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.
Is that remarkable?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, everybody is kind of high strung and panicky. Why is that (laughter)? Just go do your job. All you can do, right? Go do it 110% and you'll be fine.

I got a funny story I'll tell you. We were sitting around and I decided we were going to go shoot shotguns. We had never shot a gun in our life. We decided we were going to take the time to go into Earnhardt's office. Like you say, he was always pretty confident, pretty busy. He had papers stacked a mile high on his desk. He's sitting behind his desk going, "What do you guys need?" He had his glasses on because he couldn't see a hundred percent. He's looking over his glasses and he said -- we told him we wanted to go shoot shotguns.

He just gave us that stare. He looked at us and he said, "Why would you want to shoot shotguns? You guys don't even know how to load a gun, you don't know how to shoot." Anyway, to make a long story short, that was where I received my first gun.

Q.
What advice would you give the rookies coming into the Cup Series?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Well, I think the biggest thing is, you know, I talk to Clint about it a lot, just time management, really making sure you take care of yourself, take care of a lot of the things that everybody wants you to do. You can say no. Just take care of yourself, take care of your time, do the things that keep yourself healthy and happy.

Q.
What are challenges in being a driver in the series with all the publicity, a lot of opportunities that you probably turn down? What is it like? What are the dangers a rookie driver can face?

KEVIN HARVICK:
I mean, the biggest dangers they face are heading down the wrong road. You know, there's a lot of temptations to go out and party and do the things that every 22, normal 23-year-old would do. I mean, those are the hardest things that you have to realise, you know, this is a job. Carl Edwards said it the best the other day. This is a job. With the job and the fame comes a lot of responsibility. There's a lot of people depending on you to do your job and to do your job right off the racetrack as well. There's a lot of responsibility with that in a lot of different ways.

Q.
In this type of race, who are you most confident running behind?

KEVIN HARVICK:
Well, the restrictor plate stuff is so hard because everybody, you kind of have to fend for yourself. Usually it's good to follow the 8 because usually if the No. 8 goes somewhere, the rest of the pack's going to follow it, too. That's usually one good one to follow.

Q.
Do you have a pre-race routine you go on? Buckle your helmet with your left hand, make sure you touch the top of your helmet with the car?