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NASCAR CUP SERIES: DRYDENE 311August 23, 2020Kevin HarvickDover, Delaware THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our race winner and regular season champion, Kevin Harvick, driver of the No.4 Mobil 1 Ford. Kevin gets 15 bonus playoff points as a result of winning the regular season championship. Q. Kevin, you're in the single digits now in the all‑time win list up to a tie for ninth. What does that mean? You're getting into some pretty serious territory with some pretty serious guys up there. KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, you know, it's an honor just to be up there on that list, and as I've said before, I feel like it's definitely a huge responsibility to be up there and be around those guys. Hopefully we can keep this thing rolling and make up some ground on the next gap. But it's been a lot of fun at Stewart‑Haas Racing, and you're only as good as the race cars that you have, and it's been an honor to drive the race cars and be able to take those race cars and have success with them and capitalize on winning like we did today. Q. What does it mean to you to be the regular season champion? You've won a lot of races so you haven't backed into it, and you've won that now, and what does that mean in your kind of back‑and‑forth with Denny Hamlin? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, it's something that we've never done before, so any time you can do something for the first time is definitely fun to accomplish, and I think in this instance, it definitely pays dividends in the playoff points. Look, that's really what you want to accomplish in the regular season is to gain as many playoff points as you can. We've done that by winning races. We've done that by‑‑ we've done that in a number of different ways throughout the year of just trying to be consistent and make up days that things aren't going good and make finishes out of them. It's been a great 25 weeks, and hopefully we can have a good week in Daytona and see where it all falls after that. Q. I'm curious how relieving it is for you to not have to worry about any kind of playoff implications next week in Daytona. Obviously I know the goal is to still go out there and win the race as it is every week, but how relieving is it that nothing you do next week will impede any kind of playoff standings for you? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think it's going to be wild because Daytona is truly a race that anybody can win. I think as you look at that, I think you're going to see people taking chances and doing things that might work and might not work. I think it's the ultimate ender to a regular season. It's something that we've all been talking about since they announced the schedule last year of being the perfect spot to end the regular season. I think as we go down there, there's a number of guys that can go out and win that race and put themselves right into the playoffs, and I think as you look at how close the bubble is there, I think obviously stage points are going to be important. So you just‑‑ those guys are definitely going to have to take chances that they have to take to put themselves in position to try to take points. It'll be fun to be on the other side of it and not have to worry about the outcome one way or the other for us. Q. Do you feel like you're in a true rivalry with Denny at this point, a game of one‑upsmanship, or do you still feel like it's you against the field? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I don't think I'd narrow it down to one guy. Obviously as you look at Denny and his team, they've been able to week in and week out be competitive and have won races and done all the things that it takes to keep themselves right at the top of their game. That really has been fun to kind of go back and forth with Denny and his team because we all get along really well but we all want to beat each other on the racetrack, and when you have that type of rivalry that is really making you perform at the top of your game, it brings out the best in everybody. You know, I think as you look at that right now and looking at the 11 team, you want to do everything you can to hang with them and do everything that it takes to be right with them every step of the way, but there's just too many things that can happen once the playoffs start here. I think there's a lot of guys that are going to make up some ground, and I think as you look at the schedule and the different types of racetracks that are in the playoffs this year, there's just a number of things that can happen, and there's just‑‑ that mix of racetracks with the short tracks in the beginning especially, you definitely see Chase Elliott that has been tough on those tracks, and at some point Kyle is going to hit on it and get it all together and those guys can go on a run, as well. There's a number of teams that can put it all together, so you just don't want to be so narrow minded to think that it's just you against one other team because there's a number of teams that can do it. Q. With your points margin that you have, the bonus points and everything, is it going to be disappointing if you guys don't make it to Phoenix with the championship? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, look, right now we're one week at a time. Our goal is to really worry about what's happening next week. We're not even close to Phoenix. I think for us, we want to be competitive week in and week out because the season is too long to not be competitive. Putting it all together at one race is tough to do, and I think as you look at going to Phoenix, we ran well there at the beginning of the year, but that's a long ways away at this particular point, and it would be silly for us to look that far ahead. Q. In previous years you guys made it to the Final Four numerous times. Have you thought about what you can do differently to get that second championship, or are there so many circumstances that are out of your control? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, there's a number of circumstances. Phoenix is a way better racetrack for us than Homestead was. We were able to put that together one year, but those low‑grip, high‑downforce racetracks for us‑‑ Homestead has just been a struggle to kind of hit on everything that we need to do to make our car run like it does everywhere else. I think it's a better scenario for us, Phoenix, but like I say, it's still a long ways away. Q. Seeing Denny win yesterday, was there any part of you that said, Denny got yesterday, we're going to go show them today? KEVIN HARVICK: No, honestly we were just worried about the problems we had with our car. I feel like every time we come to Dover, we feel like we should win the race, and having the issues that we had and getting all those fixed overnight and seeing what we could have had yesterday, I think everybody was like, oh, okay, that's what we were expecting yesterday, just had a number of things go wrong yesterday. Q. Going back to the last restart when Jimmie took two and knowing his history at the track, any concern‑‑ maybe not concern, but that's kind of interesting, that you've been running up front most of the day and then you weren't? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I mean, I knew he was at a huge deficit. I think as you saw the restart there, he had a little bit of trouble getting grip, and my main goal was to just try to be beside him as we got off of Turn 2 and he pushed up the racetrack. I felt like we were still in a really good position, and obviously Jimmie has had a lot of success here, I feel like, over the last several years. If it weren't for knocking the dang valve stems out of it, there would have been three or four more opportunities to have won races. It's been a really good racetrack for us and felt good about the position that we were in at the end. Q. You've said on multiple occasions that you still feel like you have a lot to prove this season. Seventh win on the season, the regular season championship. Do you still feel like there's something there, yesterday's mechanical issues seem like that might still be part of it or do you feel like you're where you need to be? KEVIN HARVICK: I've never said I have anything to prove. I've said we have a lot of season to go and race and do the things that we want to do. But proving anything, I don't think we have to do anything in that particular category. For us, it's one week at a time and go about our business and be very focused on the things that we do week in and week out and try to prepare the best that we can to do the things that we think we need to do on that particular weekend, and when that particular weekend is over, debrief about the things we thought we could do better and worry about the next one. You have to have that narrow‑minded thought process that works well for us, and I really think you have to try not to worry about anything around you that could derail that. Q. And earlier at today's race you surpassed 15,000 Cup laps led through your career. What does that say about you and the teams that you've worked with through your career? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think as you look through my career, we've obviously had a lot of great people and a lot of great opportunities. We've led so many laps since I've been at Stewart‑Haas Racing, and Rodney and everybody that has given me the opportunity to drive these cars at SHR, I think we've won 33 or so races and just led a ton of laps. So you look back at RCR and you look at Todd and Gil and all the people that were able to help us through that, leading laps wasn't necessarily our forte, but we were always there at the end of races and able to put ourselves in position to win a fair amount of races at RCR, as well. I've been very fortunate to race with a lot of good folks, and right now we're just fortunate to be able to capitalize on really fast cars with a great group of people. Q. Going back to the playoffs and playoff points, you've set a new record; by my math you'll have at least 57 to start the playoffs. Does that seem almost like a little ridiculous that somebody could put together numbers like that? I think the most we had seen was Truex put up 53 the first year, stage points. Just to have that many bonus points, does it seem a little crazy? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, well, the bonus points are really where it's added up and that's come purely by winning races, and winning those races on the days where we weren't capable of winning races, putting ourselves in position to grab some stage points, and ultimately in the end, winning the regular season championships is like winning three races. That added on with a bunch of race wins, they have definitely piled up, and hopefully we don't have to use them, it would be nice to just win races and get ourselves through, but as we've seen in the past, these playoffs can get pretty crazy. People can get on runs, and you can get in trouble in a heartbeat. We just have to go about our business and do the things that we've been doing and just see where it all falls in the end, and I can tell you that using our regular season to gather that many points is definitely something that we're happy to have to fall back on if we need it. Q. What made your team so strong during these double‑headers? Looking back at these weekend double‑headers, you won four of them. The only other driver to win a race during these, of course, was Denny Hamlin. What made your team so strong during these double‑headers? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I think for us a lot of that is it fell at really good racetracks for us. I think as you look at Dover and Pocono and Michigan, those three racetracks are racetracks that we go to expecting to contend for the win no matter what the circumstances are. Having double‑headers at those particular events, I feel like definitely played into our hands this year, and we were able to capitalize on that. To me that's really the biggest thing that sticks out for me is we were able to capitalize on the weekends where we expect to run well and our car ran well and we were able to execute and put our cars in Victory Lane. Q. And would you like to see double‑headers go forward in the seasons to come? KEVIN HARVICK: You know, I think we've got so many things to digest as we've gone through this season. I think as you look at the costs and you look at the things that the team owners are going through right now, we have to put everybody in a position to where they're able to be financially stable and healthy as we go forward. You know, if that means moving the Gen‑7 car back another year or if it means double‑headers or whatever it takes to keep everybody healthy from a financial standpoint, that's what we have to do. We're in such a strange time, and I think we all agree that we need shorter schedules and some mixed‑up racetracks as we saw at the Daytona road course last week, even if we never go back there. It's kind of like the Roval was the first time; all that hype and anticipation and excitement about something different is something that we have to keep mixing up. The Roval, it's still fun to go to, but it's still nothing like the first time. It's never going to be like it was when we went to Daytona the first time with all the hype and anticipation and unknowns. I still think we're going to be in a very similar position as we start the season next year with the virus. I don't know that it will be able to look much different than what it is right now, and I know a lot of people may not believe that, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. So I think that it's definitely something we need to consider going forward. Q. Going off the 15,000 laps led in the year, you joined Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and the rest of the guys on the list are Hall of Famers and multiple‑time champions. What does it mean to you to be on a list with those type of guys? KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I've been fortunate, especially over the last seven years to drive really fast race cars and capitalize on the things that we've been given. But when you start talking about those lists and the names of people that you're around and passing, whether it's laps led or race wins or whatever the category is, it's just an honor to be on those lists and be around those guys. So hopefully we can keep it going. Q. I know you said before that as long as fans weren't at the track you wouldn't be celebrating, but I did see a little burnout on the frontstretch. Was that because of Ford's 700th win? KEVIN HARVICK: I just wanted to get back to the pits quicker. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win and the regular season championship. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you in Daytona. KEVIN HARVICK: All right, guys, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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