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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: FORD ECOBOOST 400

November 22, 2015

Kevin Harvick

Homestead, Florida

THE MODERATOR: Let's hear now from our 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, tonight's race runner‑up, and it's Kevin Harvick. As I told him out in the lobby, he's been a super champion for NASCAR. Congratulations and our appreciation for the way you've represented the sport.
He drives the No.4 Budweiser Jimmy John's Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing, and Kevin, certainly you gave it all you had out there tonight, just came up a little short.
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, just really proud of everybody on our team. We were definitely a little bit off tonight, and we just kept throwing stuff at it, and we never really found anything that really helped the car that was like, oh, man, that's what we needed right there.
I thought there at the end that the restart, we might do a little better than that, but obviously either the splitter was on the ground or the car was just tighter than it probably needed to be, and just I couldn't hustle it and got it tight and got it up the racetrack and got behind.
The 18 car, he just had the speed all night for the most part. You know, as the night went, I just couldn't find anywhere that would make the car run better. The higher I would run, the looser it would get. I'd get on the seams and then it would push the front and slide the back. Just never could find anything.
It's been a great couple years, and I know we're disappointed about finishing second tonight, but it's kind of the theme of the year, finishing second.
Unfortunately it's just one short, but all in all, it's been a great couple years, and couldn't be prouder of our bunch of guys.

Q. Kyle was on television, you were watching it, and he said, "This is so cool," and then he let out a little yell, and I saw you kind of smile a little bit. Did you smile because you were a little bit happy for Kyle or because it brought back memories of how happy you were last year?
KEVIN HARVICK: It's just exciting. I think when you race your whole life and you accomplish what you've raced for your whole life, it's exciting. I've been fortunate to experience that last year and know that feeling and know how gratifying that is. You know, it's fun to see that excitement.
He broke his leg at Daytona, and to come back from everything that he came back from, it's like I told you guys three or four days ago, I mean, there's four phenomenal stories that were sitting up on the stage, probably three that were much more exciting than mine, but that's a great comeback story from where he was after Daytona.

Q. Kevin, can you talk about the racing tonight? I know tonight was the last race with the current rules package. Are you happy that it's gone now or maybe a little disappointed just from all the wins that you had this season?
KEVIN HARVICK: Honestly, I hadn't even really thought about it, to tell you the truth. You put so much effort into what you do currently and the things, it's really just another race right now, and it's gone, and we'll be working on 2016 as soon as we get back to the shop.
I don't know if it was a good or bad race. I'd have to go back and watch it. We struggled, so it wasn't as much fun as it probably could have been. But you know, I don't know the answer to that.

Q. I don't want to say that yours and Kyle's careers are parallel, but you've both sort of had to overcome things to get to the point to become champions. You are someone who's had issues with Kyle in the past. Did you ever think he could grow up enough and make it this far and get to this place?
KEVIN HARVICK: You know, I think as you go through time in general, as a person, you mature and you get more mature through time, whether you're doing dumb things at the racetrack or not and learning from those things. Those obviously are unfortunately part of our life lessons, some more than others, and I think Kyle and I have definitely been on that side of it.
But you know, I think you see that little guy that he holds in his arms, and you know, it puts things in a different perspective. It used to be you didn't want to have kids because it took the fire out of you from driving the car, and now it seems to have calmed a lot of us down to the point where we can focus and do the things that we need to do to concentrate on our jobs.
He's overcome a lot, but man, he's still pretty young. When you really look back at it, I think he's 30 years old? Yeah, so I mean, it seems like he's matured a lot, and he has, but he's still pretty young. I don't have that excuse. (Laughter.)

Q. Kevin, to have the issues that you guys had, not being able to put the power down and things like that that you mentioned out there, what does it say about the fact that you were able to finish second and run as well as you guys did tonight?
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I kept looking in the mirror, and I'm like, man, my car just doesn't absolutely feel great at all, and I never saw anybody in the mirror. So I was like‑‑ it was a handful and sliding all over the place. I think it says a lot about our team and the fact that they kept fighting. Our guys on pit road did a great job all night. We were able to maintain or gain track position all night long. Our car fired off good. We were able to go through traffic good at the beginning, but as the night went, it seemed like the 18 got better, and we just got‑‑ we didn't get any better. We just stayed the same and never could fix the problems that we had.
THE MODERATOR: Kevin Harvick, congratulations on a super season in 2015, and thanks for being such a good champion for NASCAR.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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