KEVIN HARVICK, No. 5 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang — HOW WAS YOUR DAY TODAY? “The racetrack was fun. I didn’t do a good job. I got bounced around on that last restart, so I had to bounce my way back up through there and just got too far behind, so I took a second-place car and finished fourth with it, but these guys put in a lot of extra work on our Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang to come and get all those laps and it’ll pay off. Whether it’s wet or dry I feel way more comfortable than when we started.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY? “A lot of passing zones and how the track changes from fall off and how you race and where you pass, a lot of wet. That’s the first time I’ve ever driven down a straightaway in a cloud of water this morning, so it was very interesting. I learned a lot of different things today.”
DID YOU GET OUT OF TODAY WHAT YOU WANTED? “Oh, yeah. I got more than I wanted this morning with practice and qualifying — wet and dry and kind of wet, passing, restarts — just a lot of different situations. The first time I step foot in it was yesterday on the racetrack, so just have to thank everybody from Stewart-Haas and all of B.J. McLeod’s guys for helping us put all this together so that I could go out and be a 45-year-old rookie.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE VIBE HERE AND AROUND THE CITY? “Anytime we have something new it’s great for our sport, and I think coming to a place like this that is high-end, top-notch just puts us on a pedestal to show what we want to be and who we are.”
IF THE RACE IS WET TOMORROW WILL THIS STILL HAVE BEEN WORTH IT? “It doesn’t matter now. I practiced in the wet, qualified in the wet, so we’ll just go out there and sling it.”
HOW MUCH CHANGE BETWEEN THE TWO CONDITIONS? “Well, I can’t see well anyway, so when it’s trying to figure out where you’re going by two tire tracks in the ground on the straightaway, that’s new for me.”
ARE YOU READY FOR TOMORROW? “I’m not top-end ready compared to some of those good guys, but I can survive and not make a fool of myself now.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE TRACK? “I think probably the most difficult part for me is turn two and carrying enough speed turn two to three three, knowing how fast you can go into turn three and not screw up four, five, six and seven.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang — “We just didn’t execute today. We had a really bad pit stop and lost a lot of track position and we weren’t quite good enough to make it up. I didn’t have anything for the 54, but that’s the way it goes.”
WAS THIS A GOOD DAY IN THE SENSE OF EXPERIENCE ALL POTENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR TOMORROW? “I’m as prepared as I can be for tomorrow.”
Campbell Marketing & Communications for Ford Performance
