Q&A: Kevin Harvick.

Saturday, 11th February 2006

One of the more outspoken members of the NASCAR community, Kevin Harvick has had pressure on his shoulders right from the moment he stepped into the Nextel Cup Series five years ago in place of the late Dale Earnhardt. Having proved his wares, Harvick shows that as far as speaking your mind goes, he has picked up a lot from ‘The Intimidator.’

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The Busch car, we did the same thing. Stewart wanted to run some Busch races. He carried the Busch car. We established points with the car. We'll do the same thing again this year. We gave the 33 points to the 77 car, established that team there in the first five races. Myself and Tony Stewart, we'll run the first five races in our car to establish the points, establish the foundation for the team, know where we need to work on. That's kind of the philosophy we've taken.

Q.
Why did you want to be an owner so soon in the prime of your driving career?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I think the reason that I wanted to do it now is because I could afford to screw up (laughter). That's probably the biggest reason, was just to establish everything that we needed. Every year that you go forward, it becomes more profitable because you don't have to go out and buy trucks, you don't have to buy trailers, you don't have to buy tools. If we can get everything that we need now, the foundation will be set and all the tools and things that you need to run a race team will be there. If I ever decide that I'm tired of driving, I'll have the race teams established.

Q.
Back to the Earnhardt thing for one minute. It was almost like the people who had been there felt like they were betraying Dale's memory every time a change came. Do you believe that's true?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I think he had his hand in a lot of things. When things needed to be changed, when he told them to change it, they would change it. I think when everybody had to start thinking for themselves, figure out when it was time to change it for themselves, it wasn't -- there wasn't that reassuring voice there and that experience there to tell them that it was okay to change something, we need to go forward.

You know, there's just a little bit of insecurity, unsure of when the right time is to change things.

Q.
What's the key ingredient to winning?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Fast cars. That's what it all boils down to.

Q.
Do you feel like you got that ingredient here?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Yeah, I believe our car will be good. But these races, to be fast on these racetracks, you have to have fast cars.

Q.
Why are you running in the Busch Series, limited tests, and tyres