Kevin Harvick Taladega Press Conf 4/19

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
AARON¹S 499
ROUND 9 OF 36
2002 NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

Following is a transcript of a press conference held this morning in the
Talladega Superspeedway media center with Kevin Harvick, driver of the No.
29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

KEVIN HARVICK:
"Well, I think the first thing we need to do is go through the situation and
clear up how everything happened and broke down.  We¹re not going to go into
100 detailed questions.  I heard a lot of speculation on things this week
coming over the radio saying we¹re going to wreck somebody.  That never
happened.  I pulled up alongside Coy Gibbs to see if we could go by,
motioned, and that was it.  And he came across the radio and said we¹re
wrecking him.  So that got all blown out of the water and that¹s enough said
about that.  I talked to a lot of people this week in our sport and a lot of
people that have been here for a long time and I learned a lot of things
this week about myself, who my friends are, and who my supporters are and
who the people who don¹t support me are.  Obviously, RCR got drug into the
middle of something they really didn¹t need to be drug in and still got 230
people that support me and are standing behind me 100 percent.  From the
sponsors -- GM Goodwrench has been great to us; they¹re behind us.
EverybodyŒs behind us and I appreciate that and I think if somebody could
have been put in my shoes and you¹re sitting there Sunday night wondering
man what the hell¹s going to happen here and you go onto your website or the
phone starts ringing, just a lot of support from a lot of different people.
I appreciate all that.  The fans have been behind us through thick and thin
and we appreciate that.  I need to thank Kenny Wallace for helping us
through a sticky situation and putting him in a bad situation.  A lot of the
people that I talked to get to a crossroads in their career and most of the
best drivers and best people in our sport had to cross something that takes
them on a path you could go either right or left. You come to a fork in the
road and you can either sit back and listen and try to understand how our
sport works better or you can become stubborn-headed and not accept
anything.  I learned a lot this week.  It sucks sitting at home watching a
race on television that I knew that I was supposed to be a part of, knowing
that we were supposed to have a racecar that could have won the race from
happy hour the day before.  That makes you think about a lot of things, and
makes you realize a lot of things. The most important thing I learned
through the whole situation is about myself and the people around me.
There¹s a lot of people that say a lot of different things and some of them
are saying them just to be saying them and some of them don¹t understand the
situation and there¹s a lot of people around me that understand the
situation.  I think the best conversation I had this week was with Rusty
Wallace.  And that helped me understand a lot of different things.  He¹d
been through al lot of the most of the situations that IŒm going through and
we¹re ready to race."

"I learned a lot about myself.  If I could explain it to you, I would.
There¹s a lot of different situations.  This is not something that affected
myself and Richard.  This is something that affected myself, and Richard, my
wife, and my fans and sponsors and there¹s so many veins that start to bleed
out from this situation that there¹s a lot of different aspects of the sport
that I didn¹t even know I affected.  This has helped me understand and know
where people are coming.  There¹s a lot of conversations that I wouldn¹t
have had if this didn¹t¹ happen.  I¹m not saying that this is a good
situation, but I have learned a lot from it."

WILL IT CHANGE THE WAY YOU APPROACH RACING FROM THIS POINT ON?     "That¹s
one thing I have learned through this is I¹ve got the same critics that I
had when I was not saying anything, not doing anything, winning races.  I
had the same critics.  When we get through all this I¹ll have the same
critics that I had before.  And that¹s just how it¹s going to be and you
just have to accept it.  I think I¹ve also learned that I don¹t need to read
a lot of the stuff that you guys write because some of it pisses me off and
some of it makes me mad, but that¹s your guys¹ job and I respect that, just
like you guys to have respectŠ. .I like to race the race car.  I don¹t care
if it¹s a late model, I don¹t care if it¹s a street stock.  I¹m going to go
out and race the car as hard as I¹m going to race it and I don¹t know what
I¹m in.  I just want to win the race and a lot of times that doesn¹t work
anymore.  This is Winston Cup racing and you have to step back and take a
few deep breaths and realize what we¹re in and how important it is to a lot
of people."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTAND OF HOW NASCAR WORKS?  "The
most important lesson learned here is I wasn¹t seeing down the path they
were looking down.  And that is somethingŠ that¹s a road that I have to be
able to see down in order to succeed in this sport.  We can win races, we
can do a lot of things but unless I can walk up into that trailer, sit down
in that office and have a normal, decent conversation with them, then I¹m
not going to get anywhere.  And I think that lesson in understanding where
NASCAR is coming from and understanding the things that they do is probably
one of the top most important things that I¹ve taken from the whole
situation."

DO YOU THINK YOU WERE WRONG WITH ANYTHING YOU DID ON THE TRACK OR AFTER THE
RACE LAST WEEK AND DO YOU THINK YOU DID ANYTHING YOU NEED TO APOLOGIZE TO
NASCAR FOR OR ABOUT?  "I don¹t really think that NASCAR wants an apology for
anything.  Three¹s a lot of different ways you can look at it.  If the 20
truck wouldn¹t have spun me earlier and we got together in that certain
situation would it have been an issue?  I don¹t know.  Parking in back of
the trailer probably wasn¹t the most intelligent thing to do, but if you
look like right across the pit lane there was my pit.  So, I mean there¹s no
excuses in the situation, they¹re just circumstances that happened.
Saturday probably wasn¹t the circumstance that broke the straw on the
camelŒs back, but I don¹t think that anybody expects or needs an apology.
We¹ve all been through a lot of things.  You¹ve been through a lot of things
in your life.  You¹ve come to a certain instance and said man, I don¹t
really know what to do here, or how to react or learn something, but the
biggest thing is we learn from the situation and it¹s not something that
there¹s a lot of different situations that we take in and compile and have
to take forward with us and really understand."

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO REGAIN THE DRIVERS¹ RESPECT?  "I was hoping
somebody would ask this question.  The top echelon of this sport has been
the most supportive group, whether they come out and said it to you guys,
but personally they have been there for me for advice, for things that have
gone on, and most of them have been through the same situation.  The ones
that are voicing their opinion don¹t really hold that much stake in their
voice for me to take in for credibility.  The people that voice their
opinion and came to my telephone, or came to my motor home or came for
support are the ones that I need to listen to.  The ones that have been
champions in our sport, the ones that have won races in our sport.  Most of
them that are voicing their opinion  are not worth wasting my time over."

ARE YOU CONCERED ABOUT OTHER DRIVERS WHO MIGHT HOLD A GRUDGE AGAINST YOU?
"I think there¹s been a plateau set here.  There¹s not going to be people
that go out there and wreck somebody because there¹s obviously circumstances
to pay.  I think the point here is there¹s a consistent bar set here and I¹m
just here to race."

"We¹re here to race and win races and that¹s what we¹re going to do."

HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE TO KEEP YOUR EMOTIONS IN CHECK BECAUSE THAT¹S NOT
SOMETHING YOU CAN TURN ON AND OFF IN THE HEAT OF THE BATTLE?  "You just do
the best you can and go on with it."

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED AS TO HOW THE SEASON IS GOING?  "I think that¹s another
great thing that has come from this situation.  Like I said, it¹s not a
great situation by any means but our race team sat down and had a lot of
time to talk to each other, understand each other, and that¹s something that
we¹d never really done before, without having a huge team meeting underŠ
that Richard called or Bobby Hutchinson called and that was something that
we¹re all on the same page, we all understand where each other are coming
from, we all understand how each other are feeling and we¹re a race team
now.  I feel a lot of the same things that I felt in the Busch team last
year.  There¹s people expressing their feelings to me. I¹m expressing my
feelings to them.  When we get done we¹re all on the same page.  And that¹s
good."



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