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Harvick - Bristol II Friday media visit

Team Chevy press release

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REALTREE/BAD BOY BUGGIES CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed the Truck race on Wednesday, KHI’s Plans in 2011 and other topics.

Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Ted Rossino

I KNOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET A WIN HERE AT BRISTOL AND GET INTO THE SPRINT SUMMER SHOWODOWN: “Everything that we are doing right now is based on trying to put yourself in position for the chase, in order to do that winning more races would help. There are a lot of things going on internally, we are just trying to prepare for the chase. If we could win more races before the chase starts that would be nice. All in all it is about going to Chicago and making sure we are ready to go.”

WHERE DOES RCR NEED TO PICK UP? THE PREFORMANCE IS THERE, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE A LITTLE BIT MORE. “I think as far as RCR is concerned, right now we are working on making sure that we have the pit crew in order for the consistency on pit road that you are going to need for the last ten weeks and a lot of that comes with the experience with the guys that are doing it. The guys have done a great job. They have kind of hit a slump over the last few weeks. We are working on getting that in order before we get started. I think we tried some new stuff. It was a whole new car last week, and we didn’t really get the results that we were looking for. That failure was probably the best thing that has happened all year, as we look into the end of the season. It just opened our eyes to things that we needed to take a step back on and get back to doing the way we were doing leading up to this point. Last week was a great week at RCR, as far as making progress on a lot of things. I think we are in good shape there.”

YOU MENTIONED THE OTHER DAY KHI WOULD NEVER HAVE A CUP OPERATION, AS LONG AS YOU WERE DRIVING. FANS WERE WONDERING WHY? “As far as the Cup question, it is just too expensive. It is too expensive to start a team; it is too expensive to take that risk. You would have to spend 10 to 15 million dollars to get going and then spend 10-20 million dollars to maintain it for a year. That is not a risk that DeLana (Harvick) and I are willing to take.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO ATLANTA, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU GUYS TO HAVE A GOOD RUN THERE, BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY MILE –AND-A- HALF TRACKS IN THE CHASE? “You always want to run good, and any momentum is good momentum as long as it is headed in the right direction. Atlanta in itself doesn’t do anything for us performance wise just because it is so slick and so worn out. It is kind of its own beast. Running good anywhere is a good thing, especially as we get closer to the chase. I feel good about the things that we have got going on leading into Chicago. I do not know exactly how much of that will bleed over into the next few weeks, but I feel confident. It is definitely not going to be from a lack of effort from all the guys internally and the things that we have going on right now.”

TALKING ABOUT KHI FOR NEXT YEAR, DO YOU HAVE A PRETTY SOLID IDEA NOW HOW MANY CARS, HOW MANY TRUCKS YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE? “Still same answer as Wednesday; I have no idea. It will not look the same. There will be some major changes, but nothing has changed since Wednesday.”

HAVE YOU SPOKEN TO KYLE SINCE WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND DO YOU ANTICIAPTE ANYTHING BETWEEN SADLER AND BUSCH TONIGHT? “First off, I do not have any reason to talk to Kyle. I was not even involved in any portion of the incident. Second off, hopefully he went back and watched the race. The first thing that happened was he shoved him (Sadler) up the racetrack and he got mad because Elliott (Sadler) ran in the back of him, and then he drove over the front of him and wrecked himself. It is just old Kyle I guess showed up last week and really laid into the fact that he was kind of pouting because he was getting his butt whipped. Keeps running his mouth he might get it whipped off the track.”

CAN YOU WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP WITH VOLITILITY? CAN YOU WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP IF YOU ARE VOLITAL IN THE TRUCK SERIES WITH EMOTIONS, THEN COME BACK TO THE CUP SERIES STRAIGHTEN IT OUT AND BE DIFFERENT IN THE CUP SERIES? “I don’t think you have to be. You can handle your problems and not be volatile. It is one of those things where you are who you are. That kind of stuff goes along with what we do on our car. We are not going to change anything and just go about our business and see where it all falls. You do not want to create any extra problems if it is unnecessary, but necessary you have to handle what you need to handle when it is time. Can’t just let it go because it was the last ten weeks.”

YOU HAVE REALTREE ON THE CAR THIS WEEK, DO YOU GET A CHANCE TO DO MUCH HUNTING AND FISHING? DO YOU ENJOY DOING THAT? “We have been on a few hunts together. It is just really boils down to timing. We try to go on an elk hunt once a year, a bird hunt here and there. It just really depends on the timing. I know that Bill Jordan from Realtree has some bow hunting planned for a lot of us to go on our elk hunts this year. If it all plans out and plays out with weather and timing, we will go. Just really right now works out to timing. I do like to go.”

TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR UNIQUE BUSINESS REALTIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND DELANA, HOW YOU RUN YOUR COMPANY, AND YOUR ROLE. “DeLana and I have run the company since it started. She likes to do all the marketing, and PR and, that type of stuff that I really do not spend a lot of time doing. I enjoy the competition side more than anything else. We have done it for ten years and it has worked. I don’t really know how it works, it just works. She does her thing and I do mine and we have good people around us. That is really what it boils down to. You can say the success of the company has come from her and I but it really hasn’t. We just put the right people in the right spots and they wind up doing a good job and keeping the wheels turning. There are too many moving pieces in the whole puzzle for two people to work at. It is really more about having good people, than it is about her and I.”

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