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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301July 22, 2018Rodney ChildersKevin HarvickLoudon, New Hampshire THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the crew chief of the No.4, Rodney Childers. Rodney, talk a little bit about tonight's race. RODNEY CHILDERS: Yeah, we had a good race. We had a really good weekend in general. You look back at the fall race here last year, and we were absolutely horrible, embarrassed to say the least. From that race on, we really went to work and made our cars a lot better for the short tracks. I think that showed with Phoenix this year, then coming up here and running good. Richmond ran really good all night. But the whole company in general really worked hard making this a better short track car. Everybody did a great job today. THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race winner, Kevin Harvick. Kevin, talk about the drama in the late stages. KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah. I think as you look at the end of the race there, just for me I was having flashbacks of Michigan, felt like I needed to be more aggressive. When I had the opportunity, I needed to seize the moment and make it happen. Today we were able to do that. Our car was coming on strong there. I felt like that was my first opportunity, and that was the opportunity that I needed to capitalize on to make the move, and it all worked out. THE MODERATOR: We'll open up the floor for questions. Q. This weekend Stewart‑Haas got a pole, a win, and three in the top 10. Speak about the organization. KEVIN HARVICK: Everybody is doing a good job. I think as you look at the whole year, everybody has done a good job. I think the hardest thing to do in these types of situations is to continue to grind away. I think as you look at the summer stretch, it's hard. It's not my favorite part of the year just because your kids are out of school, it's hot. There's a lot going on. It takes a lot really for everybody to mentally be in tune with everything that you need to do to win races and focus on the things you need to focus on. I get grumpy this time of year. I move on to September and everything will be in championship mode. But as a company, they're doing a good job. Q. Obviously you bumped him first, then tapped him again. The third time when you sort of sent him up the track, is the object to make sure you move him out of the way so he can't get back to you, knowing what he did to Larson? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, definitely your goal is to not wreck him. Your goal is to move him out of the groove, get away from him far enough because you know they're going to be mad. Today that was the situation. I knew his car was going to get wide. He was going to be tough to pass. Kyle Busch is one of the toughest to pass when he has control of the race. For me, that was the moment that I needed to make it happen, drive away, he finished second, right? Q. Kevin, how was the track today after the rain? I know you voiced your opinion short‑track racing. How cool is it to see grassroots, the modifieds and the K&N Series up here? KEVIN HARVICK: The track itself was different at the beginning. The PJ1 was fresh. As the race went, it really started to wear off. I was able to find kind of a different line than everybody else. That was really where my car would take off after about 10 or 12 laps. We could make time and turn down sooner than everybody and get to the fresher PJ1 and get better drive up off the corner. Kind of got caked up in the middle of the corner. There was a lot of grip there, but it would turn. If you could get down there soon enough, it really, really helped it. As far as the grassroots stuff, I've enjoyed being a part of the Stafford Speedway conversation. Those guys, they're up there racing every week for every dollar that they can get. Just to be a small part of it... Really it's all about bringing attention to the guys and gals and racetracks and people that need the support from this level. It's not just me. There's a lot of guys that do different things, whether it's supporting them and drawing attention or going racing or sponsoring cars, owning teams, whether it's Sprint cars, late models. There's a lot of participation in this garage from a lot of people. It's really just making that heard. The more you hear about it, the more attention it brings, the more excitement it brings. That's what we need from that level. When you see the modified race up here, you realize that's usually probably the best show of the weekend. It was right there at it again this week. Q. Kyle said everybody has fair game on Kyle Busch. He said your move was fine, no harm, no foul. He also said he thought you might take a little bit longer to try to pass him clean. Did you think about waiting till maybe two or three to go? KEVIN HARVICK: No. I figured that's exactly what he was thinking (smiling). I knew I needed to take the opportunity as early as I could get it. I knew he was thinking 'late'. We needed to do it when he wasn't expecting it. The more opportunities to get in his wheelhouse, his thought process, the less chance you have. He's that good. If you wait till two or three to go, the entries are going to get shallower, he's going to start grinding on the brakes a little bit harder. He's going to put himself in a position not to get hit. He's going to go on defense, start to really get aggressive, too. I wanted to do it earlier just to try to catch him off guard. Q. Do you consider that clean, if he finishes second? KEVIN HARVICK: I mean, these races are hard to win. When you're in position, it's one of those things that you have to do what you have to do for your team. You want to do everything that you can to not spin him out, not wreck him, just make it as clean as possible, try to accomplish the bump‑and‑run. Today we were able to accomplish it well and win the race. Q. Two of your teammates looked like they were in position to win it. You come in at the end. What separates you, allows you to close these things out? KEVIN HARVICK: I felt like Aric had the best car today. He could really run the bottom well and make time down there. When he wanted to go down there, he could make passes. I wasn't as good at it as he was down there. It really just came down to a restart. It's a really finicky place to restart, especially on the inside down there. It looked like he just spun the tires, kind of got everything stacked up. It's like I told him at Chicago: I mean, sometimes you got to lose a few before you actually put it all together and win. But the way they've come on strong says a lot about the progress they've made. It's great to have that 10 car being a valuable tool to the other three cars at Stewart‑Haas. Q. We've seen guys like Ryan Newman get into the modifieds. He said yesterday he doesn't feel the responsibility to grassroots racing. Do you feel that responsibility, to keep that alive, keep it out there? KEVIN HARVICK: I feel like we can help. I feel like it's everybody's responsibility to a certain degree to try to help the grassroots. I'm talking NASCAR, all the way up, drivers. Look, none of us have the time to dedicate an abundance of time to the things we do. But we all have a great pedestal to stand on and beat our chest and talk about things. I did the K&N race this year in Bakersfield, drew a lot of attention to the series. Did the same last year in Sonoma. Newman into racing modifieds brings in someone like you that can write about Ryan racing. It's not his responsibility. It's not my responsibility. It's something that we all should wrap our arms around to try to help make it healthier because I believe that's where a lot of our hardcore fans are and have gone. The healthier the short track stuff is, the better off we all are going to be. Q. Last time you and I talked we had a conversation about how important team cohesion is. One of the bigger stories at the beginning of the week was some pit crew members being changed around all over Stewart‑Haas Racing. Do you think those changes benefited you and will they stay throughout the rest of the season? KEVIN HARVICK: You're asking the wrong guy. I don't make those decisions. RODNEY CHILDERS: I mean, in general, it seemed like we had a good day on pit road. We've had our ups and downs. I think a lot of attention was toward that way this week after Kentucky. You look back at Chicago. We had stops. We had one stop at Chicago, we picked up five spots. The problem was we couldn't do that consistently. This week was really about matching personalities, matching the skill sets of different people. We felt like we did that as a company. I can't speak for everybody else. I don't know what all happened with the other three teams. Our stops weren't clean by any means, but I can say when they are clean‑‑ they weren't clean when they had thirteen twos. When they are clean, they'll be right there with the 18. We have to have people working together. They had one day to practice with each other before we came. Overall they did a good job. Q. Rodney, late there at the end you told Kevin, Do what you got to do to win the race. Was that reflective of the philosophy that Kevin referred to about 'earlier than later'? RODNEY CHILDERS: Well, I mean, I don't know. It's short‑track racing. Like I said earlier, I won lots and lots of short track races growing up. Not one of them did it win without bumping somebody. You listen to Kyle's radio. As soon as it happened, he said, Man, I was holding him up. It's just part of it. You got to do what you got to do. On the other hand, we're sitting there watching the radar. There are people on the spotter's stands complaining about it raining. In those situations, you got to try to win the race. We look back at Michigan all the time thinking it's a race we should have won. You have to take advantage of every circumstance. Q. Kevin, I know wins are huge. Do Playoff points matter in what's clean and acceptable on these last laps, 10 points? KEVIN HARVICK: I mean, that's really what you're racing for right now. A win is the way you get the most points. To get five points... It's a 10‑point swing. We'll be 32. I don't know what he has. It's right there at it. At some point it will be leaned on over the last 10 weeks. You look at that first round, and you go to Vegas, hope that everything goes okay. Then you go to Richmond and the roval. You've seen how many cars we've crashed at the roval so far. That's going to be survival. You never know what's going to happen. It's going to be a great event with all the unknowns. You could be the unknown of getting in the big wreck in turn one or crashing on your own or whatever the case may be. That first round just has a lot of unknowns. You finish where you are right now, you'll have 42 points. You're creeping in on a whole race. That's really what you're trying to guard yourself with, are those Playoff points. You can look at Kyle Larson last year. He had a bad race and an engine failure, done. Had a bunch of Playoff points, considered a favorite to go to Homestead. Gets to Homestead, he's going to be hard to beat, getting up against that fence. You're going to have trouble. There's two ways out: Playoff points or a win. Q. How do you execute the perfect bump‑n‑run without wrecking somebody? Is it a fine line? KEVIN HARVICK: It is a fine line. You want to try to get them right as they're at the apex coming off the brake. That's right when the back of the car is the lightest. You don't want to get them while they're turning off the wall off the corner and back them into the fence. It's a fine line of trying to get it right. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don't. Q. Is there some concern going into the Playoffs that somebody might not be as talented as you, that the bump‑n‑run might come back and bite you? KEVIN HARVICK: You just race every week. You don't worry about things you can't control. Q. Kevin, the home race for Textron, obviously important to win on their home turf. Speak to how they supported your career. KEVIN HARVICK: Textron has been a huge part of everything we've done, whether it's flying to the racetrack, Textron Off Road, E‑Z‑Go. They've supported everything that we've done at KHI since 2008. They've been a long‑standing partner of ours, always support everything that we do. It's fun to have them onboard. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Kevin and Rodney. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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