Harvick likes to race. So, he’ll race as long as the rules allow it.
The last 4 weeks have been great for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, Spencer Gallagher and Justin Allgaier have been the the benefactors of the Xfinity only field.
From a fan’s perspective, it was a bit of an eye-opener for me. I’ve always said that any driver should be able to fill out an entry form, anywhere. Anything less gives me the impression of the participation trophy culture. But, the reality is, without the Cup drivers in the field, those races were badass! The show was awesome, in all 4 of those events.
In the five races before the Cup driver locked, they were each won by a NASCAR Cup Series driver. Kevin Harvick himself picked up on of those Xfinity Series wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Now, the Xfinity Series lockout is over. The Dash for Cash is over and the Cup Series drivers are set to return to the Xfinity Series field.
“Look, I can go either way on this conversation as far as whether you think it’s good or bad. At this particular point for me, it doesn’t really matter,” Kevin Harvick stated on his ‘Happy Hours’ show via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“Whether I race races in Xfinity or don’t race. I like to race. So, if they’re gonna let me race on Saturday, I’m going to race.”
“Here’s the problem that I have with it. Sure, the races have been good. Sometimes you’ll watch the truck race and you’ll say, ‘Man, that was a really good race. You saw a lot of passing today.’ ”
“The range of competition is a lot wider from first to last as it is in Cup. You have a lot of inexperienced drivers, crew members, people that are working through the Truck Series and Xfinity Series because they want to be in the Cup Series.”
“As you look at the Cup Series, all the best people wind up there. The only thing I don’t like about not having Cup guys in the field is there’s not a good enough measuring stick to see who’s actually good.”
“The risk is… You got this guy in a Joe Gibbs cars and that [other] guy’s in a Joe Gibbs car and he can’t [run with] Kyle Busch within 2 seconds. Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, William Byron it’s taken them awhile to get going.”
“Their not having that measuring stick like I had when I was in the Busch Series against Mark Martin and Jeff Burton and all the Cup guys that were running. You don’t really know where you stack up.”
“Sure, you can beat the guys that you’re racing against. How are you ever gonna measure up against the best of the best? Because we aren’t seeing any of these young guys win.”
Kevin Harvick has run 343 NASCAR Xfinity Series races over the last 20 years. In 2006, he ran every NASCAR Xfinity Series event as well as every NASCAR Cup Series event. He’s run full-time in the MENCS since 2003.
Harvick has 47 wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The former NASCAR Truck Series owner also has 14 Truck wins to his name.
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