Q&A: Kevin Harvick.

Kevin Harvick is a Raybestos Rookie contender in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Harvick is the leading Raybestos Rookie contender entering the final Winston Cup race of the 2001 season Friday afternoon at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Q:
What are the first few laps at Loudon going to be like?

Kevin Harvick:
I'm going to go like hell to lead the first lap (laughs). I don't know what the rest of them are going to do be doing, but I'm going to be driving the crap out of my car. We're starting fourth and that's a credit to everybody for the kind of year that we've had. We want to try and win one more race and that's how we're going to approach it. We're only 50 or 60 points out of sixth (in the point standings) but we could also finish tenth. We've got that comfort zone that we're going to finish in the top-10, which was our main goal. We're going to go up there and give it all we've got.

Q:
Do you think that the Friday's race at Loudon has been overblown with the respect to the weather and the tyres not having any grip?

KH:
I've only been in Winston Cup racing for one year, but I think I can remember a few times at Atlanta when it was pretty cold and I think I remember it snowing at Richmond a few times. I think a lot of 'em gripe about things just because they need something to gripe about or are looking for an excuse not to do something. We don't get paid three or four million dollars a year to sit at home and gripe about things. I mean, we get paid a lot of money and somebody is going to expect us to race and I think the circumstances here are a lot bigger than NASCAR racing.

This was a circumstance where our country was in a crisis that none of us could control. I'm just repeating what I heard from Michael Waltrip and that's what he said. We need to realize this situation is bigger than us. We're unfortunate to be the ones that got our date moved. We've got to go up and make the best out of it and race the car. That's all we can do. It's just another race. It might be a little bit cold, but we've all been in cold weather before.

Q:
Does the compact schedule this weekend play into your hands?

KH:
I hope so. We're going back with a different tyre this time and 45 minutes of practice. Hopefully we can take some of our adaptability and apply it quick. We'll have to see. It's anybody's game up there because whoever's the best when they unload out of the trailer is going to be the car to beat. Nobody else is going to have time to recover.

It's been a great year, everything from the Busch car to the Winston Cup car. Being successful in both of them and being able to contend for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year championship has been great. It's been a lot of fun. When you're not running good on the racetrack, you've got the separate race with the Raybestos Rookie of the Year, just going out trying to beat the other rookies. It's two races in one.

Q:
You set the bar very high this season. Is there more pressure going into next season?

KH:
I think so. You always try to improve on what you did the year before. These numbers look a lot like the numbers that we had in the Busch car (in his 2000 rookie reason). Hopefully we can follow them up with the numbers that we had the second year in the Busch car. This (Winston Cup racing) is a whole different league. It's a lot harder to do things like we did in the Busch car this year. To be in contention for top-10 in the points is pretty cool for us. We're going to set our goals high and try and put ourselves in contention for a championship and see what happens.

Q:
What would you tell a driver that is entering his first Winston Cup Season?

KH:
Be yourself. That's what got you to this point and that was the best advice that I got at the beginning of the year. You can refine it along the way, and that's what Richard (Childress, Harvick's car owner in Busch and Winston Cup) told me from the beginning. Dress how you dress, act how you act, and drive how you drive. If we don't like how you act we can change it, but the reason you got the job was because of how you drive. That's what got you to this point. Don't change yourself.