“We Didn’t Expect to Be Here”: Kevin Harvick in the Aftermath of the NASCAR Tire Blowup at Bristol

Kevin Harvick has settled down quite well into his seat in the Fox Sports broadcast booth. However, he wouldn’t have minded being behind the wheel during Sunday’s race in Bristol. The racing icon believes that the rubbery chaos that ensued in the 0.533-mile concrete oval was an answer to a question that the drivers themselves posed when they asked for tires that wore out more.

The key issue following the latest Cup Series wasn’t that the tires wore out but that they did so to an unprecedently high level. Goodyear, together with NASCAR and its teams, created the tires used in Bristol as per the ask from drivers to have them wear out more to put more control in their hands via tire management strategies.

This is why Harvick expressed on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast that he isn’t able to align himself with the uproar. He said, “When the drivers go back, and they really think about a lot of the meetings we have had with Goodyear, a lot of the meetings we have had with NASCAR, we have asked for the tires to wear out to the cords.”

While acknowledging that the wear-off was extreme, he was visibly glad to mention that Goodyear not forecasting it could be one of the best accidents to ever happen in the sport. He further thought that should teams head back to Bristol again and race under similar conditions, they would adapt surprisingly well.

Could teams and drivers run a better race on their return to Bristol?

Officials doubt that the culprit behind the high tire wear-off is the resin that was used to coat the track. With Goodyear considering the option of coming back to Bristol before the September race to hold tests and confirm that doubt, Harvick considers that things would be a lot better if things were just let be as they are after the tests.

He continued on the podcast, “From the driver’s standpoint and the sport’s standpoint, this is exactly what we’ve asked for. I just hope we know how we got here. We didn’t expect to be here and here we are.” While he does think that it is necessary to back down the level of tire wear slightly, he also reiterated that the teams would do it themselves upon their return without any intervention.

Quite notably, there has been zero word about the aerodynamics and the upgraded short-track package that NASCAR recently implemented. Perhaps Harvick’s bottom line is the route to follow from here: “My vote is we make the tires right now and we lock them in the shed at Bristol and we go back there for the fall because they’re automatically going to be better.”