Kevin Harvick: Our bad luck was bound to turn around

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CONCORD, N.C. – Kevin Harvick doesn’t have to worry about puking and crew chief Rodney Childers can go easy on the Pepto-Bismol tablets.

With Saturday night’s win in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the duo can go into next Sunday’s race at Talladega not only with their stomach’s settled down, but also with their ticket punched into the Eliminator Round.

“Yeah, I won’t be anorexic and throwing up all week,” Harvick laughed in his post-race media conference. “I didn’t even know how we were going to prepare for next week without it just being a total disaster because you just know that so much is out of your control going into Talladega.

“Really this is the round that we focused the most on in my opinion. … Talladega is always crazy. I mean, it’s going to be so crazy with everybody in the offensive frame of mind like everybody was tonight that they might have to move the seats back a few rows.”

MORE: Kevin Harvick wins at Charlotte while Keselowski, Johnson and Earnhardt on brink of elimination

For Harvick, Saturday’s triumph paid off with triple dividends: He finally won a Chase race, moved on to the Eliminator Round before Talladega, and booted a big monkey of recent bad luck off his shoulders.

“They’re all character building moments,” Harvick said. “Winning is easy. As a team and usually when the nights go your way, they go your way. There’s just no way that the bad luck could continue to haunt us like (it had).

“I preach that to these guys and have been around this deal long enough to know that we’re very fortunate to be in the position that we’re in with fast cars and doing the things that we’re doing. Sure, we might have to tweak on a few things and tonight we were able to capitalize on all those things we pulled the trigger on.

“But in the end if you have fast cars the results will come with it. You just have to wait it out. I think tonight proved to us that we can do every situation that was presented to us and overcome it.

“Sure, we want to win every week, but in the end, still, there’s only one goal, and that’s to put the trophy in the back of your truck at Homestead and drive it home.”

Harvick and Childers are an interesting pairing. Harvick is outspoken, while Childers is more of the analytical, sit back and watch how things play out kind of guy.

And while Childers pumps up Harvick when misfortune strikes during races, Harvick has pumped up Childers after races that haven’t played out the way both hoped due to yet another issue of bad luck.

“I tell (Childers) every week at lunch, Monday when we get back and we’ve had something crazy happen,” Harvick said. “You get back, and I’m like, bottom line is we have a fast car and we can win every race.

“We’ll just keep working on everything and try to get it all worked out, and hopefully by the end of the year you have everything worked out and you can race for a championship and be in position to race for that championship at Homestead.

“When you have fast cars, everything else takes care of itself eventually. Bad luck can’t haunt you forever.”

Childers admitted to reporters that he appreciates Harvick’s cheerleading efforts in light of misfortune, particularly once a race is over and they move on to preparations for the next one.

“One thing that I get almost every Sunday night or Saturday night, and it’s a text message (from Harvick) that says, the problems that we have are a lot better than the problems we don’t have,” Childers said. “As soon as I get that message or as soon as he says that, it flips a switch, I move to the next week, all the guys move to the next week and we go try to build the fastest car we can and move on.

“A lot of people have focused on the things that have happened to us, but we’ve had a lot of good – a lot more good stuff happen to us than bad stuff. We’re really fortunate to be in this situation or fortunate to have good cars and good engines and just a bunch of guys that just want to work hard and win races, and that’s really hard to get. Like I said, (Harvick’s) the ring leader of that and does a really good job.”

Harvick, who has been known to raise his temper a few times in his career, likes the way the Chase is progressing in the first year of its new format – particularly the elimination part of it.

MORE: Matt Kenseth tangles with Brad Keselowski in Charlotte post-race fight

He was a bit surprised that normally mild-mannered Matt Kenseth was so physical with Brad Keselowski after Saturday’s race, but it’s a byproduct of the new format and lends itself to such drama and emotion.

“When you see Matt Kenseth mad enough to fight, you know that this is intense because that’s way out of character for him,” Harvick quipped. “Brad basically took a right and shoved him into the fence.

“When you see that happen, I think that every moment matters in this Chase, and Matt Kenseth knew that that one particular moment could have been the end of his Chase. That’s the bottom line. That’s how intense this whole Chase is.

“… When you see that emotion out of Matt Kenseth, you know that NASCAR has done the right thing to this Chase because everybody is on offense and gouging for every single position that you can get every lap.”

But don’t expect NASCAR to hand any penalties to Kenseth or Keselowski, Harvick added.

“That’s crazy, they love it,” Harvick said. “They were fighting afterwards. That’s what it’s all about. No way (there’s any penalties resulting).

“In the car you make a decision, you see somebody coming, you block him, you shove him in the fence and you suffer the circumstances as you go forward. You know, I would say if the 2 goes forward, 20 wrecks him, no doubt.”

With Saturday’s win, Harvick can now relax and not worry so much about how Talladega will play out. He’s on to the next round regardless.

“I’m parking it and watching it,” Harvick said. “It’s going to be fun to watch. It’s going to be crazy, offensive racing.

“… We’ve just hit a home run and made it all happen, still had a fast car, parked it in victory lane, and that’s what it’s all about. Great time of year to do it.”

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IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

IndyCar video game 2024
IndyCar
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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”