Kevin Harvick: Even after success, the work doesn’t stop

Kevin Harvick: Even after success, the work doesn’t stop

Apr. 26, 2014

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

RICHMOND, Va.— Kevin Harvick already has enjoyed considerable success this season, his first with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Entering the weekend at Richmond International Raceway, he was the only driver to have won twice in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, a distinction he secured Apr. 19 at Darlington.

On Friday night, he dominated the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at RIR, leading 202 of 250 laps.

Yet Harvick in essence says it’s best to take the approach of an also-ran, not a race winner, when devising plans and systems for upcoming races.

“Whether you win or lose on Sunday, or Saturday night in this case, you go back to the shop and analyze your race just as if you had run 20th,” Harvick said. “That’s what you have to do in order to come back, because everybody in this garage is going to do the same things.

“We have to keep building, and I think (competition director Greg) Zipadelli and everybody at SHR has done a great job with everything that they have taken on over the past few years. (Team co-owner) Gene (Haas) has given the resources from a financial standpoint to do the thing that we have done in a short amount of time.

“(There are) just a lot of things that need to get a little bit better, but they’ve done a great job of building a great foundation.”

THRILLING TIME TRIALS

NASCAR’s new knockout qualifying format has been an unqualified hit with spectators this season, but time trails next weekend at Talladega—the first thus far in the draft at a restrictor-plate race track—promises to amplify the excitement of the new system.

Carl Edwards has experience drafting for position at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Anticipating rain during scheduled qualifying at last year’s spring race, he posted the fastest lap he could during drafting practice and started on the pole, with the field ordered according to practice speeds.

Next weekend, every driver in the field will have to use that approach, and for those who make it to the final round, it won’t be once, but three times.

”If I weren’t in it, I’d be tuned in to watch, because it will be entertainment,” Edwards said. “(Last year) we knew it was going to rain qualifying out, so everyone was trying to post the fastest time, and it was insanity. We ended up on the pole, which was great, but we almost wrecked the race car."

“(Crew chief) Jimmy (Fennig) and I were talking about that… but then he pointed out the fact that we’ll have three rounds of it. I have a feeling that it might be more dangerous than the race from a tearing-the-race-cars-up standpoint.”

PACING THE FIELD

Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 was the first NASCAR experience for Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, but the honorary pace car driver already had a respect for the sport’s history through his friend Dale Earnhardt Jr., a huge Redskins fan.

On the morning of the race, Griffin got a preview of the track in a preliminary pace car ride.

“It’s interesting to be on that track and to be able to share that track with some of the greatest who have ever driven,” Griffin said. “It’s a blessing, totally an honor. I look forward to being out there, being able to do my job the right way, and then get out of the way and let those guys have fun.”