#29-Kevin Harvick met with members of the media at Dover International Speedway and discussed the incident with #18-Kyle Busch and penalties from last week at Darlington, the transcript in part:
Q) KYLE CALLED YOUR RACING UNCALLED FOR AND UNEXCEPTABLE, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU DID LAST WEEK THAT FITS THAT DEFINITION AND HOW DO YOU RACE HIM GOING FORWARD?
ÂWell I think when you look  after I got the I hooked you after I got a flat tire comment yesterday, the incident started off of turn two. We came off of turn two, I was driving straight behind the car in front of me. We can talk about being three feet off the wall or whatever, but I was directly behind the car in front of me coming up off the corner and at the time I didnÂt even know it was the #18. The car hit me in the door and as soon as he hit me in the door I drove it to the left, we got to the other end, I let it go and ran into the back of him and ran him up the race track, took the position back. At that moment we got three wide and there wasnÂt really a lot of room and things happened and he hooked me on the straightaway. Look the wrecking doesnÂt bother me but the only thing that bothers me is the right-rear quarter panel because in my mind I know what that means. I donÂt mind getting wrecked back. If you think itÂs a payback for Homestead thatÂs fine. Those parts donÂt bother me, I understand how it all works but when you throw them off its time to handle it.Â
AS FAR AS YOU TWO GETTING ALONG, WHAT WOULD BE THE IDEAL SCENARIO?
ÂThat probably wonÂt ever happen.Â
HOW DO YOU RACE KYLE BUSCH GOING FORWARD AND DOES THIS ALSO IMPACT HOW YOU RACE EVERYBODY ELSE.
ÂIt definitely affects how you race for the next four weeks. We got the ultimatum yesterday of the explanation of how probation worked and how NASCAR expected us to race on the race track was put to us very clear yesterday. I think the way that the next four weeks go was basically dictated to us yesterday in the NASCAR trailer.Â
Q) A LOT WAS TALKED ABOUT THAT THE PENALTIES WERE SUPPOSEDLY FOR WHAT TRANSPIRED AFTER THE RACE, BUT IS THAT REALLY FAIR ON THE DRIVERS PART BECAUSE ARENÂT THE THINGS THAT LEAD UP TO WHAT TAKE PLACE AFTER THE RACE A DIRECT RESULT OF WHAT HAPPENS IN THE RACE. CAN YOU JUST TALK ABOUT HOW DIFFICULT IT IS?
ÂFor me I didnÂt use my car as a ram or dry to make a point with running into somebody on the race track or knocking them out of the way after the race, I didnÂt do any of that stuff after the race. I wanted to handle it so that the guys didnÂt have to do more work than they already did. The bottom line is I know there are changes this week with the officials and how they are going to approach things after the race, but I mean there was a split screen on TV, there were no NASCAR officials in sight and they got what they wanted and in the end you suffer the penalty for what itÂs supposed to be on pit road but has carried over to the race track now when it was stressed to me in the hauler after the race and when I received my penalty on Tuesday it was stressed to me it was for the pit road. So it just doesnÂt make sense to me. But it is what it is. ItÂs not like I can do anything about it. IÂm not complaining about it, I just want to understand it. I donÂt understand it. IÂm not going to lose sleep over it. IÂm going to move forward and itÂs done and over with. I donÂt want to be the nice guy that has to understand why the penalties are ramping up like they used to be.Â
Q) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MEETING YOU HAD YESTERDAY AND TONY STEWART MADE A COMMENT THAT MAYBE THEY SHOULD OUTLINE THE RULES MORE SPECIFICALLY ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU GUYS CAN HAVE AT IT?
ÂWell I mean the meeting was just basically NASCAR explaining how probation works and how we need to stay away from everybody basically and each other. So that was basically the jest of the meeting. I think as far as you talk about the Tony Stewart comment, I think for me itÂs definitely to the point where itÂs a little bit confusing with how it all works. I think when you look at the boys have it theme, itÂs obviously changing as we go through the process. I think when you go back and you look at the very first major incident that you saw on the race track, I guess it would be Carl (Edwards) and (Brad) Keselowski in Atlanta and you saw the car go upside down. Carl was parked for hooking him in the right rear quarter panel and then it happened again and you see a lot of people coming out of the pits and retaliating and sometimes itÂs a one-lap penalty and sometimes you are parked for the race and sometimes you look at the Keselowski and Hamlin thing at Homestead so thereÂs a lot of different things happening. I understand that itÂs evolving but from a drivers standpoint you donÂt really 100 percent understand how it works. Last week they stressed a lot to me that the penalties were for pit road violations after the race and the jeopardy that it put everybody in after the race and I understand that part. Yesterday it was all about being on probation and on the race track. So just a little bit confused about that. Nobody really had any clarification as to what we were supposed to do and not supposed to do other than we are on probation for four weeks and now itÂs a penalty on the race track. I donÂt really know if it was a penalty for the race track because we saw the same right-rear hook and obviously there was a lot that led up to that lap. I felt that Kyle (Busch) got into my door. I ran him down on the back straightaway. I got into him in (turn) three and we got three wide. Yesterday KyleÂs explanation was he had a flat tire and hooked me on the straightaway. ItÂs kind of one lie after the other and you see everything that happened after the race and for me the way that I was brought up and taught to race, when you hook somebody in the right-rear quarter panel thatÂs the equivalent of throwing your gloves off in hockey. ThatÂs the point where everybody has reached the boiling point and basically the only answer I get out of Kyle is IÂm a race car driver not a fighter but if you drive like that youÂre gonna have to learn how to take care of yourself. ItÂs just a lot that went through the mind and for me itÂs done and over with and weÂll move on. Just a lot of questions I think more than answers were a part of this week.Â
Q) HOW SPECIFIC DO YOU WANT IT TO BE?
ÂWell, there just has to be consistency. I can race either way. We can flip each other over. I donÂt mind wrecking. I donÂt mind getting wrecked. I donÂt mind eye for an eye. I donÂt mind any of that but just tell me what the rules are. Explain to me what the penalty is if you are going to hook somebody in the middle of the straightaway, if you are going to spin them out, if you are going to retaliate, what is the penalty? Tell me what the penalty is. A consistent answer.Â
WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT WANTING TO UNDERSTAND, DO YOU FEEL LIKE NASCAR NEEDS TO GO MORE BLACK AND WHITE LIKE IN OTHER SPORTS?
ÂIt canÂt be for a certain circumstance and how you wake up in the morning as to how you think it needs to be treated. There has to be some guidelines on where it all is. You here the upper brass talk about wanting to do things more like the NFL or this or that, but you have to be consistent in order to do that.Â
CAN YOU GIVE US THE READERÂS DIGEST VERSION OF HOW PROBATION WORKS? ALSO CAN YOU ADDRESS THE FACT THAT WHY THE #29 TEAM CAME OUT TO DEFEND YOU THE 18 TEAM WAS NO WHERE IN SIGHT TO BACK UP THEIR DRIVER?
ÂObviously IÂve got a bunch of guys that are just a great bunch of guys. We all get along. We all have the same approach to how we like to see things, what we think is fair and what we think is not fair. There isnÂt a guy on that team that wouldnÂt lay under a bus for the next guy. That really happened last year as we went through the year. ItÂs something that you just donÂt find very often and this is a bunch of guys that I consider friends and I think they consider themselves all friends. Them running up pit road is not a surprise to me. I think they would back me whether I was right or wrong, they are going to back me up and I will do the same for them. ThatÂs the great part about our team. The No. 18 team not backing him up, I mean when you donÂt have a backbone how do you back someone up?Â
DOVER, CHARLOTTE, KANSAS, THE NEXT THREE RACES ARE ALL THREE RACES THAT ARE IN THE CHASE, YOUÂRE NOT LOCKED IN BUT YOUR PROBABLY AS COMFORTABLE OR MORE COMFORTABLE THAN ANYONE ELSE WITH THE WINS AND YOUR STANDING IN THE POINTS, HOW DO YOU APPROACH THESE THREE RACES?
ÂI think itÂs a combination of a lot of things. I think over the past few weeks weÂve been able to try things that we wouldnÂt have tried in the past. We struck out at Richmond on what we tried. I think Darlington was a huge success for us as far as the way the race track performance was and hopefully that bleeds over into Charlotte. This week is a little bit different than some of the race tracks because of the type of race track that you are racing on. These are important weeks. Dover is in the Chase, Charlotte is in the Chase, just to kind of zero in on what exactly you need when it comes time toward the end of the year. So weÂre shooting for better set-ups and more wins. ThatÂs basically where we are at right now points wise.Â
NASCAR YESTERDAY SEEMED TO SAY THAT IF ONE PERSON REALLY PRESSES THE ISSUE THATÂS ITS MORE COMPLICATED THAN BEING ABLE TO LINE UP A MENU OF PENALTIES AND THAT IS ONE PERSON REALLY PUSHES IT, IT WOULD KIND OF BE DETRIMENTALTO THE SPORT TO HAVE EVERYTHING LAID OUT IN FRONT OF YOU, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
ÂI have a lot of experience of this in the past so IÂll reference the past, as things ramp up and you get in trouble the first time itÂs best to just not get in trouble again because youÂre gonna be the poster child to either change this process to make it more clear and see the fines ramp back up or youÂre going to be the guy that shows itÂs not really going to change. I just donÂt think for us itÂs not going to be the smartest thing in the world to be that next guy. I donÂt know if you are referring to, are you referring to me or the #42 and #39, I donÂt know which one you are referring to but there are just a lot of different elements to the whole thing that are happening right now that are confusing to the drivers.Â(Team Chevy)(5-13-2011)
