Q&A: Kevin Harvick

Kevin Harvick gives his thoughts and answers the questions after coming home in third place in the No. 29 GM Goodwrench Service Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Kevin Harvick:
"The GM Goodwrench crew got me out of the pits all day long. We had a good little battle with Dale Jr. there at the end. I had a lot of fun. We were just tight-in and tight-off. As soon as we got our car loosened up enough, we would get out by ourselves and we were a little too free. We kept working on it and that's what you've got to do here is race the racetrack and keep the fenders on it."
Q:
What about passing Dale Jr with about four laps to go?

KH:
"That was a lot of fun. Both of our cars were pretty much out of control. He's not like some of them (other drivers) that get mad at you when you run into each other. I think he likes it. But we had a good race and came away with a good finish. We got ourselves up to seventh or eighth coming in to pit there and got caught under the green. It looks like it worked out to a good thing. We gained a couple spots off that wreck and I'm just glad everybody is okay."
Q:
How did you avoiding all the accidents?

KH:
"We have a new spotter this year (Bob Jeffries) and he really keeps me calm and kept me in tune with racing the racetrack and not worrying about other cars. I think I only scraped the fence one time today, so that's a pretty good day for 400 miles here."

Q:
What was the impact the young drivers had on today's race?

KH:
"It goes to show you that they have a lot of experience behind them to keep us tame. But I'm just proud of the GM Goodwrench team. We had a chance to win the Southern 500 last time and got caught for a speeding penalty on pit road. We went from running second or third to having to make up a lap. We came back and ran really good. We're just excited about the momentum hopefully we have going into Bristol because I feel that's our best racetrack. I'm just glad to finally get things going in the right direction."
Q:
How did you get through that big crash?

KH:
"We got caught on pit road and actually we were the third car in line on the restart and so we were way out in front of it."
Q:
What did you think about the performance of the Chevrolets?

KH:
"I'm really disappointed. It just seems like this is Dodge's world and we're living in it."
Q:
After the engine problems in Atlanta, what did you do differently at Darlington?

KH:
"We were just real conservative on the rpm's."
Q:
What was the tone of the race today?

KH:
"It looked like it was rough to me. There was a lot of torn up stuff. For big chunks of the race, there wasn't much of anything going on. And then for little chunks of the race, there was a wreck or whatever. I'm just glad we got ours out in one piece."

Q:
So you were lucky out there today?

KH:
"Yeah, it's about time."
Q:
Welcome back to the post-race press conference

KH:
"It's okay, but at times I've got to be quiet. This is a point where I've got to be quiet and let the owners and crew chiefs of our sport and our brand take care of the problems that we have."
Q:
What does this 3rd place finish do for your confidence?

KH:
"It does a lot for our confidence. We've had a terrible start for the year. But this is a good race team and I keep asking them if they've ever had a (slow) start like this. And they tell me, 'Oh, this is nothing. It can get a lot worse.' So luckily I have a team owner and team players that have been through worse situations than we've got right now. So we'll just keep battling and doing the things we can do and everything will be fine."