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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Q.
You're obviously hoping to be around for a long time. What are your feelings on the car of the future?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I think the car of tomorrow is great for the safety aspect. I think from a driver aspect inside the cockpit, I think it's safer. I think there are a lot of aspects of it that are safer. I think it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen on the racetrack since 1985. It looks like an '85 Trans-Am car. I think it's going to be a hard sell to the manufacturers to make the car presentable to sell to the general public, to spend their money on to have something that looks like something that's gone back 20 years. They have to make it look better.

Q.
What about Kyle Petty's comments on the car of tomorrow?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I think, you know, the team owners are having to pay for the tyres, having to pay to build these cars, having to pay the test teams, and they're having to pay for the racetrack rental. To me you're going to develop a car and you're going to have to, you know, pay for it. I mean, you really don't want to build the car in the first place. Don't develop it. I mean, why should somebody spend a million dollars to develop a car to go race?

Q.
Let NASCAR do the development work on it?

KEVIN HARVICK:
NASCAR should pay for the development work on the car of tomorrow.

Q.
Did you have fun when you were out there against Tony Stewart in last year's Busch race?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I think racing in the Busch Series with Tony and a lot of the guys from the Cup Series, it's kind of a breath of fresh air. It's fun to go race. It's fun to be on the track, not have really anything at stake other than to try to win the race. That's a lot of fun.

Q.
Tough beating your own driver?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Win-win both ways (laughter).

Q.
On noticing smoke coming out of the air conditioning unit at the RCR museum when returning from skeet shooting