Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Best of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour: SHR Closure reaction, Interview highlights, and more!

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Enjoy some of the best moments from the season on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, including Kevin's interviews with Ray Evernham, Kyle Busch, Shane Van Gisbergen, the crew's reaction to the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's go back to the T-Rex car in that All-Star race. Because how much time and why did you develop that car? And what was it that NASCAR was like, don't bring that back? Or is that list too long? No, it's not. You know, that car was really Mr. Hendricks' idea. So Mr. Hendrick, at that time, you know, we'd won the championship in 95, Terry won at 96, you know. and we're developing stuff.

He's got Rex Stump there, who was, you know, a great Gary Aker, you know, our engineering, you know, group would just build in cars. So they had the R&D shop and they said, look, take all of your ideas and give them to Rex and Cheech Garty at that time, was a fabricator there. And they're going to build a car using all your ideas. And, you know, we've got to stay ahead. And that's the way Rick is, you know, he was big on the next stage of the motor. Yeah, we're winning, but what are we doing in three or four months?

you know, what's the next stage. And that's the way he was with the cars. It was constant development. So Rex and those guys take all our ideas, you know, we're getting stiff in the chassis and, you know, we're going to raise the floor pan up and we're going to move the shocks outside the chassis and we're going to do all this. We take the thing to the racetrack.

And I mean, it's like, it's a turd. We can't go anywhere with it. Like Jeff's like, yeah, it's like half a second slower than the rest of our stuff. And Terry Labani, I think Terry took the Texas. He and Gary DeHart came back to like, yeah, you know. But so we were going to Charlotte. And, you know, Charlotte used to be we'd practice and practice and practice and practice. You know, we'd practice.

I guess we tested a week before and then we'd go back. Well, three o'clock in the afternoon, you might as well run your, you know, your Tahoe around there. Right. Because you're not learning anything because Charlotte's just tricky. So it's like, fire T-Rex up there, you know, let's go from thinking, you know, they're going to yell if we don't test this thing. So you go out there and it's about six or seven-tenths off of what our favorite car at that time was blacker, you know. So, and he's like, I don't know.

I said, let me try something. So I decided to try putting like a modified setup in it. So, you know, back then we used to run more like a 1,400 in the left front and 2,000 on the right front and probably a 350 and a 400, right? I take a pair of, I think we put a pair of 1600s in the front and we put a pair of 450s in the back. We dropped the track bar and I said, give me the biggest sway bar we got, inch and three aes. biggest one we had at that time. And, you know, we, we sent him out there. And I said, I have no idea what this is going to do. He goes out there. And, you know, Brian Weitzel's on the on the truck with me. And he clips his, you know, I clip my stopwatch and I looked at it. And it's like, same time, right? And Brian's like, the tents were the same. The second was a second faster. Wow. And we were like, Jeff comes in. He goes, what was that? He said, I don't know.

Let's go think about this and work on it. What we found out at that time was, you know, we dropped the nose, got the air dam on the ground. That car had the race floor pan. Got the air out from under the bottom of it. A pair of 450s kept a spoiler up in the air, and it was all arrow. So we come back, we're going to run it into Winston. We were going to run into 600. And he comes off of the corner and hits Pitt Road.

He's running, you know, they had the radar gun. He's run like 150 something when he hits pit road. and stands back on the gas. And he goes sliding by us with all, we're in the pits. He's sliding by us with all four, all four tires locked up, you know, when they used to do that three-lap crew deal. And he's yelling, the brakes aren't working. The brakes aren't working.

I was like, they're smoking, bud. We'll see you in a minute, you know. Right. So he comes in. So we got to start last. We start last in this thing. And everybody said, oh, they won all three segments. We didn't win all three segments with that car.

We won all three segments of the Winston in 95. And, but, you know, the, he came through the packet and it was, it was really good. And then it was, it was a game because remember they used to reverse. Yeah. Right. So we didn't run as hard as we probably needed to in the second one. And I think he started third in the, in the last segment. And when they dropped the green flag, he went by who was ever first and second.

And during that last eight to ten laps segments, he ran laps more than a second faster than the field and just drove a, away and had nothing to do with the car yeah yeah it's all about all about set up well it was all it was all set up and and you know and jeff was at his best then you know i always tell everybody look if somebody else was driving that car probably would have still been legal but we go up and do all the hey the the eunuchel toast and we all we come back and buster out and says mr france wants to see you and i'm like okay so i'm thinking hey bill wants have beer with me told a great job you know big crowd, whatever. I go up in there, and this was probably before your time when the hauler used to have the bat phone in it, the, had the real, just had a push-up phone. I got thrown out.

I got thrown out. You got thrown out. Yeah. Well, I go in there, and he's sitting there, Mr. Francis, and he goes, see that phone right there? I said, yes, sir. He said, you need to pick it up and call your boss and tell him that car is illegal. And I said, no, it's not illegal. You know, it passed inspection, and the inspectors looked at it the whole time and everything. And he goes, He used to smoke, you know, the winces hitting. He goes, won't be tomorrow. That was the end of T-Rex, you know. But I get it.

I think there was a line of car owners saying that, you know, because the, you know, the design of the cage and the design of the bars, that car was so different. Everybody thought it was that, but it wasn't. Yeah. It wound up being mechanical. So I got two more questions before we run out of time. I understand that you're a karaoke guy. Is that true? It is.

Unfortunately. And I don't know why. And I'm the worst karaoke guy in the world because I think I'm good. Yeah. I know I'm not. What's your song? Oh, man. You know, it used to be Brandy.

You're a fine girl. But now I've been working on some of the new country stuff, you know, I'm trying to, you know, as I'm getting older, my voice is getting a little raspy. So here and there, I'm trying to get some new material, you know. Did you ever have any karaoke parties for the teams? Oh, God, yeah. Did you make everybody sing? Oh, absolutely. Everybody had to sing.

Jeff Gordon had to sing. Like, anybody knew. Like, we did it right through, you know, when I had the. the Dodge team, like we'd bring it a new person. And if you were a new person at the Christmas party, you had to sing. What was Jeff's song? Oh, gosh. He still sings. Oh, I've heard it.

Yeah. Oh, I've heard it. What we were is that? He took me to this little bar. What is it? The song from the first Top Gun. Oh, my God. You've lost that love and feeling. That's Jeff's go-to.

That is his go-to. All right. So what was your first car? How much did it cost? And where did it go? It was a 1965 Malibu S. with a $396 in it. I paid $900 for it,

and I traded it for a 1956 Chevy drag car. That was kind of, that sounds very similar to how I got my first race car. The Stewart House Racing News, and we are filming now at 2.30 in the day. So this official announcement or whatever's going to come out of the events at Stewart House Racing has not fully come to fruition yet. So we don't have all of the parameters of what's happening over there. But obviously, Kevin is very connected to this organization.

and has a pretty good understanding of what's occurring. You know, I think, and this has been well publicized as far as, you know, some of the things that the reporters have talked about. You know, it seems like all the charters. It seems like three of the charters are going to get sold. I think that the fourth charter is kind of up in the air as to what happens with that fourth charter. It sounds like the Xfinity team could stick around on one side.

But it sounds like front row. Motorsports is going to wind up with one, 2311, trackhouse. Those are all the rumors, right? Like you say, we're 2.30 in the afternoon speculating on what we think we know. But, you know, I think it's just, it's unbelievable to me, really, that we went from forever to forward to for sale in six months. And it's just, I don't even know how you could possibly imagine sitting here today and thinking six months later that Stuart Hoss Racing is going to announce that they're basically folding.

I think that a lot of that really when I went there in 2014, it was a brand new team. We had a lot of enthusiasm from the ownership group to build this team up into what turned into being a championship winning team, won a lot of races. But I had a great group of people. And I think the people around that four car over the last 10 years are really what held that company together. I think that company was held together by the success of the four car, Rodney Childers and that group of people. I think, you know, once that, once that backbone of all that kind of went away, I think, you know, it started poking some holes in just the, you know, what happens at the top side of the upper management and everything that goes with running. a race team, you know, top to bottom. And it's a full-time job. It's a 24-7 job. And I'm not, it's not a knock on owners. Gene and Tony were great to me, but they're kind of hands-off owners

and have people in place to do their jobs. And, and I think at, in today's day and age, you have to have people that are involved with the authority to do what they need to do with the people and the things inside of the company to make it run properly. And, you know, it's, it's tough to see. I mean, there's a lot of people that put a lot of time and effort into that organization. And the organization did a lot for me personally. But I truly believe that with, you know, while we were, while we were exiting and looking back on it and saying, okay, what would you do to Stuart House Racing? I, you know, I think that it wouldn't have been a hard fix because you have a lot of people. It's just structure, organization, and management that could have pushed it forward to

make it right. You were obviously hugely instrumental in the success of the race organization. You were a part of it as well. What are some of the positive memories and things like that that will stay with you because I don't want to completely make the drag this down. But I mean, yeah, no, that that place for a time was the cool guys garage. It was like it was so much fun being there, the people there. And we grew. I mean, when I was there, we were a three car team. and then Kevin got there and we expanded and then we got the F1 team and we expanded up some more

so I was able to see a lot of that the coolest thing about SHR was a lot of those people were there from the Haas racing days. So a lot of those people never won until Tony got there. And then Tony got there and it changed the culture. And then we went through another culture change

when Kevin got there. We won a lot again. And I think we were always like us against everyone else. Like we were getting engines, chassis and a lot of things from Hendrick.

But we always felt like we're better than them. And we always felt like we'd go toe to toe. That was just how our mentality was. We didn't care about anything outside of those walls. And we did that. I think the F1 team had a little bit to do with it because I honestly believe that Gene's more interested

in the F1 team than he is the NASCAR team. And I think a lot of that NASCAR interest depending on you know, Tony and his side, making sure that the performance of the cars was where it needed to be. And I think over the last couple years when the performance of the cars

wasn't what it was, I just don't believe that Gene was having as much fun watching his car struggle. And I think that's why he initiated that partnership with Tony Stewart to get his cars running better because he wanted to have more fun. And it's more fun when you run good, right? Because when Hawth started, they didn't run good.

And they brought Tony Stewart over and it fixed the culture and it fixed the performance. and we, you know, won championships and won races and did all the things that we needed to do. But when that went away and there was no road to making that better for Gene to be attached to something that was winning anymore, I think he, if he's going to lose, I think he'd rather go to the F1 race and lose than he would at the NASCAR race. So what does this mean moving forward? How do you keep everyone motivated for the season at hand? And also now you're going to have a lot of really viable options on the table in the future,

whether it's drivers, crew chiefs, road crew mechanics, pick crew. This is going to be interesting to see how the remainder of this season goes. Well, it's going to be a war for the people, the good people. The good people, it's going to be a war between all the top teams and a contest to see who can get the best people that are within SHR. There are a lot of good people within SHR. And people are hard to come by. Good engineers, good crew chiefs, good management. All those things exist at SHR.

And every team in the garage wants them because they want a proven commodity that they don't. don't have to develop that they can bring into their organization and make an immediate immediate impact. There's a lot of those people that are within SHR still. I think a lot of people are just going to say, screw it. You know, you guys bailed out on me. If I have a contract, sue me. And I think they're going to go start looking for jobs. And I think the ones who don't have contracts are going to go start looking for jobs. I think the, you know, the people who have years left on our contract is saying, hey, you might work on this fourth team that might be left or or not left. We don't really know that at this point at 2.40 in the afternoon.

But or stay and work on the Xfinity team that they may or may not have. But I mean, who's going to want to do that, right? I mean, you're at the point where you've basically folded everything that you have and you want to keep these little pieces because most likely you just can't get rid of them all or you want to keep them for whatever reason. I don't know. But who's going to want to work in that environment? You obviously don't want to be there. And I think for the good people, I think they're going to go on down the road. Yeah.

Tough situation for the remainder of the year. Yeah, it's tough. The good people, there's a lot of light models out there that could use some good hands working on them. But the good people are going to find places to go. Easy. They always do.

There's at least three graduates from Stuart Haas that are Cup crew chiefs right now. One being Cliff Daniels, who is a champion. He was at Stuart Haas, with us. There's a lot of people, so people leave there and go off and have a successful career. So that's not, that's not going to be a question. Where everything ends up, like Kevin was saying, that's going to be it. And I remember when MW I was shutting down. And I remember

the people there and asking them like, how's it going? Like how you, they're like, I mean, it sucks, but like, we're just enjoying it. Like, we love each other as a group and we're just riding this thing out together. And most of us know where we're going next and some of you don't. And everyone just kind of figures it out. That's the way you want it to work out. That's the way you want it to work out. You want it to work out so that everybody says, hey, let's just stick together.

We all have a job. We're going to go do this next. But for the people who are like not included in that little click, and if you don't have the people outside of that click to do all the other things within the organization, like drive the truck or take the show cars or run the sponsorship department or whatever that may be, it becomes hard.

Like that little click sometimes doesn't realize all. the things that it takes around them to make everything go because it takes everything to make those cars go around the racetrack. But it's going to be, it's going to be an uphill battle for SHR after this announcement. And for the drivers in particular, you know, we were just talking about Josh Barry. He's probably known about this for a little while that something like this could be happening. Perhaps these drivers now are even feeling like they're racing for a new job. I mean, there's going to be a lot of team owners watching them with a closer eye knowing that they could be free agent at the end of the year?

Well, they've definitely all had pretty good performance, you know, for the circumstances that they had to be, I mean, they're 100% aware of the circumstances that they're living. We've heard them talk about it. We've heard the drivers talk about the uncertainty and they just need to go do their job. And they've all been doing their job for the most part here and there. Josh Barry's done great the last few weeks. We've seen Noah, you know, do a great job, you know, from the beginning of the year. Chase Briscoe's been up and down.

Ryan Priest has been up and down. So it's a tough environment to work in. And I think for the drivers, it's going to be an interesting silly season for the drivers because of the fact that all this stuff is breaking loose so early. When you go to Bathurst and it's just one of those untraditional places. And like when I watch on TV, I look at it and I say, man, hope they don't go over the wall and wind up down the mountain. But you're talking about going rally car racing and doing all those things.

What's the mystique and the intrigue of racing at a place like that? Because when I watch it here, I mean, it just looks intense in just the way that the track is laid out. It's just like the Daytona 500 here, I guess, the mystique and the buildup around it. We have it three quarters of the way through the season, I guess. So there's a bit of a buildup for it. We have an endurance race called the Sandown 500 first where there's a dual driver race and it sort of starts the anticipation for it. How many weeks? Obviously, it's kind of two or three weeks after.

Two or three weeks. Yeah. But when you get to Bathurst, it's a thousand feet basically, the top to the bottom. It's pretty steep. And it's like what I'm finding here when you go to the ovals, you don't see the banking on TV until you get there. It's like that. When you're up the hill and down, it's amazing how steep and undulating it is. Like walking up, it's pretty hard to walk up.

And then walking down, you're trying not to fall over. Wow. What it does to the car when the wheels come off the ground and it unloads, it's a, it's a it took me two or three years to be fully fast there and then the way the race is it took me a long time to be a factor every year it's it's really hard race to be good at who was your go-to guy in the supercars like who helped you uh not really we don't really sort of do anything over there like there's no coaches or everyone sort of stuck together back then or you stuck to themselves so kind of had to be self-taught and then 2019 i had garth tander he retired and

became my co-driver for the enduroes and he taught me how to win that race. Yeah. Yeah, 2019, we race together and then 2020 and 22 we won it together. Yeah. And I think that's, I think culturally, like when I went to Europe, it was you against everybody in your tent. And it was always, don't tell your teammate too much. You didn't, you didn't cut your teammate any slack.

And it's not like that here. I mean, there are moments where you have to race your teammate, but all the meetings are together. Everything that you do in the STEM is shared. Everything that you have on your data. Everything, everything is more open in Australia and New Zealand. Was it much of the European culture or was it more like what, what you've experienced here? At first it was now, especially at the team I was at the end, AAA, everything was open and the team worked much better together for it and us as drivers. But at the start, you know, it was Stone Brothers. We had sort of three cars and we all sort of did their own thing and you kept a lot within yourself.

But yeah, it doesn't help lift the whole team up together. You've got to beat everyone else before you focus on your own teammates and beating them, I guess. So, yeah, the teamwork factor is really important. Was there a lot of the same style of simulation and things that we have here? Was that not there yet? Not there. And that's blown me away here, especially with no practice, how much they rely on the sim here

and what you see or what you don't see behind the scenes here is whether it's the computer sim or the driving computer sim, it's unbelievable the level of technology here, which is a shame it's kind of hidden. You know, the fan doesn't get to see it. But yeah, it's very, very impressive, the tech here. Yeah, and I think when a lot of people, they watch an F1 race and they're like,

oh my gosh, I can't believe the technology and everything that's happening and they're putting numbers and different things all over the place. And then people like you come in here for the, first time and are blown away by the tech centers that all the manufacturers have, the, the war room that people have that are back watching the race and figuring out everything that's going on. And I tell people that and you'll get a first timer to come over, whether it's a sponsor or somebody to come into the shop and they'll look at the shops and they'll be

like, well, we thought this would be like a four-car garage with a couple of guys working on. Especially when you see an Xfinity car, like the simple four-speed gear box and the way the diff and rare enders, but the science that's into that stuff, which you don't see is, yeah, I've still blown away by it. Yeah. And I think that's probably one of the harder parts for people to get used to when they come over and have all this data available. And I'd be, it's interesting to me to hear your comment to how much you use that data.

Is it something that you want to dive into or do you try to keep it simple? And how do you use it? I'm very data driven. So especially when we're in the cup card. the SMT. I spent hours trying to look at everyone else's stuff, especially when we got to Chicago when there wasn't that much history.

You know, the Toyota's in particular had quite a different style in the first half of the track and I'd catch them back up on the end. So I was trying to get better at the first half and understand. And it's very, I've never been in a series where you can see everyone else's data as well.

Normally you just have yours and your teammates. So, yeah, the way NASCAR does it in Cup, it's very basic. driving data, but you're still getting everyone's is rare. Is there anything that stuck out from one particular guy? No, not too much. Denny got me a lot under brakes. He was very good under brakes, but I was flowing the car a lot better,

which helped me in the last sector through the tricky stuff. But, yeah, I got my braking a bit better for the race day. When it rained and the track was wet, what was the comparison between what you used to race in these cars? what was the difference in how the car felt or how you could use the power, things like that? Yeah, you really felt the weight of the car. So the car's 300 kilos, is that 600 pounds or something heavier than what I race? I'm terrible, Matt.

You're going to have to figure that out for you. I think it's about 600 pounds. But you could really feel the weight of the car. It didn't feel alive at all, felt very dead and slippery on those tires. It was the same for everyone, but the throttle control was ridiculous what you needed. It was pretty tough while it was fully wet. And the shifting part of it? Has that been difficult?

Right hand, left hand. It's been hard now on the H pattern. Yeah, sequential's easy. My rally car was sequential, but yeah, the first at Daytona, the second to third shift going across the gate. I don't think I've ever used that muscle before. So, yeah, shifting with the right hand on the H pattern's been difficult, but the sequential is easy.

So right now the difficult that you have is just shifting the H pattern. Yeah. And how about your neck? Has it been sore yet? I know you didn't do a lot on it, but I bet it was still... Yeah, it was actually Atlanta the first time. I got 15 laps into the race. It was going to hurt if I do this for 180 or whatever the race was.

So I pretty quickly just let it rest on the outside. And now I've patted that up a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I think as I go back to Chicago and a lot was made out of how you drove the car. And you talk about those differences with the style and the things that you did. the noticeable style because you had a camera, was the fact that you used the clutch.

And there's only a couple guys that I've seen in this country that used the clutch. And where did you, is that how you were taught to road race? I know the heel-toe piece of it is pretty common, but the piece with the clutch to control the wheel spin and everything that happens there, that's not something that you see everybody do. So how did that develop? Well, when I first started racing in Formula V,

you needed to hill toe, so the skills started there. But when we get into supercars, we had a solid rear end, locked diff. So you had to run so much rear brake to make the car turn. So you'd always have a lot of rear locking. So under braking, I'd be on the clutch trying to take a bit of rare break away. And it doesn't really do the same thing in these cars because you have the open diff. And I'm not sure what the Xfinity car will be like. But, yeah, I just stuck with right foot braking because it's all I've ever known.

and I hadn't really ever left foot brake until I got in the rally car and now again in the ovals. So yeah, the left foot braking is a new skill to me but I think I'll stick with my right foot for the road courses. But the clutch is just an extra tool to take away rear brake, I guess.

So you can run a bit more rear brake to help the car turn. I would definitely suggest that you don't change anything. Yeah, I think I'll stick with that. On the road courses. The only guy that I've ever seen, Bobby Labani used to drive like you drive a street car. He would go from the gas to the brake

with just his right foot. He would never even, he would use his left foot to actually use the clutch, but he would never use his left foot to actually break. So he would go from the gas pedal over to the brake pedal. So I'm always intrigued by how people learn because it's just not a, it's not a typical skill that you would see somebody develop.

Yeah, I know, a lot of work at it. I saw how crazy everyone went about it here because I hadn't seen it for a while, I guess. But to me, it's just normal. It's all of all of ever know. Well, Marcus used to be super good at it. And Watkins Glen is really where Marcus Ambrose would stick out.

And I tell people all the time, if Marcus had the quality of car that he needed, he'd still be here. Yeah. Because he was just that good. But when we would go to Watkins Glen, there wasn't anybody even close to being able to do the things that he did. And one of the years that he won in the Xfinity car there, the motor was literally hanging in the car. by one bolt. All the motor mounts were broke off of it and still just, just throttling everyone, still just throttle him forward because he had such a different technique. And that didn't really, that didn't really translate to Sonoma at the time because of the how slick the racetrack was.

And it was just a different, different style of racing. But the way, the things that you guys can do under the braking with that technique. Wackens is very similar to Phillip Island in, in Australia. And Ambrose, Marcus just used to kill everyone at Philip Island. His stall just is very good at the flowing tracks. And yeah, he's very impressive. What's the difference between what you did at JGR, what is happening at RCR, and how you can interact with the team and the things that you do with RCR? They're different than JGR because I think you bring a lot to the table.

Yeah, I think both organizations are obviously different. They have their different ways and their different tendencies of things and what they do. I would say what's the difference between me and what I'm doing. Um, you know, when I joined JGR, I was off of three years of being with Hendricks. So seeing Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson and the success that they were having, I was jealous. Like I was only winning once or twice a year. They were winning six to 10 times a year.

And it was like, what am I doing wrong? Why can't I be like those guys right now in my first three years of cup racing? Um, so I kind of took a backseat at JGR and was just kind of like floating around, listening, like doing all that, even though we were successful winning races with all the different crew chiefs that I had over there. We're now moving over to RCR, being in the sport for 20 years, going on 20 years. I feel like I have a good sense of direction of what needs to happen, what should take place, how things could be structured and organized and all of that, also from owning a race team,

right, from having KBM for 12 years that we had that going. So there's a lot of that happening kind of behind the scenes. I would say still, though, at the racetrack, wanting to be that same guy, wanting to go out there and win and compete and do it at the best of my ability and the best of the team's ability. And fortunately, we were able to win three races at RCR in my first year, which was great. Definitely cooled off towards the end of the year. So we want to fix that and not let that happen again. So I've changed teams and I've been a part of new things and I know that everybody gets excited

about that change when they go into a team and you have all this enthusiasm and emotion. And sometimes it's hard to carry that through the year. So you won a few races at the beginning of last year. like you said, kind of tapered off at the end. Do you think that was something that you guys just didn't keep up with the progression? What do you need to do to keep that first six months into the, into the last part of the season? Yeah, good question.

You know, joining RCR, I was excited about it because of the new car and the success that they had with Reddick the year before. They had won races. And so we kind of carried into that and we were able to be fast right out of the gate winning at Fontana. Talladega, we won, right? But it's Talladega. Yeah.

And then we obviously were really good. at a gateway, we were able to win there as well. So to me, why did we cool off? I think a little bit was just, I think the rest of the teams kind of caught up. I think there were some things that we were doing behind the scenes that NASCAR got onto. Typical. Yeah. You know, hey, don't bring that back or, hey, we don't like what you're doing there.

We're going to keep an eye on that. And so just stuff like that. So we kind of lost in that. And we didn't really find any other advantages that we could re-step up, if you will. But that's no excuse. I mean, there were some good runs that we had late in the year. Michigan, we were really fast. I crashed under Blaney.

And then Texas, we were really fast. We drove up towards the front of the field on that one. And then I spun out getting into one on my own, you know. So just dumb stuff happening that kind of took us out with some pretty good cars. Has Richard put his arm around you yet and said, take what this car I'll give you? No, but I've said it enough on my own that I know. So he must not have put his arm around me because he hears me saying it. So he knows I know.

but it's yes i i can see that as a moment in which could come but i think richard has enough respect for me that i've been here for so long been successful in what i've done that i don't know if he's just letting me learn on my own which you would think i don't need to learn anymore but with these new cars are just different i i think i think one thing for me that was always intriguing about RCR and the times that I was there and the things that I loved about RCR were how involved Richard actually lets you get in everything. And I always thought that, and I still tell people today, Richard is the best teacher that you could possibly have in NASCAR because

he teaches you about relationships. He has the, he can pick up the phone and call anybody in the sport. He doesn't want to overspin. He doesn't want to crash, but he will allow you to crash if you're going to win. And he is going to fight for you to the very end. as his driver. So, well, I remember those years in being in the 18 car and us racing against each other and things like that. And years where you weren't the best team or the best car or whatever or won a lot of races,

but you were there at the end all the time, you know, finishing. That's him. Finishing seven, finishing 12, just finishing, you know. And so my MO is kill all the time. Yeah. Go win, win, win, you know, and settling for a 10th or 11th or whatever is just not my my MO and it's hard for me to take that step back. What is your take on, you said you want to Taladega.

I know the Speedway races are places that you've won in the past. And as we go into the Daytona 500 and you saw the preparation that Richard and RCR put into the Daytona 500. For me, it was always something that was way over the top for one particular race. But the Speedway races in general, you talk about when in a Talladega. And I think as you as you've gone through your first year at RCR, did, did you see that extra preparation still at RCR for the Super Speedway races? Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Last year, yeah, there was a big push on the Speedway cars, obviously, and being good.

And you want to go down there and you want to qualify well, you know, but qualifying, we know, doesn't really matter unless you're on the front row. But there was still the, you know, we were in the wind tunnel. We had a wind tunnel test. That's all. limited this day and age, but we did take one of our wind tunnel tests for the Daytona car and we ran it through and just the fluff and buff and everything that was going into that car. And that car was good. Like it was fast. That first car that I had and then I got crashed in the duel. Oh yeah. And got set back, you know, to the backup car. So they, there's a reason why there's a primary car and a backup car, right? Yeah. And so the backup wasn't quite as good, but it was still good. And we almost won. We

We actually did win Mile Marker 500, but it was under yellow. So, yeah, just a lot of preparation and everything goes into the Daytona 500. I would imagine from every team, but with Richard and what that means for him and team Chevy and everybody there, they put a lot to it. So when you look at the Daytona 500 and you see the way that you have to race with this particular car, it's a different style of racing. A lot of a lot of two lane bumping and shoving. and what do you think about all the team racing? I call it team racing with the manufacturer. Manufacture racing.

Yeah, and you mentioned it with with Toyota. Obviously, that started several years ago with probably more with Ford than it did with anybody else. Toyota had a small amount of cars. So, I mean, when do you pull that trigger now, being through what you've been through and knowing that you have to put yourself in that last stop? There is a lot of pressure from the manufacturers. What do you think about? Yeah.

Well, I mean, you go into these pre-race meetings and you hear about helping each other and taking care of each other and trying to leave a gap and let the guy in if he's hung out to dry or whatever, all this stuff, you know. But when it comes down to the end, like the question of JGR was always like, okay, when are we allowed to just race it out? Right. And was it 10 ago? Was it five to go? Was it on the final restart? Well, how do you know when the final restart is? So there was just so many unknowns or misconceptions of the rule that we had there.

But last year, I give credit where credits do with Austin. And I mean, he was wingman the whole way through, through and through. He was going to be wingman, you know. So he was doing everything and anything possible to make sure that the A car was out front leading the race. And we were in a prime position to be able to win that thing and finish one, two. And they just, you know, caution come out. It just didn't happen. I think we were 200 yards from the start finish line and taking the white flag and just didn't happen.

So close. When you went to RCR, I think through the years there's been a lot of talk of, oh, everybody hates Kyle. Nobody likes this. Nobody likes that. They don't like this. And then you go to RCR. And that, that seems to change a little bit, I think, from the, from the fan side. I think as you've matured and things have changed and gone through your career and been so successful. But does it feel different now that you're at RCR compared to when you're at Gibbs? Yes. Yes, it does feel different for sure. I would say that there was probably more pressure put on myself from the fact of, okay, I'm at JGR. So one of the top tier teams of our sport,

arguably the best. And so there's that pressure to go out there and win and do well and execute and do everything that you need to do. And so when you don't do those things or you do finish second, it's like you're giving away missed opportunities of scoring wins because you should win, you know? And that changed a little bit going to RCR because, you know, being with the racers, racer at RCR, all those guys that are there, everybody that works there from top to bottom, you know, they love racing, they want to go race and they want to win. And I do too. But I feel like we're not really expected to be the dominant force in the series. And so on those days where I run six or I run second, it's a little bit more acceptable maybe because I'm not putting as much pressure on myself that I have to win and prove that that stuff is. is the best stuff, you know. So taking those, those wins when they come is more special. You know, I feel like Fontana, for instance, I was like, damn, man, we just beat all these guys in my second race out. We're going to win 10 times this year, you know? So, but it put me right back

in that frame of mind of like anywhere you go, you can get the job done. It's just the nature of everybody around you and pulling the weight the same way. I think when you go back and, you know, ask Richard and everything, you know, Dale and Richard really trying to help Dave. You know, Dave did a lot of testing, you know, for RCR and especially in a three car. I'm pretty sure he tested a lot for Dale, but I know he tested the Daytona 500, 88, or 1998 car. Really? Yeah. Dave Marcus.

Dave Marcus tested. I think Mike Dillon and Dave. No kidding. Yeah. Well, we tested all the time for sure. Yeah. And so that sounds pretty much part for the course because in 2000, I started doing. the testing for Dale.

And we, because Dale would never, if it wasn't Indy or it wasn't the Daytona test before the 500, he was not going to test. And at that particular time, you couldn't. Yeah. There was no limit. Like you just went to the racetrack. So we lived at Talladega and Daytona testing. Yeah.

And that kind of branched off in 2000 over into doing the testing with General Motors. They were trying to develop a new shock system and new suspension. and everything that we had going on. So really during 2000, we did all the testing. And the first, we would spend like, we would spend like two or three days a week at Kentucky doing the downforce testing. So we took that car that we were testing

and they actually took my seat out of it. It was actually one of Dale's cars. And so we took the seat out of it, put his seat back in it, and they took it to Indianapolis. They got it to Indy and they unloaded both cars and Dale gets there and he goes out in his car and makes a run and they said, okay, now get in this car and goes out and runs nine-tenths

of a second faster than he did in his car. So we've been working on this stuff for months and months and months and comes back in and they said, wow, that was a lot better. And he said, well, what's in this car? At that point, you know, like Dale and Rusty and all those guys, they were very into the springs and the shocks and everything that was happening on their cars. So they had this kind of common mindset of, well, it needs a 800 pound spring, a 900 pound spring, 250, whatever that was at that particular time. Well, this car was nothing like that.

It was really the kind of the next generation of springs and shocks and suspension in the way that it was. And they told him, they said, well, it's got three, 500 pounds springs and a 200 pound spring in the back. And by the time they got done, he said, you load this motherfucker in the truck. and don't ever don't ever bring it back to the racetrack again because I am not driving anything that has those springs and those shocks in there and he wouldn't drive it.

He would not drive it after that particular run. So they put it back in the truck and he never drove it and we won a ton of races that year. Well, we continued to develop his car and the suspension and that suspension package and we took it all the way to the end of the year. Well, at the end of the year, we went to Homestead

and we were the fastest car there. Well, it was towards the end of the year. And he was at a point of saying, hey, might be time, might not be time, didn't really know when he was going to retire. So we were the fastest car at home set. And at that time, they covered, the media covered the test. So we came into the garage at Phoenix that next weekend. And his first questions, he was just getting hammered with, are you retiring? Why is Harvick tests in your car?

Your whole team's there with him because I would take Kevin Hamlin. And all of us would go together. So I go walking through the cup garage because I knew that a lot of the stuff was starting to cycle in and we had kind of started just being able to joke around and kid around. Well, he was not kidding around on this particular day after his media session. He was mad. He rounded up myself, Richard, Kevin Hamlin. And I am that particular day, Dale Jr. just accidentally walked into the trailer at the wrong time.

And he ripped our butts that day for going and testing. and he needed to be at these tests and he didn't need to be answering these questions and this and that. So he came back in and he practiced good, went out and qualified, ran over the apron and I went back in the trailer just trying to be a smart ass. I went back in the trailer and he ran over the apron

and qualified and kind of screwed the lap up. And I said, hey man, if you need a pillow to see over that steering wheel, just let me know. And that was probably probably not the right, probably not the right thing to say. He didn't react. Yeah, he did. At that point, I was still pretty young.

And, you know, it's that generational thing, right? You know, it's a different, you're joking around, but he doesn't think it's respectful to joke around. And so he would get a little bit offended in some of those situations. But we were having fun. We were young and didn't care.