“There Are So Many Unknowns” – Kevin Harvick on the Gray Area of NASCAR’s Foray Into Unfamiliar Territory

Kevin Harvick has been around in NASCAR for a long time. He has seen different eras, be it the racecars, the scheduling, the formats, or the type of racing itself. So the fact that even he is unsure about how the sport’s first-ever street course race will pan out, it says a lot about the race.

In about three weeks’ time, NASCAR will be bringing their goods to downtown Chicago for a street course race, something which would’ve been inconceivable in the good old days. But here we are, a few days ago from it becoming a reality.

Of course, the race itself has had its doubters and critics on one side and on the other. There have been those who think it’d do NASCAR good in terms of popularity with a newer audience and there have been those who think it’ll be nothing more than an expensive experiment destined for failure.

As for Harvick’s take on the race, the #4 driver thinks one can’t say for sure.

Kevin Harvick thinks the street race could go either way

In a recent interview with Chicago Sun Times, Harvick was asked about his opinion on the upcoming street course race, whether he thinks it would be wild, or whether it will be boring. Harvick’s response was not of an excited young driver or an irritated veteran, it was of a professional who understands both sides of the story.

“Who knows?” Harvick said. “It’s all just pure speculation. I learned a long time ago that you just can’t predict these things. This race could be the greatest race that you’ve ever seen or it could be the worst one you’ve ever watched. I don’t think anybody really knows, but I think that’s the intrigue about the event.”

“From a driving standpoint, we all have this terrible, terrible habit of just going directly toward what could go wrong. But then we figure it all out and everything’s fine.”

🚧 Building a spectacle 🚧 @NASCARChicago | #NASCARChicago pic.twitter.com/hQoAPHHDuD

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 6, 2023

Harvick is feeling the nerves ahead of the Chicago Street race

The senior driver, who has seen his fair share of races in his career that has spanned over two decades, revealed that he too is feeling the nerves ahead of the Chicago race considering how new of a territory it is. “For me, there’s always a little bit of anxiety as you lead into these types of events just because of the fact there are so many unknowns,” Harvick said.

Yet, that is exactly the thing that Harvick claimed could turn fruitful, as he added how the factor of the unknown is what usually ends up making such things great.

And after all, NASCAR’s other recent foray into the unknown, the Le Mans program, turned out to be massively successful on all fronts. So who knows, maybe the Chicago race ends up being the same.