Harvick: Open-Wheel Rooks Taking The 'Wrong Road'

(Originally published on Feb. 6, 2008)

Kevin Harvick walked into Gallagher's Steak House Tuesday and jokingly bragged about successfully negotiating New York City on the worst possible day, while the Giants were celebrating a Super Bowl championship.

He then sat down and stated without reservation that 2008's open-wheeled rookies will not be nearly as fortunate maneuvering in unfamiliar surroundings.

During his media tour in advance of defending last year's Daytona 500 title, he didn't hold back in his opinion that the open-wheeled brigade would be better off crawling before they walk in the NASCAR hierarchy.

"I think that those guys, they all went down the wrong road," Harvick said when asked about their impact for '08.

Harvick would prefer that even the most accomplished of the open-wheelers take a more traditional route into NASCAR's top series.

"Coming straight into the Cup Series is going to be harder than any of them imagine," Harvick said. "And I really think the experience of racing for that [Nationwide] championship and racing for that Truck championship, figuring out where the media center is at Texas Motor Speedway, or figuring out where your motor home's parked, or traffic's bad, I mean, those things, they matter. Whether you think they do or not, they matter...It just takes time to establish that foundation, and a lot of people from the outside look at it and say, "Well, I've raced Formula 1, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to race the Sprint Cup Series.' If you can get over the ego part of it, racing in the Truck Series or the Nationwide Series, you'd be better off, I think."

Ironically, in questioning the readiness of rookie converts Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve and Dario Franchitti, Harvick complimented Juan Pablo Montoya, who Harvick had a much-publicized run-in with after the pair was involved in a wreck in Watkins Glen last August.



"I don't think any of them is going to accomplish what Juan accomplished last year," Harvick said. "I think Juan came in and had a decent year right off the bat, and in my opinion is a lot better than the rest of the open-wheeled drivers."

When asked why, Harvick explained, "Car control. I think Juan has a tremendous amount of car control, and he's not afraid to take a car to the point of wrecking it. And in order to be successful in racing cars you have to take the car to the point where it spins out or you don't really ever know the limits."

Harvick did credit Carpentier for his performance in Montreal last August, when the Gillett-Evernham Motorsports driver finished second to Harvick in a then-Busch Series race. But Harvick added that he expects as much on road courses like Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which won't equate to most Cup events.

"Doing it almost out of the spotlight [by starting out in Nationwide or the Truck Series] is a lot better," Harvick explained. "When you wreck they're going to say, "There's that open-wheeled guy, he's wrecking again.' Whichever the case may be, and it's really almost unfair, but it's just the situation that they've all put themselves in."