but we had some work to do on the performance of the car and came down here and tested and tweaked on it some more coming down this time. I believe there was a lot of room for improvement last year. We managed the race much like we've managed our Chase in the last two seasons, in the right way, and wound up winning the race and the championship, but as far as the performance of the car goes, I think the nerves kind of got to it a little bit last year, and I think we can do better. Q. You've had many chances to be upset or angry because of things that have happened to your team, yet you've been able to just keep it even‑keeled and not go overboard on it. When did that change for you that screaming and yelling is not going to make us run any faster? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think for me, when I came to Stewart‑Haas, I didn't‑‑ I wanted that perception to go away. I wanted those past moments and radio conversations and things that happened at RCR, I wanted those things to not happen at SHR. That was definitely one of my goals, and yelling at Rodney, who is the calmest, quietest guy in the world is not going to be very beneficial because it's just not his demeanor and how he acts towards things. So I think Rodney's demeanor really helps me. I think having that relationship with my guys‑‑ I thought I had a good relationship with my team at RCR, but the relationship I have with these guys at SHR is just much different, and that chemistry amongst the people is something that you can't buy, and there's just‑‑ it's a special group of guys that allows you to know that every day they come into the shop and every time they come to the track, there is absolutely zero that they can do better. They're always going to go back and look to do better, but on that specific week, they have done everything that they can do, and if you don't get in that car and give 100 percent, you're going to feel like you let them down, and if you get out of that car and are frustrated and mad, they're going to be frustrated and mad, too. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to try to motivate these guys. They motivate themselves and we motivate each other. I think it's really more of a respect thing, and I know that my cars are fast every week, and if something goes wrong, why make that worse than it already is. Let them figure out the problem, and you know you're probably going to come back and have another fast car next week. It's just not wanting to screw it up more than anything and trying to keep that chemistry in the right spot and do the right things to keep that chemistry so that the cars keep running fast. Q. If Jeff had not been up there today, how different would things have been? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, you don't ever know. Last year, you know, you felt like‑‑ it just felt different coming into it. I think today was‑‑ and really the whole year, I mean, there's just a ton of respect towards Jeff. Really a ton of respect towards all three of those guys and their situations and scenarios. Last year was just so much different with the group of people and the scenarios, and when you look at those scenarios this year, there's a lot of good stories of how everybody got here, and sitting in my shoes looking at the other three, you know, I think when you look over at Jeff Gordon, I mean, you want to be the respectful person. You want to respect what he's done for our sport. You want to respect what he's done as a person. You want to respect the fact that he's to this point. This is about a championship race and four guys, but in the end it's also about one of the legends of our sport and making sure that he goes out without having something that detracts from it. So yeah, sure, we want to win as a team and we want to go out and beat the 24. We want to beat the 78 and the we want to beat the 18. But in the end, I think this particular situation, it's about respect and going out and racing hard and doing things right. Q. Do you almost wish he wasn't up there because of that? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, you know, it's still‑‑ I mean, it's Jeff, you know, and I think when you look at all those things, the arrows all point back in his direction. I don't want to wish against that because I'm honored to be a part of it. I'm honored to be a part of his last race. I want to be a part of the time that everybody remembers was Jeff Gordon's last race, and hopefully they'll all remember Jeff Gordon's last race by us winning, but if we don't, you still want to be respectful in losing or a winning situation. Q. You could be the one that took him out‑‑ KEVIN HARVICK: Definitely don't want to do that. Q. Coach McKinney, what has he meant to you? KEVIN HARVICK: That's shocking that somebody actually brings him up. Q. What has he mean to you as a coach? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, when I started high school, I was an 86‑pound freshman who didn't really have a lot of direction as to where I should be or needed to do and kind of went out for the football team and didn't really feel like that was the right spot for me to be, and I wanted to race. Most sport seasons I couldn't participate in full‑time just because of the way that the racing schedule was. So I went out for the wrestling team, and little did I know that was going to kind of change who I was as a person, change the direction of my life, and I was fortunate to get into a wrestling program that had a very inspirational, competitive coach that was very involved in his team, and he was definitely one that could push you and get more out of you than anybody I'd ever been around in my life. So that was really, you know, the first figure in my life that pushed me to do things that I didn't think I could do and would look you straight in the eye and ask you how bad you wanted it, and do you want to be better. If you want to be better, you need to get better, and it was kind of you against you in the wrestling days, if you wanted to get better. So there was just a lot of scenarios as I went‑‑ he left after my junior year, which I went to the Valley Championships that year, and still I was just a mediocre wrestler in high school, but I felt like‑‑ Q. (Inaudible). KEVIN HARVICK: I don't think so. I think I finished second. And that led to a coaching change, and then the next year my racing season started and we didn't have all the same chemistry among us and everything, and that was the one time I've told you I quit in my life and wound up being the right thing to quit for to go race, but still, to this day you remember that you quit and you let your teammates and yourself down at that particular moment. If he was there, that probably wouldn't have happened, because he was kind of that‑‑ not that‑‑ my dad was there, but it was another father figure type person in your life that when you were missing class or your grades weren't good or you were in trouble at school or anything was going wrong, the wrestling coach was right there to ask you why. He was kind of almost our own private counselor that we had. He definitely meant a lot to me, and we've been in touch really throughout the years. Every year, whether it be email, he's come to a few races, and it was definitely something that‑‑ one of the moments that I learned more in my life than I ever had in anything I've ever done about myself. Q. One of the things he talked about was like your freshman or sophomore year was the Superman (inaudible) remember our slogan. He still remembered‑‑ KEVIN HARVICK: He never lets me forget during every email. Q. Just to have that and hear that, what did that mean? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I mean, at that particular point in your life, you don't really know how much you can get out of yourself and you don't know about that competitive nature that you have inside of yourself, and to kind of unleash those things and be able to get those moments and situations out of yourself to perform like we did in some of those moments is something that if I wouldn't have gone out for the wrestling team, I don't think that a lot of the pressure situations or intense situations would be like they are today because of how you learned how to handle those as a teenager. I can remember being dead‑tired, many a times getting my ass whipped in the middle of a wrestling match and him looking over between periods and whatever he would say and come back and win the match. But there was a lot of matches that we won that we probably shouldn't have won just by just sporadic moves and just taking a chance, and those are the types of things that going from the second to third periods that would happen a lot. We'd win a lot of them in the third period when I was getting my butt kicked, and he just had that‑‑ he had that way of saying things to you to say, all right, I can do this, and just to motivate you to do things that you might not otherwise have been capable of doing. Q. Anybody else in your life experience to this point kind of pushed you like that? KEVIN HARVICK: I've never been pushed like that, no. I've never been‑‑ I think that that taught me how to push myself. You know, I think it just‑‑ it instills this different type of mentality that is instilled in your brain when you go through those day‑to‑day wrestling practices and the meets and the matches and the intensity and the days where you just drag yourself out of the room and have to go to class. I mean, there's just‑‑ it's a hard, hard sport. Those were four of the best years that I've probably ever spent in my life in learning about myself. Q. Last year you won the first‑ever winner‑take‑all championship race. Take us back to the intensity of those moments late in the race at Homestead‑Miami Speedway, what it was like being in that moment and how having won it will be an advantage this year over three drivers that haven't experienced that? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think navigating the week is hard in itself, and I think Friday was okay for us last year in qualifying well, but I think Saturday was probably the hardest day because the car was off, and in that type of situation we were kind of a little more‑‑ a little more worried about it than we probably normally would have been. So I think as you deal with those types of things‑‑ and I think when you look at the race, you know, we led some laps. We were okay throughout the race, but I think coming out 14th or whatever it was on that last pit stop that we made and being able to get through traffic and overcome all the things that we could or did and be able to put ourselves in position to have a chance to have two or three restarts at the end and win the race was definitely a lot of moments that will be good for the memory bank and having dealt with those situations before. Everything will be different. You never know how it's going to go, but I feel like our playbook from last year is definitely worth every penny in planning this week and going through the weekend. Q. Was there a time that the track changes, that it's kind of predictable when the sun goes down, that you kind of aim to be at your best at that point? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I mean, during the day‑‑ I mean, on the restarts you're going to run the bottom. I think as you go through the day part of the race, the fast groove is going to be the top of the racetrack, and there's going to be a lot of guys that take a lot of chances. For us last year, we just wanted to manage our car and make sure that all the body pieces were still intact when it went dark, and as it goes dark, the track definitely takes a swing handling‑wise and you have to make sure that your car is adjustable. This is definitely a racetrack where you're going to make a lot of speed at the top of the racetrack, but you just have to be very careful about keeping the car together and the right side on it. Q. Last year taking four tires when everybody else took two, what did that say about your relationship with your team and the confidence you have in each other? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think that was a very quick call from Rodney. I mean, immediately on the radio, he said, pit, four tires. We came down pit road and we pitted and put four tires on the car and came out 14th, and at that point you're like, man, I don't know that I can make up all that ground. But I think at that particular point you reboot and refocus on the things that you need to focus on and we got a good restart and were able to have it all line up. I think that the confidence between myself and Rodney is obviously pretty high. I believe in what he does. I believe in what our team does. You know, and I think that in the car they believe in what I do. It's like I said earlier, the chemistry in this team is special. I'm glad to be a part of it and looking forward to just another challenge to face this weekend just like the last two years have come. We've had a lot of things thrown at us over the last two years. We've had a lot of things thrown at us through the Chase, and I just believe that every step of the way that's just another character‑building moment that's made us stronger. Q. Are you going into the race thinking you've got to win? There's no other way to approach it? KEVIN HARVICK: I think that's definitely the way that you have to approach this race. After last year you see all four cars, one, two, three, four at certain points in that race. Jeff led a lot of this race last year and ran really well, and I just believe that you're probably going to have to win the race to win the championship again, for sure. Q. Were you surprised last year that Newman wasn't more aggressive near the end or could he not get close enough to try something? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, he never got close enough. Q. Have you noticed any guys that feel like racing you harder since Talladega because of what you did or didn't do at Talladega, and do you expect anything different on Sunday? KEVIN HARVICK: I don't think anybody has done anything different. I haven't raced anybody different, and I think it's just another race as far as that stuff goes. Q. (Inaudible). KEVIN HARVICK: I mean, for me it's an honor. Forever you'll be a part of Jeff Gordon's last race in some way, shape or form. Obviously you want to be the guy that wins the championship and that won the championship in Jeff's last year, but I think in the end, this is a big moment for our sport. When you look at what Jeff has meant to our sport and the things that he's done and the accomplishments that he's had, you know, and this to be his last race, that's a big deal. You know, I think a lot of the guys racing in the series grew up Jeff Gordon fans in some way, shape or form, and I think as you look at the fans now there's a ton of Jeff Gordon fans. But just from a competitor's standpoint and looking at the things that he's done for the sport and the doors that he's opened for a lot of us to get into this sport, we're lucky to be in this spot. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to approach it as still wanting to win the race, but you also want to be very respectful to what is one of the legends of our sport. Q. Do you have a favorite Jeff Gordon story? KEVIN HARVICK: Favorite Jeff Gordon story? My favorite Jeff Gordon story was probably my first win. Yeah, my first win we won the race by about six or eight inches over Jeff, and we were able to notch that one off. That was definitely probably my favorite. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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