Will Rodgers lost to Harvick at Sonoma, but had the time of his life

Outside of Kevin Harvick – who swept the K&N Pro Series West and Cup series races – no one had a better weekend at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway than Will Rodgers.

Rodgers, a 22-year-old regular in the West series, won his first series pole in last Saturday’s West race and came precariously close to knocking off Harvick for the win, instead finishing an impressive second.

Was he disappointed? Sure.

Was he mad Harvick had competed in the series? Not at all.

Welcoming the Cup talent

In fact, as it turned out, Saturday may have been just the jolt Rodgers needed to ignite a successful NASCAR career.

“It’s great to have guys like Kevin come back and run with us, not only so we can learn, but also for the chance to try to beat the best,” Rodgers told Motorsport.com.

“For guys like me, personally, who are still trying to work on sponsorship to keep things going, to have guys like Kevin Harvick in our corner, if he ever were to be, would be phenomenal.”

Rodgers, a Hawaii native who grew up in Murrieta, Calif., has been racing since the age of 8. His racing interests cross a wide spectrum – from NASCAR competition to Motorcross to the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Class.

He has been running the entire K&N Pro Series West schedule this season. He is fourth in the series standings with five top-five and six top-10 finishes in eight races.

Saturday’s race was just the beginning of his introduction to Harvick.

Harvick, a California native himself, repeatedly praised the run by Rodgers in interviews after the race, as did Harvick’s Cup crew chief, Rodney Childers.

Harvick, 41, and his business manager, Josh Jones, spoke at length with Rodgers following the event and on Sunday, Rodgers watched Harvick earn his first Cup win of the season from atop the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing’s pit box.

“It’s been just an incredible experience,” Rodgers said Sunday afternoon.

For Harvick, who began his NASCAR career competing in the Southwest Series and what is now K&N Pro West, Saturday’s race was a chance to help steer some attention toward the series that he believes will continue to produce future NASCAR stars.

“I see some kids from the West coast don’t get the opportunities that they probably should get because so much of what we do is on the East coast and it’s sometimes hard to get a break because they might not be able to afford to race on the East coast,” Harvick said.

“If we can shed some light on this particular series and this particular group of young drivers, like Will and some other guys that ran up front most of the day, that’s really the main objective – to get try to grow the series.

“It’s definitely become more important to me as I get later in my career. I want to try to help build the West coast racing into what it used to be.”