{"id":26486,"date":"2019-06-07T16:50:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T21:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26486"},"modified":"2019-06-07T20:37:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T01:37:13","slug":"the-progression-of-life-helps-guide-harvicks-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/07\/the-progression-of-life-helps-guide-harvicks-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018progression of life\u2019 helps guide Harvick\u2019s goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick<\/strong> freely admits a transformation, an aging-up of sorts. There was a time in his 19-season Monster Energy NASCAR Cup<\/a> career when the 2014 champion would be visibly frustrated during a race and fully prepared to settle a score with another driver on pit road or in the garage later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light Ford, drives during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 07, 2019 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Stacy Revere\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But having children, earning a Cup title and the art of aging have mellowed the 43-year old champ, by his own admission. It has not dampened his motivation to win races and championships however. And in the wake of an eight-win title-near-miss 2018 season, there is plenty of high motivation – an example to be set on-track and off-track.<\/p>\n

And during an interview Friday, Harvick offered up a real-life example of his sage evolution as evidenced in a recent interaction with his six-year old son, Keelan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pulling out of the Chipotle the other day after lunch and I go bolting across the street and I get a \u201cWhat the hell are you doing dad?\u2019\u2019 Harvick said, recounting the story with a smile. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018what?\u2019 I kind of ignored it for a minute and then I said, \u201cWhere did you hear that?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the day we all sat in the TV booth together [for a drivers led broadcast]. I can\u2019t necessarily blame it on [teammate] Clint [Bowyer] but it sounded a lot like something he would say. It was funny, but a moment after that you had to explain, we couldn\u2019t use that word.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MIS1_MENCS_Harvick_060719.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Harvick\u2019s work on-track has been equally as creative as preferred word choices. He has an impressive nine top-10s through the opening 14 races of the 2019 season, but the Stewart-Haas Racing driver is still looking to earn his first winner\u2019s trophy. By comparison, by the 15th race last season, Harvick had already visited victory lane five times.<\/p>\n

But Sunday\u2019s Firekeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is a legitimate good-bet chance to get back into that win column. And Harvick knows that.<\/p>\n

He won the August, 2018 Cup race on the Michigan two-miler and finished runner-up to SHR teammate Clint Bowyer in the June visit. He has top-five finishes in the last seven Michigan races. So while he may fluctuate between frustration and promise the first half of this season, Harvick must certainly feel Michigan provides a prime opportunity to change the vibe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am beyond all the frustration,\u2019\u2019 Harvick said. \u201cTo me it is now a challenge just because I feel like this is very similar to 2014 and 2017. I can see the progression in the speed of the cars and the things we have done and honestly, we just chose the wrong direction to start the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cars weren\u2019t where they needed to be and everyone realizes that as a company. We had some situations where we were in position to win some races and had some things go wrong, whether it was my team or the 14 [Bowyer\u2019s]. In the end, our cars just weren\u2019t fast enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody has kept their head down and are looking at it as a challenge now.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

A frustrating 22nd<\/sup>-place finish at Pocono Raceway last weekend dropped Harvick from third to fifth in the championship standings. He\u2019s had five top-five finishes \u2013 a season best fourth-place effort five times \u2013 but only two top 10s in the last five races.<\/p>\n

Michigan presents a sort of\u2019 \u201ccircle the date\u201d race for Harvick \u2013 he is objectively one of the favorites. And he is more than ready to capitalize.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from the second half of the Charlotte race, I think over the last month or so, the cars are coming the right direction,\u2019\u2019 Harvick said. \u201c[Teammate] Aric (Almirola) had a great test at Indianapolis and that is really the benefit of having quality teammates and people that communicate and an organization like we have with Gene [Haas] and Tony [Stewart] letting the racers go race. Sometimes that over-rules the engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pulling the rope in the right direction now and feel like we have made some good gains. This is part of that challenge that is a cycle. I have talked about this for years. You have to build, you have to rebuild, build and rebuild. You are on the good side of it and the bad side of it and it all has a funny way of cycling itself through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a number of challenge since I have been here with Tony in and out of the car and drivers changing. It is a resilient group of people that continue to set aside the frustrations and look forward.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Harvick and his No. 4 SHR Ford team have certainly turned in the effort \u2013 leading a race best 104 laps at Kansas only to finish 13th<\/sup>, and leading a race best 88 laps at Las Vegas, only to finish fourth.<\/p>\n

There was a time Harvick would admit he would be at wits end solving the close calls. But the father of two young children \u2013 Keelan and one-year old daughter Piper \u2013 concedes his overall mindset has shifted.  He is still fearlessly vocal about subjects he has strong opinions about. But he is less likely to allow it to take an emotional toll for the overly good or the regrettably bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just kind of the evolution of life that follows with it,\u2019\u2019 Harvick said. \u201cAt this particular point there is obviously some people that don\u2019t like to hear what I have to say, which is fine. There are some people that you feel like you are on their side and it is not really about sides, it is about opinion and you can take it for what it is worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it doesn\u2019t matter to me what you think about it, it is my opinion and I will move on from it. I will happily listen to yours as well and it will be a great debate and we will have fun with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the progression of life in general has followed the progression of my career. Having kids was great because you had more responsibility that you had to come home to than you did before. Things that you say, especially the older Keelan gets, are more magnified.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

And at this point in particular, Harvick would prefer to speak again in victory burnouts and trophy hoists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kevin Harvick freely admits a transformation, an aging-up of sorts. There was a time in his 19-season Monster Energy NASCAR Cup career when the 2014 champion would be visibly frustrated during a race and fully prepared to settle a score with another driver on pit road or in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[95,219,16],"class_list":["post-26486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-kevin-harvick","tag-michigan-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MENCS_MIS1_HarvickPractice_060719.jpg?fit=2262%2C1508","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6Tc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26490,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486\/revisions\/26490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}