NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Shelby American at Las Vegas

Topics:  Shelby American at Las Vegas

Kevin Harvick
February 28, 2010

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined pie today's second-place finisher, Kevin Harvick. Kevin, tell us about your run.
KEVIN HARVICK: It was a good day. For us, I put us behind on Friday when I smacked the wall there in practice. The guys did a great job fixing the car. We just got behind from that point and were able to make up ground today. That to me is the most promising thing we've been able to do the last two weeks, is go to the back and come to the front.
It was tough to pass today. We were able to get the track position that we needed at the end of the race. Just came up one spot short.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Some days do you feel like 'best in class'?
KEVIN HARVICK: Well, you know, I feel like the beginning of the run they got out from us. I felt like at the end of the run we were just as good as they were. It's just a matter of we got a little bit looser than we had been all day long the last two runs.
We can run with them and they know it.

Q. Kevin, you took two tires on the last stop. Were you surprised that Gordon did? They seemed to have the field covered. Jimmie took four. It appeared that was the difference in the end. Were you surprised by that?
KEVIN HARVICK: I don't remember if the last caution was the caution where they had all the lap cars in between. But, you know, I think, yeah, it all just depends on how your car is handling. The balance of our car didn't change when we put two tires on it or no tires on it. Our car was fairly consistent all day. I don't know exactly what they were fighting.
Sometimes if you're a little bit loose you put two tires on and the thing will tighten up a little bit. I don't know what the characteristics of his car were at that point.

Q. If you had a better starting position, better Friday, do you think you could have given the 48 a run for his money?
KEVIN HARVICK: I mean, we had the opportunity there at the end and just kind of got -- we were fifth or sixth there on the restart, kind of lost the same distance that we were behind at the end of the race.
You know, having a better Friday would have been very beneficial for us to keep our track position where we needed it to be there at the end. If we had been second or third, I think we could have run with him.
Do I think we could have beat him? I don't know. But I think we would have at least had a shot.

Q. Can you have any idea what was going on when the caution lights malfunction? Did your team explain what was going on?
KEVIN HARVICK: I saw it come out the first time. Nobody said anything. Nobody was slowing down. Well, we'll just keep going till somebody tells me to slow down. Second one they came on, spotter didn't see the flag come out of the flag stand. The flagman turned backwards, What's going on? We knew they were having some issues. You just had to run a little bit longer than you would normally when you think you see the caution lights until the spotter said something. We were very dependent upon him today.
THE MODERATOR: Kevin, thank you and congratulations.