Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Pit Stop: Kevin Harvick reacts to Tyler Reddick’s apology to Chris Buescher, ‘It’s just pathetic.’

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick is 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 reacts to Tyler Reddick apologizing to Chris Buescher in his post-race interview at Darlington. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I ask people all the time, I say, who's your new favorite driver? Well, you know, none of these guys have personality. Well, guess what? You've seen a lot of personality out of several of them over the last several months. Yeah. These guys are, there's a lot of personality out there with these drivers. And there's a lot of fire and grit that goes behind it. Yeah, they're more polished than some of us probably were when we started. But they start that way now.

Like, the difference in the culture is you just know more about how to act, what to say. when to say it. But you get into two weeks of getting your, you know, walking away with your tail between your legs. So because you've lost, you know, it's, it's, it's not fun. And eventually it shows through just like it did with, with Bush. Well, you just said is exactly why it reminds me of Ryan Sieg and Sam Mayer at Texas. Like, and Ryan didn't squeeze him in the fence.

Yeah. Right. It's way too hard to win races to not, I think. If it's me, I'd have a hard time not to. I respect Ryan Seek for not doing that. But it's way too hard to win races at this level. Like, I'm doing all I got to do. And I said that going to the green flag for the last green flag,

Clint said something on it. He said, what do you think? I said, it's time for Brad Kozlowski to get dirty. I mean, he's got to get dirty right here if he has to. If he can't make the pass, if he has the opportunity, he has to race dirty. And, yeah, I've raced dirty. And you know what?

A lot of the other guys have race dirty. and some of them need to race dirtier. They need to get more aggressive and they need to throw caution to the wind and just if you wreck, you wreck, and you suffer the consequences later. But I just felt like Brad was in position to win the race and he did, I mean, he tried to do what he had to do.

He put Reddick in the fence and squeezed him in the fence and whether he got tight or not, you know, it was just one of those situations where you had to try to make it happen. Yeah. It didn't work out in that moment. And then Reddick said, this is my opportunity. He's not expecting me to do this right now. I'm going to do it.

Busher did the same thing. He throttled back up, blocked the slide job, and they both wrecked. So, you know, sometimes you just got to, you got to play a little dirtier than you wouldn't have their scenarios. What do they say eight tires are better than four sometimes? That's definitely that situation. Eight tires were better than four until they both only had six. That's the math equation. As anyone's wondering. Tyler Reddick did take ownership for the, situation, though, after the race when he was interviewed. Do you think this carries over between these two drivers? This is a one and done situation here? I don't know, but I hated that interview.

No, you did. I did. Why did you need it? I just, I don't like when these guys go down the road of apologizing so much that it's just pathetic. And I, I, honestly, that's how I feel. And I just, I understand that I just wish they would apologize and just say I had to do what I had to do to try to win the race. It didn't work out. I'm sorry. And I, I just, I understand that. I just wish they would, I apologize for doing that. If I had to do it again, I wish we'd have both continued. But don't over-apologize, please.

Please do not over-apologize. Yeah, no, I was watching the end of this with some people that said the same thing. And it's like, Tyler, that's always been Tyler. Like when they're- Over-apologize off the camera. I mean, right, when he wins, he's one of the most elated winners that you see.

When he loses, he takes it all on himself. And to your point, I wish he wouldn't do that so much in those situations because it's fine, Tyler, it's fine. Yeah. Right? You're racing for a win. It's not your job to make sure that the 17 has a fair shot at.

It's your job to win for the 45 and 2311, and that's okay. And I love the fact that he shot that thing in there trying to, you know, make that a slide job happen. Like, I love the way that Tyler Redick drives. I just, and I'm not, I don't want to be overcritical, but I just, I wish he would not worry about some of them, not just Tyler, but some of them would just not worry about apologizing so much that it seems overdone. Hey, I didn't want that to happen. I'm sorry. I hate it for Chris. And just move on. But just don't, don't, don't, don't sink us in his sympathy train.

Did you consciously think of that when you were in those situations where you're like, I may apologize, but I'm not groveling at all? I think you, I think you have to apologize, but you don't have to, you don't, you don't want to, I never wanted to overdo it because I think it, you know, I didn't it to end that way, but I did want to make that move. And I'm not going to apologize for trying to make a move that is spectacular. And it would have been a spectacular move, right? It just didn't work out. You apologize for the result. For being a dynamic, spectacular driver. Right. And I just, you know, I don't know. That's just how I felt about it when I heard it. No, I think a lot of people Like Kevin's coaching tips over there.

I love it when Uncle over here gets game. I know. When he's just like, give a free game to everybody. Because that's what you want. You want guys to go for it. And if you're going to be that guy to go for it in the car, when you get out, just own it. Just own it.

Be like, I didn't want to wreck him. I was going for the win. Everyone understands that. And if I'm Tyler Reddick's crew chief for team owner, I'm pulling him in there today. And I'm saying, look, man, I don't want you to think twice about any of this. Do the exact same thing again. I want you to be that guy. I bet money.

that he had a text from Mr. Michael Jordan after being like, you're my guy, this is why you're driving my car. Because Michael's a guy, he does, obviously, we've seen so much MJ clips and everything. He doesn't care. He just wants to win. Right. And I just don't, I hope he doesn't overthink it and overanalyze it. And I would assume that he would talk to, you know, Bushar again.

But that's the way I would do it. It just do it so nobody knows. Also, I thought for a minute, Busher was just going to jank him up. I did too. I'm like, I'm like, pick him up. Pick him up, do it. What's about to go down? It was cool.

So we've been pretty critical of Ford on this show throughout the course of the year. So now we finally, I guess we're very well justified. Who's we? Who's we? Well, we're a team. All right. We go down this road together.