NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Kevin Harvick was only 35th fastest of 38 cars during Tuesday’s CARS Tour late model stock practice session at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion maintained that his effort was “not about winning and losing.”
Harvick, driving his own No. 62 machine prepared by Rodney Childers, who also serves as his crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, maintains he’s merely getting his feet wet for his “post-retirement” career.
And that future career is not so much as a driver. Harvick is co-owner of the CARS Tour with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton and Justin Marks and also owns the fledgling Kevin Harvick Inc. late model stock car team.
“I blame everything on Dale,” Harvick said Tuesday afternoon. “That’s what I tell my wife as to why we need a late model or a trailer, and that’s an excuse for me to do something fun in the middle of the week as I retire next year. There are a lot of moving pieces to my post-driving life.
“As long as Keelan’s (Harvick’s son) passion stays along the lines of what he’s doing with the late model stocks, pro late models, and short-track racing in general is somewhere down the road,” he continued. “I thought it was better to having our own cars. This is the debut of the late model stock and we are getting a real-life reality check of how difficult it really is.”
But while he may be a fish out of water in his late model stock, Harvick will be in his comfort zone this weekend when the Cup Series hits the track for the NASCAR All-Star Race. Harvick expects an electric atmosphere.
“It’s the first time in my Cup Series career that the All-Star Race is the one race that you want to go to,” Harvick said. “With the energy toward short-track racing, to bring the All-Star Race here and have what I believe will be in an electric crowd is something you don’t get to experience that often. I think it is important.”
And to Harvick, it is important to have that mix of the country’s top late model racers and the stars of the Cup Series on the same track during the same week.
“When you look at social media and nostalgia and the nostalgia that goes with this race track is what people want to see. Short-track racing is back,” he said. “People want to see short-track racing. You go to some of these short tracks and you see that it is a lifestyle. You see dirt-track racing take on that lifestyle and short-track racing in general.
“We want to be part of that short-track racing that is surging. Dirt racing has taken it and run with it and there is no reason to believe our racers shouldn’t be part of that.
“I look at North Wilkesboro as part of the revival of the short-track system and part of that process. It is part of the pieces of the puzzle in the short-track system. I am excited and hopefully it keeps going.”