| | | | | | TESTING | Harvick happy with results | |
| | From SPEEDTV.com DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Perhaps it was the West Coast air or proximity to his hometown of Bakersfield, but Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet) was happy to go to work Thursday at California Speedway.
“I think everybody has figured out why everybody likes to live in California – because of the weather today,” he said during a lunch-break visit to the track’s infield media center.
Sunshine and a calm atmosphere aside, the fit and feel of his car during the first session of a two-day NASCAR Sprint Cup Series test at California also had Harvick – the defending Daytona 500 champion whose nickname is “Happy” – distributing verbal kudos.
Thursday’s and Friday’s California test was preceded by a two-day session earlier in the week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, all part of NASCAR Preseason Thunder – NASCAR’s annual January test sessions – and all in preparation for the first fulltime season of competition for NASCAR’s new race car.
With the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains overshadowing the backstretch and none of the wind that plagued drivers Monday in Las Vegas, Harvick said positive results from earlier in the week in Nevada seem to have crossed state borders. He was 13th-fastest during Thursday’s morning session – 180.180 mph (39.960 seconds) while Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet) was ninth-quickest at 180.537 mph (39.881 seconds)
“As we went to Las Vegas, I think everybody was surprised just how well the cars unloaded,” Harvick said Thursday. “I think the most difficult thing we've experienced probably over the last few days is just the different mindsets coming into the different styles of racetracks.
“Las Vegas is very wide open, lots of grip. Here you slide around and there's a lot of fall-off on the tires. So just trying to understand the difference from the setup that you're going to take from Las Vegas to here was a good experience for us.”
This week’s West Coast test is yielding research crucial to early-season races. But regardless of data accumulated and lessons learned, Harvick says one reason for the new car’s genesis should not be forgotten – safety.
“You can get in and out of the cars no problem with your helmet on,” he said. “You've got plenty of room. Your head's not resting against the window net. You don't have any problems getting the seats mounted in the cars.
“It has to be applauded just for the fact that the safety side of it is tremendously better just because the drivers are more comfortable in the cars, able to get in and out of them easier.”
| | Posted February 01, 2008 , 11:04 pm EST
| | | | | | | | | | |
