NASCAR Cup

Charlotte: Harvick - GM Top-10 interview

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REECE'S CARAMEL CUP MONTE CARLO SS: HOW DO YOU COMPARE THIS RACE TO DAYTONA AND INDY? "I don't think you do. Other than it being close to home that's about really the only comparison." WHAT DO ...

Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:04 AM

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BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REECE'S CARAMEL CUP MONTE CARLO SS:

HOW DO YOU COMPARE THIS RACE TO DAYTONA AND INDY? "I don't think you do. Other than it being close to home that's about really the only comparison."

WHAT DO YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE ABOUT THE TRACK AT DOVER? "Dover is one of those places that is concrete so it's a little bit different style of racing than most places. It's fast and a lot of fun."

WOULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY WITH THE 48 CAR DURING THE RACE LAST SATURDAY? "No. It is what it is. He was just better than us. He was better than everybody. He drove from last to first. He just had a really good car. We just had the second best car I think."

CAN YOU DO ANYTHING WITH A DRIVER THAT IS ON THAT KIND OF HOT STREAK? "Hopefully we brought a better car. Hopefully that's what we did better."

DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE MUCH SIDE-BY-SIDE RACING DURING THE COCA-COLA 600? "You watched the race last week, probably not."

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CAR OF THE FUTURE TEST ON TUESDAY? "We're not participating."

WILL YOU HAVE A CAR AT THE TEST? "I don't know if we are or not. I just know that this one time we won't here. We did Martinsville. We kind of split them up. I don't know if they decided to stop and build a new car. I don't know for sure what their plans are."

ON THE CAR OF THE FUTURE HAVING LESS DOWNFORCE: "They pretty much drive the same as these cars. They have the wing on the back. They drive pretty comfortable. It will be interesting to see how they handle."

WILL YOU TRY TO BE CREATIVE WITH YOUR PIT STRATEGY DURING SUNDAY'S RACE? "I think the guy that wins the race will have the best pit strategy. If you take on four tires and everybody decides to take on none, you're going to lose a lot of track position. I think to win the race you're going to have to have a good strategy on tires."

WHO HAS THE BEST CHANCE OF BEATING JIMMIE JOHNSON? "Us."

DID YOU SEE THAT IN PRACTICE? "I don't think you'll see it in the first practice. All we will do is scuff our tires during the first one and probably go after it pretty good in the second one just to see what our car is going to be like at the start of the race. Other than that we'll adjust back to where our car was from the test."

ON THE CHANGE IN TEMPERATURE DURING THE RACE: "I think you're going to have to build into your car and build it up to where it can be adjusted and be pretty easy to go either way, loose or tight."

DO YOU THINK THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT WOULD BE WORTHWHILE IN THE BUSCH SERIES? "I think it'd be great in the Busch Series. If somebody participates all the time and runs all the races I think it would add some excitement to the end of the year."

WOULD IMPLEMENTING THE CHASE THIS YEAR IN THE BUSCH SERIES HAVE HURT YOU? "I don't think it would hurt us at all. We run every race so we'd be eligible."

YOU'VE BEEN ON A HOT STREAK. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE UP THERE WITH THE 48 CAR AND OTHER TEAMS? "I think we're competitive, (running) top 10, top five every week. We put ourselves in position to win a race and be in position for a couple others. We don't feel like we're 100 percent where we want to be yet but we've had a lot of progress and feel like we're competitive week in and week out."

YOU ARE ON TOP OF YOUR GAME RIGHT NOW. DOES THE CONFIDENCE HELP? "Confidence is a lot. We're confident right now and feel like we can compete with anybody and do what we need to do to make the Chase and make a run for the Championship. Those are our goals. Whether we meet them or not is yet to be seen but right now we feel pretty good about things."

YOU ARE APPROACHING A STRETCH WHERE BUSCH RACES WILL NOT BE COMPANION RACES WITH THE NEXTEL CUP SERIES. IS NOW A TIME TO KEEP PILING ON YOUR LEAD TO MAKE IT AS BIG AS YOU CAN? "The thing I look at is that the next five guys behind me are in the same boat I am. If it's weather, it's going to be for everybody. It's nice to have a big lead. You can lose it in a hurry. The guys that are immediately behind us are in the same boat we are."

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF ATTENDING TWO BANQUETS AND PICKING UP TWO BIG TROPHIES THIS YEAR: "Right now we're just having a great time racing hard. We've been fortunate to win some races this year and run good week in and week out. If we can continue that, hopefully when it comes time for December and time for all that we can go to a couple of things."

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU EXPECT TO LEARN TONIGHT TO HELP YOU IN TOMORROW'S RACE? "I don't think so. I think we pretty much have our game plan set for the 600. It's probably going to come down to tire strategy and being able to adjust your car from daytime to nighttime and make the right adjustments. We'll see what happens tonight but the Busch cars are 11 or 12 miles an hour faster through the corner so it's hard to take the two and compare them to each other."

ON THE ROLE OF THE PIT CREW IN SUNDAY'S RACE: "I think they'll step up and do what they have to do. I think it's going to be another race with a few more circumstances."

YOU HAVE HAD TO DO A LOT OF TRAVEL TO RUN THE BUSCH AND CUP SERIES. HAVE YOU ADJUSTED TO YOUR SCHEDULE TO ACCOMMODATE THAT? "I don't even look at it and don't even pay attention it. I depend on the people around me to do a good job and have everything planned out. Chip Williams (business manager) has done a good job in the past with it and I don't need to pay attention to it. I just go with the flow. If the weather gets in the way, you can't control that. I know they'll be very prepared and organized."

WILL YOU BE WORN OUT ON MONDAY AFTER A LONG RUN ON SUNDAY? "Usually, I go-kart racing on Mondays. I'll continue to go do my normal routine. We race twice a week and flying on planes gives me some time to get some sleep."

WILL YOU RUN THE FULL BUSCH SERIES SCHEDULE NEXT YEAR? "No. We'll probably get back to 17 or 18 races."

ON DIRT TRACK RACING RECENTLY: "(I was at) South Georgia Speedway. I had a great time. It was a lot of fun."

DID YOU TEAR ANYTHING UP? "No, not yet. I know just enough now to be dangerous."

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF BURNEY LAMAR FOR NEXT YEAR? "His contract runs through 2008."

DOES HE HAVE AN OUT IF THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO RUN CUP RACES? "Somebody's checkbook would be about the only way. Other than that, there's no out."

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RACING IN CANADA? "It just depends on the weekend. I enjoy going to different places to race. It just depends on what weekend it would be. It just depends on where it falls and what our game plan is for next year."

-gm racing-

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