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NASCAR CUP SERIES: POCONO 350

June 28, 2020

Kevin Harvick

Long Pond, Pennsylvania

THE MODERATOR: Kevin, came up just a little short of coming home with two wins at Pocono. Give us a little recap of your day, coming home in second place.
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, car was actually better today than it was yesterday. Just the way that the end worked out. We had to run in a lot of traffic there. Denny kept clicking off laps. They did what they had to do, did the opposite of what we did as far as when we pitted. We lost time going through that traffic, just came out behind him, wound up second today.
Just really proud of my Busch Beer Ford Mustang guys. They did a great job all weekend of giving me fast cars and chances to win both races. In the end we were 50%. Just really proud of everybody.
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions for Kevin.

Q. Now that we've done the two races in one weekend, how do you feel this will work in the future? Was it a winning format? Would you do anything different?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think the format was great. I think for everybody in the garage it went well. I think obviously it's the hardest on the guys on the team. I'm sure the teams will have a little bit to say about the start time of the first race, trying to give the guys a little bit more time instead of getting them here early in the morning, sending them home early in the morning. That would be better.
I think overall everybody would be super happy with a much shorter season and multiple doubleheaders. Yeah, I think it went well.

Q. For a weekend you finished first and second, can't really get much more than that. Are you completely satisfied with that?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think we had a better car today than we did yesterday. That's kind of the way it goes, right? You win the one that you don't think you have the better car. You finish second in the one you think you have the best car.
I think overall you can't be dissatisfied with a first and a second. I'd feel childish if I sat her and nitpicked that apart.

Q. You talked yesterday about missing the fans. Did you miss the fireworks here this weekend?
KEVIN HARVICK: I didn't. The fans did. I'm old, usually asleep by the time the fireworks go off. If they're not racing in Iowa or somewhere that's not here, I'm usually in bed.
Between the fire engines and the fireworks, I don't miss the fireworks.

Q. How different is the whole weekend vibe for you without fans?
KEVIN HARVICK: Well, there's really not a full weekend. Our race day, you show up, you check in, spend a couple hours, then you go get in the car. Race day winds up being pretty busy actually.
The whole vibe is just different because of that exact fact. You don't have a whole race weekend. You don't have that interaction with the fans.
Yesterday and all the races that we've won have just been really strange because you have all that emotion and there's nobody there to share it. It's definitely a much different vibe. Very lonely out there.

Q. When you said 'all the races we've won,' you've won to lot, and so has Denny. What is your perspective on how they're running and whether or not he might be your greatest threat progressing through the season?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think as we go through these styles of racetracks with Pocono, and obviously he does really good at Homestead, Martinsville, we go to Michigan. There's a lot of the racetracks that both of us and our teams do a really good job at.
As you look at last year and this year, I know Kyle hasn't really put it all together yet, but those guys, the Gibbs guys, even Martin, do a really good job.
Denny has been consistent over the last couple years with Chris. That's what it takes. It takes that chemistry between crew chief and driver and team. You just never know when it's going to be like that.
Those guys are really good. I know Rodney and Gabehart, they're good acquaintances, I guess you could say. Both of our crew chiefs are just really old school racers that do a good job in the engineering era of being able to look at the car, come at it from a driver's perspective.
Yeah, they've definitely got their stuff together right now.

Q. You're both championship caliber, right?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think so. We're winning races, doing the things we need to do right now, running up front. I think obviously when you look at the win column, as long as you're winning races, that's what it takes to win championships.

Q. This is the latest I can recall a race finishing here at Pocono. Did the track drive differently as it cooled off? Visibility any different? Did the darkness play a factor in the strategy at the end?
KEVIN HARVICK: No, not really. It wasn't terribly dark. I've run around some racetracks with people shining headlights on the racetrack so you could make the last couple laps at tests and things like that. I think everybody did a great job getting the whole race in. We've been in a lot of circumstances like that.
I can remember a race at Indy where we kept wrecking, finally got dark, ended everybody's misery. Definitely not the first time we've been in this situation.

Q. When the season started out, then you came back, every week we're talking about Chase Elliott, Bowman, Hendrick has the speed, Chevy had some sort of advantage. Now it seems even. Do you see all three manufacturers with the parity there right now?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think a lot of that just depends on the racetracks that we go to. I think they didn't run as well as I thought they would this particular weekend. I think when you look back at the last couple weekends, it's kind of come and gone, right?
Chase has kind of been the most consistent Chevy. Alex has won a race, done okay here and there. But I think for the most part it seems pretty even. Hopefully we can keep making our cars better, keep up with everybody.

Q. The whole season has been weird. Now you're going to Indianapolis for a doubleheader. Do you think even under these strange circumstances this race could still have a potential positive impact for the motorsports community?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think our races have had a positive impact on the motorsports community every week. When you look at our sport, you look at being back on the racetrack, I think this was our 11th race since we've come back. Our industry has just done a great job, really been the leader in trying to help other sports figure out how they're going to get back on track.
I think when you look at the Indy doubleheader, you hear guys from both sides, we had Tony Kanaan on my radio show talking about this particular weekend, and INDYCARS, NASCAR running together.
We're all racers. We want racing to be successful. I know it's kind of had that stigma for a number of years there's the INDYCAR guys and there's the NASCAR guys.
One thing I learned over the winter doing iRacing, racers are racers. If you race on a computer, in INDYCAR, everybody wants to see a good race and be part of a cool event. I think it's going to be a cool event.
With Roger Penske owning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you're going to see different things. I think this is the first step of many that will bring exciting shows to the racetrack.
THE MODERATOR: Kevin, we appreciate your time. Wish you the best of luck next week.
KEVIN HARVICK: Thank you, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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