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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: NASCAR ALL-STAR RACEMay 19, 2018Rodney ChildersKevin HarvickGreg ZipadelliCharlotte, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Rodney Childers, the winning time of the Monster Energy NASCAR All‑Star Race. Rodney, walk us through today with what happened to package, storming to the front. RODNEY CHILDERS: Yeah, I felt like our car was really good on Friday. Wasn't sure if I really wanted to practice this morning or not. We didn't bring a backup car over here at all. If we would have tore it up this morning, we probably wouldn't have raced tonight. It was one of those deals where we just tried to go out there and practice this morning, play it really, really safe, but also try to figure out what the car was doing, what our tire wears looked like, how much tape we could have on the grille, all those things. I felt like we had a good car going into the race. We were able to lead a lot of that first stage. We had the tire get hung up in the fender on the left front on that first stop, lost some track position. It was hard to fight back from that. Just really wasn't going anywhere much at all. Felt like we had to do something different. That's when we chose to pit out of sequence, come from the back. I really think that turned things around for us, put us in a better position to win the race. THE MODERATOR: You're getting this question every week. How locked in are you in what's going on to contribute all of this? RODNEY CHILDERS: I think it comes from just everybody involved. It doesn't matter who it is, it's Kevin, it's the race team, it's everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing, everybody at the engine shop, everybody at Ford Performance. Everybody is just focused right now, they're working hard. It doesn't matter what kind of racetrack it is, what kind of package it is, we're going to give it 100%, come out and try to win races. Everybody is doing a really good job of that. THE MODERATOR: Kevin Harvick has joined us, the winner of the Monster Energy NASCAR All‑Star Race. Kevin, when Joey was behind you, giving you that shove, was there any doubt you weren't going to beat Suarez to that line? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, you never know. It was pretty squirrelly coming off of turn two there. I could tell he wasn't going to let off the gas, and I didn't want him to let off the gas. That was the reason we chose the outside lane. We really thought if his car wasn't torn up too bad, he would be the best pusher. Usually every week, he's the best pusher on restarts, makes a lot of hay on those restarts. He pushed us off of turn two. The key was just being able to clear those guys by the time we got to turn three. Even if we didn't, I didn't really think we were capable of driving on the bottom with somebody tucked up right against the right side of our car. Our car was super fast, but really edgy. In the wrong position would push the front tires really bad. If it was out in the front, it was lights out. It was definitely a very tense moment, but we were able to get through the restarts and it all worked out. THE MODERATOR: Any thoughts about the million dollars yet, what you're going to do with it? KEVIN HARVICK: Man, I like the trophy, to tell you the truth. I'll take the money, for sure. All the kids think it's Lightning McQueen's piston cup. I'm sure that's mine will think about it when he wakes up and sees it in the morning. The coolest part about it is for me, it's really I love the trophy and the money, that's great, but seeing the effort that's paid off for the guys on my team, seeing a guy who has won a zillion races in his career with a bunch of different race teams like Doug Yates walk into Victory Lane, that guy just absolutely loves to race. When you put a restrictor plate on these engines, he's just a guy that wants to just pour every ounce he's got into it. From the engine shop, Doug all of his guys, then you look at our fab shop, the CFD guys, all the aero guys, all they put into it. Like Rodney says, then you give it to the 4 team, they detail it out, bring it to the racetrack, make a lot of good decisions throughout the day. Hey, everything's going our way. We have really fast cars. Everybody is executing. The pit crew didn't have a great first stop with the tire getting hung in the fender, but they rebounded with a great pit stop on the next stop and gained a spot or two there. That's what you want out of an experienced team, whether it's the pit crew, the crew chief, the driver. When something goes wrong, you got to be able to overcome it, refocus, move forward. I'm proud of them all. That to me is more important than the money and everything that comes with it because everybody puts so much time with it. There's nothing better than seeing them all high five with it in Victory Lane. THE MODERATOR: If you win next week, the last driver to win three races in a row twice in a season was Dale Earnhardt in 1987. With your connection with Dale, what would that mean to you? KEVIN HARVICK: I think everything so far has just been, you kind of just have to laugh and enjoy it. It's like I said in Kansas, it's kind of a game at this particular time because you want to keep him focused on what he's doing. I think obviously Zippy, from his side of things, has been in this position a lot. There's a lot of things that people talk about, stuff like that, and it's really about trying to come to the racetrack with the same mentality that you did. It's racing like you're losing. If you can trick yourself into doing that every week, not get too high during the highs, really feel like you need to keep pushing to make things better, that's really the mindset that everybody has right now. They've all bought into it. Really the whole company has bought into it. It's almost like ignore everything that's going on, you know the cars are fast, but keep working hard to make sure you have stuff coming down the pike to keep improving the cars. This whole garage is smart. They'll keep improving. That's the great thing about it. From the day we first came to Ford, it's been a constant progression. I see that progression as getting better, not worse. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions. Q. Kevin, you know coming into this race it isn't worth any points. How does the excitement of winning tonight compare to the races you already won so far this year? Is it similar or different? KEVIN HARVICK: I think this was my 18th All‑Star Race, I believe I heard that tonight. I was 18‑1. We've been really close to winning this race a couple times that we've been in it at SHR. I think as you look at it, these guys, including myself, all put a lot of effort into coming into this race every time we've been here. There's something about winning at Charlotte, there's something about winning the All‑Star Race, being able to win on those nights where you just throw caution to the wind because you know everybody in the whole field is doing the exact same thing, and they all want what you did. We're 2‑18 now. I think that's pretty neat. I know how much effort and time they put into it. For me, that's one of the things that motivates me. I feel like if I don't show up and give 100%, I'm not 100% focused, I've let them down because there's not one person in that organization that isn't giving everything that they've got every day to make sure that car is the best it can be when it rolls out of the trailer. If I'm not prepared, listening, in there talking to these guys, at the meetings, doing all the things it takes to be a part of the process, I'm letting them down. That motivates me to make sure I don't let them down. Q. In the second and third stages when you were in traffic, you were making moves, but did you feel like your moves were daring at all? Were you trying to play conservative? How did this race feel compared to Daytona or Talladega plate race? KEVIN HARVICK: It was different. As you look at it, the only thing I can really compare it to is once it got all strung out was Daytona of old, before they repaved it, when you could dive to the bottom, the middle and top was still going to be faster, coming up on the outside of you. I probably made a lot of moves I shouldn't have made, but you're trying to make something happen. I didn't feel like I was riding in line. The higher I would move up the racetrack, the tighter my car would get. I could dive down to the bottom and make good time on the bottom, but when they would all line up on the top, I wound up losing ground. Really our strong point were the restarts. We were able to push and shove. I was able to be aggressive with the car because the first six or eight laps, it would grip, and I could go anywhere I wanted to. As we ran, it kept getting a little bit worse in traffic, but you needed to do everything you could do to get to the front. That was really the goal at the end of that third stage, to get as far forward as possible. We knew we weren't going to pit any more, we didn't have any more tires, we made our bed. In the end, that wound up being the call that put us in the right position to win the third stage and be able to control the race from there. Q. You've had seasons in the past where you've been looking up at other drivers because they're on hot streaks. Six wins now. Take us through the perspective of trying to get up to that level of where those drivers were, now being on this hot streak, especially going into next week at the 600 where the field is pretty much thinking that we have to beat the No.4? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I don't feel like that's really a different position than we've been in four out of the five last years. Last year was obviously a building year for us. I think that's the one thing that is the great part about this team, is we've been in a position to obviously win the championship in 2014. '15 had a great year, won a bunch of races. We've been in position to have been successful before. I think that the experience of the team and the organization and all the racers that come into that shop day after day kind of sets the tone of the expectations, but also having been in a lot of these situations before with each other, I think in our fifth year that experience is paying off, really being able to capitalize on the speed of the cars, especially when you look at the experience of the team, the speed of the cars, and the experience of the team, I think is what is making everything add up to the results that we're having. Q. Your partner next to you there Friday said he really kind of liked this package. You have a million reasons why you would like it right now. What was it like on the track racing it? Do you think it has potential? What about the fans? Were you aware from the car that they were standing up? KEVIN HARVICK: The fans have been great. I think as you just look at the momentum, just everything that's happened this year, the fans have really been very supportive. I think as you look at just the things that are happening, I think, I don't know, kind of seems like they're on our side, rooting for us to be successful. You can feel that enthusiasm. I like that. I'd rather have them boo me to death if they don't like me, and cheer for me and do the same for every other driver. I think that enthusiasm from the fans really sparks us, as well. You can feel it, you can see it. Coming to the green flag, it's not that you don't notice all those flashbulbs that are going off on phones and cameras, all those things. As far as the package goes, I'd like to make sure we don't jump and say this is the save all, do all package. I'd like to see it slowly transformed into points paying races because I think the preparation level will be a little bit different from every team in the garage. I just want to make sure we cycle it in correctly, make sure it fits in well for the teams to be able to afford the things that need to be done to get the cars right. There's a lot of things to balance. Tonight's race was very aggressive, and this is the perfect spot to try stuff like this. I think as you look at the effort that the teams put in to make all this happen was pretty high. The chance that NASCAR and Marcus and everybody took to put this into the All‑Star Race is brave, bold. I think when you look at NASCAR racing in five years, I think you'll look back at tonight and say it looks like this and it all started here. Q. You were one of the only cars that could actually get up to the leader and make a pass. Walk me through the last lap where you got around Larson to put you out front. KEVIN HARVICK: I'll be honest with you. It was kind of like, I heard one of our golfers say this, it was kind of one of those blackout moments. Everything just happened, the next thing I knew I was on the outside or inside. I don't even remember how I got by. There was two or three passes that happened there. I had a big head of steam, was able to I think it was the 19 car, was able to get up beside the 19 car, drive by. There was just a lot of moving and shaking, bumping, a lot of momentum that we had, that we needed to go somewhere. I really felt like we had to be really aggressive to get as far forward as we could. Honestly, I didn't think there was any way we were going to win that stage. But getting all the way up in front at the end of that stage really put us in control of the race. I felt like once we were able to get back in control of the race, if we were able to keep the clean air, that was really the best chance we had to win. Traffic, we weren't going to make another pass. That was the moment that won us the race. Q. Rodney, what were some of the strengths and weaknesses you saw for your team with this package? How much did the lack of practice affect your efforts? RODNEY CHILDERS: I think it ended up enough practice, to be honest. I think everybody at the racetrack and NASCAR did an awesome job of getting us out there. I think all of us sitting in the trailers probably thought we weren't going to qualify yesterday, thought we weren't going to practice any more either. We were pretty nervous from a lot of different things, just not knowing what was going to happen if we didn't practice any more. We just felt like our car was fast. We weren't sure if it was going to handle the best in the world. It was a little bit too tight in practice. Then we got it too loose, then got it too tight again. No matter the balance, it had a lot of speed. That was a big positive. Q. Greg, if NASCAR wants to try to use some sort of this package, how many tests would you want to see before they make that decision? How many aero packages can an organization deal with for a season? GREG ZIPADELLI: I think it's doable. Back to what Kevin said, is implementing it the right way, learning it. It's going to be different than our other packages. It's a motor package, potentially a body change from what we race on downforce racetracks. We're just creating more work for ourselves which just takes more resources. It puts good racing on, the races are spread out, we'll all figure it out as teams. Dumping it on us right now wouldn't be the right thing to do. It would be nice to go to another racetrack. Everybody has talked about Pocono or Michigan is probably really a cool place, something like that, to have tried it. I think we'll see different results at different racetracks with it. KEVIN HARVICK: The other thing that's going to happen this year is you're going to see this particular package also show up on the Xfinity cars at Michigan. I think that's another step in the process. That's my point by taking our time with this. By the time it evolves, especially for the engine shop, this particular package would need to look very similar to what your Daytona and Talladega package look like. It would be really nice for everything to evolve into a package like this wherever we're going to run it, on the two miles, one‑and‑a‑half‑miles, Daytona and Talladega look the same. How you can evolve to that is way beyond me, but I think from an engine shop standpoint there would need to be something like that. That's the reason that you can't just say, Pull the trigger, let's do it. It's a big ship to turn. It would be interesting. Q. (No microphone.) KEVIN HARVICK: Just remember this. There was a large buzz about the low downforce package that we currently race when we left the All‑Star Race one year. So just remember that. Q. Greg, you've been at this game a while. Have you ever in your career been with a team and in a situation quite like the run not just Kevin but the entire SHR group is on right now? GREG ZIPADELLI: It's pretty awesome. I don't know if many organizations at any point in time in their career have had this kind of success. As a group, it's been really cool to see Rodney and Kevin accomplish what they have. It's just been unbelievable. Q. Kevin, I'm surprised to see you walk in here honestly, I don't want to say subdued is the right word, but is it to be old hat at this point? KEVIN HARVICK: I got a four‑month‑old baby at home. I showed up this morning. I held my little girl at, I don't know, 7:30, 8:00. I drove to the racetrack. I practiced. I went back, watched my son's baseball game. I drove back for the drivers meeting. I had four appearances. I sat and laid on the couch for an hour, watched the race. Then I came back out and did driver intros, ran the race. If your ass wouldn't be tired by now, I don't know who you are. But I'm beat. I felt like I gave it a full effort today. If I'm subdued, I'm sorry. I'm really happy that we won the race. I'm really excited for my team and organization and sponsors and everybody. But I'm tired. Got to remember, I'm old. When I leave here, I'm going to go home, I drink too many more of these Busch beers, it might be asleep in the car. Q. There was a comment made about right people, right situation, being on an upswing in a period where a lot of drivers in their career might be on a downward swing. I'm seeing a lot of the same with you. Do you feel like right now you're just getting better and better? Is that in large part due to the fit you found with Stewart‑Haas? KEVIN HARVICK: Absolutely. I'm going to try to be more energetic that I feel like I'm subdued. I think as you look at situations, he's 100% right, I think as you look at getting involved with Tony and Gene, I've obviously known Tony for a long time, it took me a while to get to know that guy down there, I think he used to want to tear my head off, I wrecked a couple of his racecars a few times, kept is driver out drinking beer too late, all kinds of stuff. But I think as we've been embedded in SHR as a group, sat through good times and bad times, meetings, the thing about it for me is I get to be involved. I used to be an argument to speak your opinion and talk about things that were going wrong. Now you talk about things that were going wrong, there's an action list, here what is we're going to do, have a meeting, we're going to move forward. For me, I like to be involved. They let me be involved. Our team, our 4 team in general, is a little bit different than probably most teams because Stewart‑Haas Racing allowed us to build it. We didn't have anything. We hired a crew chief. We courted Rodney for, I don't know, seems like a year and a half, whatever it was. It was a long time. We got that piece done first. Then it was, Okay, now you need to go hire everybody on your team. He was on gardening duty, so he got to go and interview every person that was on the race team to start with. We got a brand‑new tractor and trailer. Every nut and bolt in it, every car was built to the specs that blended together with what he wanted and what Stewart‑Haas had, the Hendrick relationship at the time. Everything on our team was built around what we wanted. That's not normal. I think as you look at a lot of situations, you're going to have guys that are going to go into a team. You're going to get a few of these cars a few of these cars, we're going to give you a couple guys from over here. That's not the case. When you look at it, young owners, we have a group of racers from top to bottom inside and out that love to race cars. That's all they want to do. They don't care what color your shirt is, how many buttons are on it. Just show up and do everything you can to win the race. That isn't normal in this garage. I think as you look at that environment that has been created, it's just about racing. Everybody's input, everybody's involved. It's a special place to work. For me, it's the same scenario. It's the right people, right situation. We all have a lot in common. We all have kids, are similar in age. There's not a generation gap from our ownership group or management or crew chief. If I told Rodney, I'm not, or Greg, going to be at the meeting today, I'm going to watch my son's baseball game, they would say, Have fun. If I'm going to watch my kid play football, baseball, basketball, you have the opportunity to do that, that's rare. That's not something we all get to do. That's the type of situation that for me, I just feel like it works. We all respect each other. But we all have a lot in common. Q. Rodney, obviously the speeds were down quite a bit with this package. Some other differences. How did all that impact how you thought about things like tire strategy and pit stops? Did it change that a lot or not? RODNEY CHILDERS: Yeah, I mean, when you look back at it, there's been a lot of work behind the scenes. I think Rex blew is computer up about 10 times working on all this stuff trying to figure out this package. Is it going to be more about drag, more about downforce. Honestly, it ended up being different than what we thought. I told somebody in Victory Lane, I'm glad it wasn't 600 miles because we would have needed a different car. It was all about trying to figure out what was the right thing. We brought what we thought was right. I think the whole garage thought we were going to come over here and just run wide open for 80 laps. It didn't end up being that way. There was a lot of handling involved. Once we saw how much everybody was out of the gas in practice, we had to rethink what we were doing. He said it the same time I said it. We went out in practice 15 laps, put tires on it again, just drove through everybody. Then the 42 put tires on and drove through everybody. We're like, Crap, our original thought was we were going to pit after the first stage, stay out the rest of the time. That wasn't going to happen. You are going to have to have tires. It was a lot different than what we thought it was going to be. Q. Kevin, earlier this week this year's NASCAR Next class was announced. Two drivers were named to it that you have taken a personal interest in. What does it mean to you that you take a small mentorship role in to have them get that recognition? KEVIN HARVICK: I feel like our efforts from a short trackside of things are paying off. I don't think anybody would have known Will Rogers' name if we haven't run the K&N West Series race last year. I'm proud to be able to take him and bring him on the radio show, talk about him. That's really the reason that we run those races. I think when we went to Bakersfield this year, running around, Haley, she has a lot of potential. I talked to Brian periodically, they came to the house, she was on the radio show as well. I think both of those kids have a ton of potential. I think Brian is really good for her because of the fact she just needs to go race and learn the ins‑and‑outs, get with the right situations as she moves up, not move too fast. She's the best female‑‑ she has the most potential of a female racer because she gets it. She's very into what she's doing. It's not about everything else. It's really about the racecar and how do I drive it faster. She's just got her stuff together. Will is the same way. He's got his stuff together. He just needs an opportunity to come out and show what he's got. When the road course stuff shows up, Will is probably capable of being in an Xfinity race or a Cup race in the right equipment on a road course, he'd be a top 10 competitor in the right stuff, in the right situation on any road course in any series. It's interesting to see. That's really been our goal running the K&N races, is to expose those drivers to get opportunities. Just glad that it's working out for a couple of them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for coming in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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