Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Pit Stop: Kevin Harvick on Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski post-race brawl & more Texas Motor Speedway memories

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Join NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick as he’s joined by friends and analysts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith on the latest episode of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” presented by NASCAR on FOX as Kevin recalls his role in Jeff Gordon’s post-race brawl with Brad Keselowski in 2015 and other Texas Motor Speedway memories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I have been waiting a lot of years to ask you about 2014 when you decided to push Brad Kizowski. I think it was 15, wasn't it? Was it 15? I think it was 15. This is the wrong date on my paper. I don't know the exact year. I think it was 15. He says it, Tyler, our producer, is saying it was 14.

I know you love to correct me on here, but I'm just. I'm going to say it was 15. I think it was 15 because I think it was 15. Because here's the deal. So in 15, I just felt like we had a lot of things go wrong. everybody was talking about everything that we were doing wrong. And we needed to change the direction of the conversation. Now, was this the right thing to do?

I don't know. But when we got done, when we got done, the conversation was not about me anymore. It was really about this chaos that we decided. But definitely when we talk about those not so proud moments, this is definitely one of those moments where you're like. This is at the top of the list? Yeah, this is pretty close to the top of the list. But it was epic. What do you mean?

I'm so glad he did. It's hilarious. Let's set the stage a little bit because... Yes. So what we're watching is the brawl that started the Harvicking. And basically, Brad Keselowski went down into turn 1 on a late-laced restart, shove Gordon out. I think going gets a flat tire.

At this point, Jeff is, this is his retirement year. He wants to, he's trying to get into the championship round. That's right. And Brad makes a dive-bomb move. And now they're on pit road. and they're talking and Jeff is hotter than a match and Kevin just gives a little boop. Yeah, well, it's one of those things

and we've talked on here a lot about there's more to it than just driving the car and sometimes you have to try to do different things to redirect the conversation or put somebody in the fire that's not in the fire that you're competing against. And this was a very calculated moment. This was premeditated?

I thought that we could capitalize on this. this to really turn the story on somebody else, but it was just, it didn't, it just didn't look good, but that's the way it worked out. It looked awesome. I thought it looked awesome. It turned out. I mean, it was awesome to watch. It's not awesome to start, right? So how premeditated? I mean, it had been a few minutes. I mean, I was leaning on the decklet of the back of the car, watching everything go down. Yeah, I remember you were like very sly. I was like, oh, man, get in there. Get in there. And next thing you know, there's a massive fight. on pit road.

You're like, whoopsie. They weren't talking about me anymore. So that was one of those calculations that I should have recalculate. I would recalculate today and not advise you to be the one that does that. But it wound up changing the direction of the conversation. We went all the way to the championship four that year and put ourselves in position to win a championship. And I believe that was the year that Kyle Bush came back and beat us after broke his leg. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. So it was actually a smart decision. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Smart, but it worked out. Did you see Jeff Gordon just full on, like, bull rushing the big guy? Like, I don't know how little Jeff Gordon is able to get through this man.

It looks like he's 285 pounds and get a hand. It was a balance thing. But we've had some big moments at Texas. We sure have. That was a big moment with the brawl and everything that had happened. But for me, when I won my truck, truck race there. Everything comes with a story. When I won the truck race there, I don't remember what year it was, but it was the only time I ever won there. But Ron Hornaday was racing for the

Truck Series championship against, I don't remember who else, but we also race Kyle Bush for the owner's championship every year. And Kyle, every time that we got on a racetrack, it was everything that you could do. If Kyle was winning truck races, I'd start running more truck races because I didn't like Kyle winning truck races. So we'd go out and start winning truck races and get our trucks back up to where it go. And then we'd start, beat Kyle, Kyle would go out and start running more truck races and he'd get his trucks back to, and it just, so it was this constant back and forth. It was the year Kyle got suspended for the cup race because he wrecked Hornaday under the caution.

So he wrecks Hornaday under the caution. I'm leading the race in the trucks and wound up winning the race. Well, on the radio, I was livid because Hornaday was going to win the championship that year. So it basically cost us a championship, and I was mad. And I said on the radio, I said, if somebody doesn't go over there and kick his ass right now, I said, I am going to be completely disappointed in everything, everybody that is in that pit. Well, I got mother function.

Josh is going after Kyle Bush, and he is on his way to the garage and goes up into Kyle Busch's trailer and the NASCAR official pulls him, pulls him back. So pulls him out of the trailer, takes his hard card, puts him in the lounge of the trailer. Oh, boy. So I win the race, and I'm just fuming, just waiting to get out of the truck. I get to, I pull into Victory Lane. And the first person that is at my window is NASCAR security.

Mike from, remember Mike from NASCAR security? So he, he is the first one to my window, takes the window net down, leans in my car. And he said, do not get out of this truck and make a scene. We have everything handled. And when you're done, you need to come to the NASCAR hauler. You're really getting scolded. I was like, okay.

So at that point, they had. I had already decided, I guess, to suspend Kyle. Yeah. And everything was handled that point. But I didn't know my guy was sitting in the NASCAR lounge. I had to go retrieve Josh because he had tried to beat up Kyle Bush. He's like, I was just doing what I was told to do. So.

What a good friend. Yeah, he is a good friend. Happy belated birthday at old Joshua Daniel Jones, by the way. That's a funny story. That is great. I don't think we can talk about Texas without tipping the captain Greg Biffle, who is an animal. Was just an animal at Texas?

That was like his spot. And he comes back off the couch a couple years ago And races the truck race for Kyle Bush And dominates him And I'm like, dude, like, I'm sorry, what? Like, you were just, you haven't raced in like two years And he spanked him. And then it's like, I'm good again.

Very unique track, though. I was going to say, what are the keys to it? You got a really flat corner. They changed turns one and two. It's really wide and really flat. They're going to put the PJ1 down in the third groove like they normally have. turns three and four there, super banked, super bumpy.

They've ground the bump a little bit in three and four, but it's still pretty bumpy. So the way that you drive it is just completely different from one end to the other. Turn one is just one of those corners where you just have to get the thing in there. It's unsettled because the racetrack is flat. With the cup cars, it's a really tricky balance in the heights of the car because you want the car to be as low as possible in one and two to gain as much grip as possible. being low to the ground. And in three and four, the car wants to hit the ground because it's got so much more load than turn one and two. And so you have to balance keeping it off the stops and keeping it off the ground to keep it as low as possible in turns one and two.

But cars want to get really tight in the middle of one and two there. The way that the wind blows always blows pretty good there towards the exit of turn two. So you never know what you're going to get there. But really difficult track to make your car handle good. Any similarities to other mile and a half, like Vegas? Three and four has some similarities to a typical mile and a half racetrack. But one and two is just really weird. It's a very flat corner.

And when they widen the corner, when you go to the entry of the corner, it's really hard to look out the left side of the car and be able to see the apex of the corner. Like, it's so far down there that you can't see it. So you just have to go in the corner and just keep turning until you find the apex of the corner because it's so far down there and you're so far out next. to the wall. A lot of times you won't even go all the way out next to the wall unless you're running that second line. Yeah, this place is treacherous, especially one and two. I think we'll see a lot

of arrow games being played. We shot at the end of last year. Like, that's how the five wrecked going for the win against Bubba. That's kind of how Bubba ended up losing that race, too, is just getting someone on your door and then they kind of suck you around. And then people are mad because they're like, you put it on my door. And it's like, well, it's kind of a little bit of defense. That second groove, that second lane up there gains more grip as you go through the day. And that PJ1 gets run in and it becomes the dominant groove. But you got to be able to, you got to be able to cut to the bottom and pass people if you're going to have one of the cars that is going to win the race.

But track position will be important. So you've been reflecting on some of the wins you've had there. There's been some strange things that have happened to you at this track as well. I think of the parachuter who damaged your car before the race. This was 2012. What do you remember about this whole thing? Well, I remember going to driver intros and then I get to my car and there's no car. And I'm like, where's my car?

Where's my car? That guy's sandbag on the bottom of his flag just completely demolished the left side of my car. So they had to go weld the door back on my car before the race. So my car was in the garage getting repaired. They actually delayed the start of the race so that we could fix our car because it was just one of those circumstances. that was unforeseen. Very strange. Yeah.

And that was also the place that I got the $100 bill. Oh, the $100 bill story. That's right. Yeah, so that's the track that I had $100 bill get stuck on the front of my car and came into the pits and it was still attached to the grill. There you go. I mean, we talk about error all the time and where that bag hit on the left side, like, there was no, like, oh, it'll be fine. Coming back from that. No, no, no.

Like, you had to go fix it immediately. Well, the door was broken. So the phone was hanging out. The door was actually detached. Those doors had a seam right in the middle of them and at the top. And it was actually just laid open. That was bigger than that. It was pretty good.

Got to watch out for this. It's a windy place. It's a windy place. Coming in hot. Let's fast forward to 2018 when you took a selfie and gave the checkered flag to a young fan. This was so cool. The kid looks stunned, I might add. I'm probably just like, what is happening to me?

Yeah, what made you do this? I'm not sure. you know, it's kind of like that fight. I'm not sure what was the final deciding factor, but it was just... It was fun to be able to just do something different and hold the kid out of the grandstand and was able to give him the flag and take a picture.

And we... I don't know. It's just one of those sporadic, spur-of-the-moment things that you just do something different. So always fun to be able to do stuff like that. I love the kids, nothing against the adults, but the kids are way more fun to... interact with and sign autographs for.

I love the adults too, but the kids in that situation, that's something that keep that kid as a race fan for his whole life. I was going to say he will probably remember that for the rest of his life. Of course, for the kids.