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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301July 21, 2019Rodney ChildersKevin HarvickGreg ZipadelliLoudon, New Hampshire THE MODERATOR: We will now begin our post‑race media availabilities. We're joined by members of our race‑winning team for the Foxwood's Resort Casino 301. We are joined by driver of the No.4 Busch Beer National Forest Foundation Ford for Stewart‑Haas Racing along with crew chief Rodney Childers and vice president of competition for Stewart‑Haas Racing, Greg Zipadelli. Congratulations, guys. Q. Denny gave quite an extensive like eight‑minute breakdown of everything from his view. So I wanted to run a couple things by you because he had some assumptions about what you were thinking based on what he was thinking. So you initially went low to avoid a lap car and you felt like that opened the door. I guess first of all, why did you do that? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, the lap cars were right in the middle of the groove with three laps to go. There was four of them that were just right where I wanted to be. So I had to do something, and I didn't want to lose momentum, and I was hoping that you could catch a break, and as soon as I got to them, the front of my car just didn't turn as well, and that's really where his tire deficit‑‑ our tire deficit showed up. In clean air we were where we needed to be and ran faster than we had run all day. The thing that had comes down to is the call that Rodney made and putting us in control of the race. We got a good restart, and just the lap cars didn't play out for us, and some of the choices that I made allowed that gap to go away, and then it was defense from there. Q. So he said once he got position on you, he felt like‑‑ KEVIN HARVICK: Wait a second. He never got position on me. Q. Well, he was side by side, so he felt like you were both going down the backstretch trying to decide with each other who really wants to lead here because he thought if he led that you'd probably get behind him and push him up the track. KEVIN HARVICK: For sure. Q. Did you feel that way? And he thought his mistake was that he should have had the power position on you on the bottom instead of going on the top? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I agree with that. I think for me, I knew that he was close enough that he was going to take a shot, and as soon as he got the opportunity. I knew I didn't need to be in the third lane. I knew he was going to try to go through the middle lane and just try to get in the left rear and get me out into the fourth lane and there's just no grip out there. I knew in the corner I'm going down here, he's going to hit me, I just need to survive the hit, and luckily I timed it, I got lucky in timing it so that as soon as he hit me I was on the brakes and was able to keep the car straight, slow his momentum down. He got up beside me, and at that point I was half throttle coming off the corner. At that point you want to have the last shot going into Turn 3. He let off a bunch, and I'm like, okay, that's fine, I'll take the bottom here and just‑‑ I didn't know what he was going to go from there. As soon as I saw him I just kind of let the car have its head. He got into the right rear quarterpanel and I was coming up at the same time to try to block, and it knocked the front end out from underneath his car, and we were able to drive up off the corner. It turned into a wild finish, just honestly because I didn't get through the lap cars, navigating the lap cars well enough in the groove that I was running. I had to do something different, and our car was just at a little bit of a deficit there once we got to dirty air. Q. Kevin, on the initial restart, did you think you were a sitting duck, and once you got out to about a half second lead, but then Denny started creeping in on you. Did you think it was over at that point, and what was your mindset once he‑‑ KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, he never really crept in on me. We were able to maintain four‑tenths to six‑tenths, maybe down to three, and then he made a big mistake there with like three or four laps to go, and he got back far enough to where he had some cleaner air and got back to about the same gap. And I just didn't want to make big mistakes. I didn't want to just miss the entry. I just needed to hit my marks on entry and get the car rotated, and I really thought we would be fine if it wasn't for the lap traffic. But I thought we were a sitting duck, yes. But I knew our car was good, and I just didn't know what would happen after 35 laps on the tires, but we ran almost two‑tenths faster than we'd run all day. So that's why sometimes you just have to suck it up from the driver's compartment and they make the call, and sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong, and today it was right because he put us in control of the restart. And really the key to that whole sequence of things was I didn't have to race the 20. I got a good jump on the restart. The 20 and the 11 got me‑‑ that racing side by side got me that four‑ to six‑tenth gap, and it pretty much stayed there, and as soon as we ran four or five laps, my confidence level went way up just because of the lap times the car was running, and I could drive it in the corner further and let off the brakes more and everything just got better. He knew that the car was better than I thought it was, and the only thing that really worried me was when Kyle shot by me early in the race on those two tires. So we just needed to just get through the first two laps and we were able to do that. Q. Kevin, we're smiling here, it's short track, expect Denny to hit me, and it worked out so you're smiling. If it didn't work out, would it still have been okay, that contact, and what you guys went through if you wound up in second place? KEVIN HARVICK: You know, I think I just told him, I said we were leaving on a tow truck or winning the race today. I think it's just that point, and the way that racing is now, you‑‑ with all the chances that you have to take and whether it's from strategy or blocking or pushing somebody out of the way, I mean, he did exactly what he was supposed to do, I did what I was supposed to do to try to win the race. When you're in position, you just have to lay it all out there and see what happens, and today we came out on the right side of it, so I don't have to worry about what would have happened. Q. Rodney, on the call that Kevin said you made to take control of the race, there were, I think, 18 cars on the lead lap, so caution with 35 to go, the leader pits, and you were one of only three cars that stayed out. Were you surprised that maybe half the cars on the lead lap don't stay out at that point? RODNEY CHILDERS: Yeah, the guys that were leading the race, I was really surprised that they pitted. When we went green with 80 to go, we had already decided if there's another caution we're not going to pit unless we get shuffled back to eighth or ninth and we can maybe put some tires on and drive back up through there. When I told him to stay out, I honestly thought we would restart somewhere in the first two rows, and then everybody pulled in and we're sitting there the leader when he comes into sight, and I'm like, what in the world. But anyway, you just don't ever know when that's going to work out. I felt like we had a good car the whole race. Anytime we could get clean air or far enough back from somebody, he was faster than anybody on the racetrack all day long, and then every time we would run somebody down and get within five, six car lengths of them, we would slow down two or three tenths of a lap. The clean air was huge today, and honestly, like he said, it was all about getting a good restart. The 11 and the 20 kind of racing each other for a couple laps and getting out there, and it seemed like after four or five laps the tires would kind of equal out. He did a great job on the restart and got us where we needed to be. Q. I know these races are always tough to call, but it was a track position race. Two tires earlier seemed to be the way to go. Is it getting tougher to call these? Is it more stressful for crew chiefs, and are they more conservative? Is that why you saw only three cars stay out? RODNEY CHILDERS: I told him this I think it was Monday night, these races are the hardest to call of any of my career. Whether it's a 550 race or a 750 race, the tires don't seem to wear as much. They don't seem to fall off as much. It gives everybody a lot of opportunity to do different things. So even when you think that you've got it right and you put four tires on, you think you're in the right spot and then a caution comes out and somebody else can put two on or somebody can stay out, it just keeps shuffling. You saw that at Kentucky and a lot of these places. They're tough. You know, a lot of it is just confidence and doing what you think is right, and there's been a lot of weeks where I felt like I didn't do what was right. It's all about just having that confidence again and doing the right thing. Q. Kevin, could you comment on winning three of the last five here and tying Jeff Burton's record? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, this place has been really good to us, and I think Rodney and I probably feel like we should have could have won them all. But it's been a racetrack that has been really good for us from a performance standpoint, and I think from a confidence standpoint coming here this weekend, being able to adjust on the car and know what we're looking for, I think this is definitely a racetrack where a lot of those things came into play and used a lot of the same things that we've used in the past as far as tools of how we make our car go around the corner. There was a lot more relevant this weekend to the things that we've done over the past few years and still very different. But I think obviously it's been a great racetrack for us. Q. Kevin, did the traction compound impact things at all? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, for sure. I think as‑‑ I think the only thing everybody probably will look at and say that they wish it would have worked a little better is that fourth lane. I think everybody anticipated that fourth lane to have a little bit more grip than what it had. It really didn't‑‑ nobody even really ventured up there. But definitely would change and wore off, especially on the entry, and the bottom was remarkably better than I thought it was going to be right off the bat, and I think a lot of it had to do with the modifieds running down there, and they sprayed it a little bit again last night. That stuff is always tricky, but I think in the end, I still think it's helping our racing, and I think as we get better at it and I think talking to Jay Fabian this weekend and just some of the things that we need to analyze and look at, we can get better at it, and I think that's definitely a plus for NASCAR racing and racing in general. Q. Rodney, is that call that you make if you have anybody at the wheel, or is there anything particular about what Kevin can do on old tires that you leave him out? How many guys do you think could do what he did today? RODNEY CHILDERS: You know, that's one of those things you've got to have somebody that's going to drive the car, that's for sure. They asked me on the TV interview after we didn't pit. Honestly, he's won four here, I've won four here, and I've won more by doing that than I have by putting four tires on and driving through the field. You have to have track position and you have to have control of these restarts and control of the race. Yeah, we always know on the pit box that he's going to do the best he can do and get the best restart he can. Sometimes that's hard to believe that we're going to restart here with 42 laps on our tires and the guy behind us has got sticker rights on and we're going to outrun him. That's hard to imagine at times, but this year has been crazy like that. When we were halfway down pit road at Pocono and I said put two tires on the car, I would have never done that years ago. It's just part of it. Like I said, some of it's just trying to get some confidence and learning about this package and what you've got to do to win races. Q. Kevin, I have to ask you, I know you've been voicing your opinion about short track racing, and this weekend we saw Newman and Preece hop in a modified, Hemric and LaJoie win at the track down the street here. Can you just talk about how important it is for you guys to support short track racing? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I think the momentum over the last few years has been really good since we kind of voiced our opinions, and I think when you see NASCAR and NBC and the campaign that they have going on right now and you see the guys in the garage going to the short tracks, for us this year we've done contingency programs with one of the short track series. We have one in Stafford, and that's been way more impactful than anything I think we've ever done, just because it's a weekly help, and it's not a lot of money, but it's a big impact on the competitors. Just showing them that you care makes a difference and makes them feel involved. In this part of the country, I think a lot of people overlook it for racing in general just because of how much racing and how many racing enthusiasts there are, racing fans there are in this part of the country. The Oxford 250 really opened my eyes to that, and a lot of those fans have followed us here and come back every year and show their support and still talk about us going up there. The Stafford connection for us has been really good. Ryan obviously started that on Twitter, and those guys at Stafford did a great job of kind of bantering back and forth. But honestly they're some of the best motors in the country and do a great job for their competitors and give their competitors a great place to race. Bill McAnally, we do a contingency program with him. If it wasn't for Bill, I don't think the West series would even be functioning. With his support and care to the K&N West series and even the East series, he had three or four cars in the race yesterday. Just being able to help in different ways is fun for me and seeing what all these guys are starting to do, and you see Larson, I mean, he obviously has been doing it and Stewart is out who knows where‑‑ he's on his way home from Eldora. I just talked to him actually. He's driving the hauler home. I think he's driving the hauler home. He's driving something. Anyway, that's been great momentum to catch on. Q. You guys have been able to maintain a high position in the points standings without a win, but my question for Zippy or Rodney, you guys feel like you have cleaned up the miscues, the mechanical issues, all the little bugaboos that have kept Kevin out of Victory Lane this season, especially six races to go getting into the playoffs? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, first off, I've had a big part of knocking the sides off these things lately, keeping us out of Victory Lane a couple times. I think when you look at the rules package, you have to be so aggressive, and that aggression falls into the steering box at Pocono, it falls into the strategy of the races. There's just a number of things that the way that you race and how you race and the things that happen with the car that are different. It's been‑‑ we've all made a ton of mistakes, and I think as you look at it, they haven't all been in winning positions, but you could go right from the beginning of the year and say, okay, well, we chose the wrong direction on the cars. But they've done a great job of getting the cars back with speed and performing well, and we've made mistakes. But I think in the end, everybody‑‑ like I said to several people earlier, whether our cars are slow or fast, whether I run it into the wall or he makes a call that doesn't work out or whatever the case may be, we show up the next week, and the only thing we think about when we make the first lap on the racetrack is we have a chance to win. Everybody else might not think that, but we legitimately think we can win every race, and we've had the cars and the speed to do that with leading laps. But mentally that's just the attitude of the whole team. Q. Is some of that tough competition leading to some of the failures, not just with you guys but we saw Hendrick had issues today. There seem to be more mechanical issues today‑‑ KEVIN HARVICK: Issues? They might be out of cars. (Laughter.) Q. Rodney and Greg, talk about winning the first race this year for Stewart‑Haas. GREG ZIPADELLI: For myself, obviously any win in this series is important. It's so important to our guys back at the shop because we have sent them in every different direction that we could, and they just keep working and doing what we need them to do. You know, this win is‑‑ I think it's been a humbling year for all of us, and I think it's been a frustrating year, obviously after the Cinderella year that we had last year, and our stuff fired off really good the beginning of the year, and we honestly didn't anticipate anything less than that this year. But you know, in sports that's not always the case. I'm proud of everybody. I'm proud of Rodney and Kevin and our other drivers and crew chiefs for just pushing and voicing their opinions and allowing us to make things better. But I will sit here and say in front of everybody, we had good cars today, and I think we had better speed, but I don't think anybody should think that we're where we need to be. And that's the exciting part is we did win today because Rodney made a great call, put Kevin in position, but I still think we can go home in our meeting on Tuesday and we can still make our cars better, and we will make them better and be ready for the end of the year. Q. Kevin, sort of following up on what you said about your mental approach to each week, that you have the capability of winning a race, the longer it goes, though, and you don't, do you get some frustration that builds, and is there some personal satisfaction that all of it was able to be put into place today? KEVIN HARVICK: Honestly, I'm excited that we won, but it doesn't really‑‑ we won't have a different meeting than if we didn't win. We won't have different conversations. We won't treat each other any differently. It really doesn't change anything. I mean, honestly, this is what we're supposed to do. This is what we get paid to do. And it's our job, and we expect it. We expect to go out and win races, and on the days‑‑ and I've said this for several weeks now, now it's almost a game of how do we fix it, how do we get to where we need to be, and how do we put ourselves in position to try to win a championship. Sometimes those years are more fun just because‑‑ more fun in the end. They aren't more fun in the middle just because of the conversations, but the satisfaction that comes out of turning things around is sometimes more rewarding just because of the fact that it takes a lot of people to do it. Like you really have to step back and realize that I can drive the car, but there is no way that I can do anything close to the amount of work that goes into putting these cars into production on the racetrack, changing things. I'm just a small, small sliver of it. But I can tell you, confidence is never anything that we will lack. Q. Two years ago you won here in the blue Ditech car. Last year you won in the blue Busch Car, and given the color scheme today and the Foxwood's Resort Casino 301, what are the odds we're going to see a blue car for New Hampshire 2020? KEVIN HARVICK: I don't think my car was blue. Was it blue today? It was kind of brown and green and had a deer on the side of it. Was it green? What color was it? I'm kind of blind. It's green in the front. It's like forest green in the front. But anyway, whatever it takes. We enjoy being around the Foxwood's people. They treated us very well two years ago when that relationship started, and to see all those guys in Victory Lane over the last couple years and have that relationship with them and know how much fun we had up at the resort is something that's fun. That part is a lot of fun, to see people that believe in our sport and want to promote the things that they do around it. Q. As a driver, was today like a fun, classic smaller track kind of race with the high amount of horsepower and the PJ1 making more lanes? Was it enjoyable? KEVIN HARVICK: It was different. Obviously winning the race makes it more enjoyable, and I think for us we've had a good car all weekend, so I think going into the race for us, we felt like it was a chance to win a race, and the way that Rodney called the race, obviously I think you can tell that he was going for the win. So that makes it more fun for sure. Q. I don't know if you saw, but on Twitter Guy Fieri offered to help you cook the lobster. So when are you going to Flavortown? KEVIN HARVICK: Guy sent me a grill, and he's been trying to teach me how to smoke everything. It's a Camp Chef grill that he does a deal with, so he's been schooling me on‑‑ we cooked ribs and a chicken last week, so we look like a freight train in the backyard, don't we? Smoke rolling everywhere. Neighbors probably think we're crazy. But it's good. Keelan cooked pizzas with Guy a few weeks ago, threw them up in the air. So yeah, the guy's in chef school. Q. On pit road after the race, Denny said he didn't want to do you dirty, and he could have dumped you. How much of that was going through your mind that he could have dumped you, and is he just saying that now? KEVIN HARVICK: I mean, look, he took his shot. And I think at that point it's kind of do whatever you have to do. It's the last lap. And I think he thought he was going to move me up out of the groove, and I don't think he expected for me to be in the middle of the racetrack and be on the brakes and all the things‑‑ there was just a lot of scenarios there, when you look at last year at moving Kyle up out of the groove, I don't think he expected to be up out of the groove at that particular point in time, and I think he did what he had to do. It's just like last year, like I didn't want to dump Kyle, I wanted to move him out of the groove and try to win the race, and I think that's what Denny was trying to do. We raced hard and tried to do each other as good as we can and still not sell our teams short. But I've been in position where I've dumped somebody, and it doesn't work out well for you as you go through the end of the year. Q. Kevin, what happens to the lobster? Is he going to get a reprieve? KEVIN HARVICK: I gave last year's to the team, so we'll give it to the team because unfortunately at our house things wind up getting broken. The last one turned into a bicycle ramp because the lobster got destroyed. I don't know who wrecked it. At one point we had a claw that we were taking to the Smiths' house, chasing Ms.Cassie around with it. She didn't think it was as funny as we did. We had broke it at that point. We tried to have fun with it, so we broke one. There was no recovery on that one, so we had to take him off, and it turned into a bicycle ramp. Q. I didn't know if you were going to eat him or if you were going to let him go. KEVIN HARVICK: Let him go? Q. Yeah, reprieve from the governor. KEVIN HARVICK: No, we're not letting him go. Tell PETA to call me. If they don't like traditions, they know my Twitter account. They've tweeted me before. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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