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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: GOBOWLING 400

May 7, 2016

Kansas City, Kansas

THE MODERATOR: We are ready to get started with our post race media availability. We are joined by our second‑place finisher, Kevin Harvick.
Kevin, take us through your run out there today.
KEVIN HARVICK: Thought we had a good run today. Just really proud of my team for what they did. From where the car was yesterday, to change pretty much everything on the car and have it be that competitive on the racetrack today says a lot about our team.
We went down some different roads throughout the weekend that didn't work and were able to go with what we normally run and be competitive. So just super proud of the effort and excited that we have the capability to do the things that we did today.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Kevin.

Q. You got around Kenseth on that restart. What was it about Kyle that you just couldn't quite get around him?
KEVIN HARVICK: Hit a big piece of debris and knocked a big hunk out of the nose and knocked the splitter down. From that point on it was tight. Otherwise I would have drove around him.
All in all, it just didn't play out that way and they were able to win the race.
THE MODERATOR: Kevin, thank you for joining us.
We'll continue with our post race media availability. We are now joined by our fifth‑place finisher and highest finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, Ryan Blaney. This was Ryan's first top‑five and fourth top‑10 finish.
Ryan, talk about your run out there today.
RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, we started off the race really, really good. I thought that was when we were strongest, when the sun was up, the track was a little bit hotter. We were really strong then.
Then as the night came, it cooled off a little bit, we lost a little bit of speed. I felt like everyone kind of gained grip and got better, and we lost a little bit. It took us a while to try to get that back.
We got it closer towards the end there. But still a decent finish for us. We got some spots with that little accident. But we were up there all day.
Just a good day for us, good night, something to build off of, for sure.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Ryan.

Q. How is your dad?
RYAN BLANEY: He's fine. My dad, he got out of the hospital this morning. He called me this morning when he got out. He was still laying in the hotel room, about to come home. I think he got home actually in time for the race, so I think he was able to watch the race.
He got his bell rung pretty good, but he's all right.

Q. Having that call had to have taken a load off?
RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, it did. I knew last night he was going to be all right. I was scared for one second because we got done qualifying yesterday and I get back to the motorhome. I laid my phone in the bus. I got all these text messages: Heard the news, is everything all right?
What news? Am I in trouble?
Is there anything we can do to help?
What's going on?
It's amazing how you find out what's going on on Twitter from other people than getting texts or calls or something like that.
When I initially saw it, I was a little worried because they made it sound worse than what it was on Twitter. I called one of his crew guys, and he told me he was going to be all right. He was alert and awake and everything like that.
I haven't seen a video of it. I was told there was a video of it. I don't know if I want to watch it. He's going to be all right. He's probably mad he's going to be out of Sprint Cups for a little bit, but that's the only thing he'll be upset about.

Q. When you hear news like that, does it add any sort of motivation or extra focus on a race day?
RYAN BLANEY: Not really. I wasn't any different going into this race than I was last week or the week before that. People always‑‑ don't always, but especially last night and day, they're like, Oh, I'm so happy he's okay, everything like that.
I'm grateful he's all right and everything, but you got to know this is part of the sport. This is the risk we take when we get in any kind of racecar.
It didn't affect me too much. He's doing what he likes to do, doing what he loves. Things happen like that. Might be a little harsh to say. Maybe I'm not saying it right. But it didn't really add any focus or anything like that. I was going into this race normal like I always do.

Q. Where were you when that four‑car melee happened?
RYAN BLANEY: I was right behind it. I don't know what happened. I didn't see who got loose, who got into who. I saw smoke, had to bail out of there. The 22 got tore up. He was pretty fast towards the end of the night. I don't know if the 2 finished.
That stunk for them. I felt like their cars were pretty good at the end of the race. I think it actually hurt my car a little bit. Had (indiscernible) to the apron a little bit. It actually hurt the nose a little bit, which was unfortunate. But luckily we were able to get by that and move on.

Q. Did you learn anything here tonight that you maybe could apply to Charlotte later this month?
RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think for sure, we definitely can learn stuff. Even though it's a different track, different surface, you can definitely learn things of what these cars do when tracks cool off and it goes from day to night.
There are things he we can sit back and apply for the 600 in a few weeks.
THE MODERATOR: Ryan, congratulations on the run today. Thanks for joining us this evening.
RYAN BLANEY: Thank y'all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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