NASCAR Cup

Indianapolis: Harvick - GM Top-10 interview

CHEVY NNCS AT INDY: Weekly Top 10 with Kevin Harvick BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS: ON THE IMPROVEMENT TO RCR THIS SEASON: "I don't really think it is one thing. I think it is really ...

Published: Aug 5, 2006, 4:29 AM

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CHEVY NNCS AT INDY: Weekly Top 10 with Kevin Harvick

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS:

ON THE IMPROVEMENT TO RCR THIS SEASON: "I don't really think it is one thing. I think it is really everything. I think our bodies are better, our cars are better and our engines are better. It is just a whole bunch of things. We had a good plan going in to the season to get things going in the right direction."

ON LOSING APPEAL OF NASCAR PENALTY ON KHI NO. 77: "I think the whole appeal thing is a little bit different. I think it is hard when you have three series and two of them are the same and one of them has different rules. Mistakes happen and we made a mistake. Unfortunately, I don't know that they know their rules enough to understand what their own shock rules are. If you look in their release, they refer to it as a base plate. It is not a plate, it is a valve so, they went way out of their way in their statement to refer to base plate at the end of the statement and that there is nothing that matters when the appeal is heard, it is heard. But it does matter if you are on suspension, and it does matter if you do this or do that. It just sounds like a lot of excuses and a pretty shaky process to me."

ON CREW CHIEF SITUATION AT KHI WITH GENE NEAD OUT: "Stacy Johnson is going to crew chief this week and make sure everything is going ok. What we do going forward we will decide next week after we see how this weekend goes and go from there." ON BEING BACK AT INDY: "We are excited. Anytime you come to Indy, just for the fact of being at Indy with the history of the race track and everything. We have been fortunate enough to win here and that was the most exciting moment of my racing career. It is a lot of fun to come back and enjoy it."

ON FEELING DIFFERENT HERE AT INDY AS A FORMER WINNER: "It puts you in a pretty elite group of people as a winner at the race track. Makes you feel good about yourself when you roll in this race track and know you have made it happen here before."

ON LESS OR MORE GIVE AND TAKE ON THE TRACK AS THE CHASE GETS CLOSER: "I think you race as you have always raced. I don't know the ins and the outs of everything that is going on with the situation I think you are referring to, but it would be a good question for Tony (SMILES AND CHUCKLES)."

ON FEELING SECURE IN THE CHASE: "I don't think any body is in. If you look at third through 12th or 14th or however you want to look at it, it is wide open. It is going to come down to people not making mistakes and having some big things happen. You have to go and try to win races and do what you need to do there to make it happen."

ON HIS WINNING BUT TEAMMATE JEFF BURTON NOT YET WINNING AND DIFFERENCE IT MAKES IN THE CHASE: "I don't think so. Jeff has been really consistent week in and week out to make things happen. Those guys have been solid; we have been solid. It is just a matter of continuing to make those things those things happen. But that is going to be the hard part. But I think both teams are solid and all three teams are communicating well. The drivers get along and communicate well as well do the crew chiefs, they are all on the same page. That is the thing we have to keep going to keep the success up."

ON EXCITEMENT OF THE CHASE: "I think it has added a lot of excitement to the end of the year. Obviously leading up to it, there is a lot of pressure on everybody to get in to it. So you have to position yourself well to make things happen, to have a chance at the end. If you have trouble early, you have to get be consistent and win a race or two to make it happen to get in the Chase. Now all different parts of the season mean something no matter what."

ON WINNING VERSUS THINKING ABOUT POINTS: "You go out and go as hard as you can every lap to get whatever you can. I don't think the Chase has made a difference as far as how hard you race or whether you let off or don't let off. It is still points, and you still want to get as much as you can.

"Bottom line is that no matter what race track it is, it still pays the same amount of points. There is a little more prestige here, but at the end of the day, it is still the same amount of points you race for at Martinsville."

-gm racing-

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