“It’s definitely leaning more toward handling well,” Kevin Harvick lists out the pros and cons of Next-Gen cars in the road courses ahead of Sonoma
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Kevin Harvick
Kevin Harvick who drives the No.4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver is all set to head out to this week’s Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway after a disappointing disqualification as a result of his crash into the outside wall off of turn 4 forcing the inaugural Cup Series event, Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway.
The Toyota Save Mart 350 will be this season’s second road-course event after the Echopark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas where fans witnessed Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain take his No.1 Chevrolet Camaro to the Victory Lane with Harvick finishing 11th in the one out of six scheduled road course races of this season.
Kevin Harvick also has a reputable history at road courses given his 2005 Watkins Glen victory and the 2017 Sonoma Raceway triumph with an addition of ten top 5s and twenty-four top 10s in his total of 50 starts at road course events throughout his Cup Series career. He is one of the six drivers who hail from the state of California along with teammate Cole Custer, 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, A.J. Allmendinger, and Joey Hand.
“For me, it was just getting comfortable maximizing the braking,” Kevin Harvick hopes to have a similar experience of COTA at Sonoma
Kevin Harvick was asked about the Next-Gen car’s performance on road courses and he was quite impressed with it so far and that they’ve designed the cars to perform well on road courses too but he felt the last year’s car was more congenial compared to what they have this year and he also added that the Next-Gen car has been excellent so far on road courses.
“It’s definitely leaning more toward handling well at the road courses just because that’s kind of the nature of how it was designed. I think for me, our first road course was a lot more comfortable in the car than what we were last year. For the braking and things that come with this particular car, it’s been good for us on the road courses, so far,” said Kevin Harvick.
He further added by speaking about the things he expects from the new car on Sonoma after driving it at COTA and he thinks that the new cars are much better on-road courses than ovals because of the way they behave while braking which gives him a lot of comforts and he feels extremely confident with the way it brakes on road courses.
“I think so, and I think everybody knew that was the easiest thing that we did, the road courses. For me, it was just getting comfortable maximizing the braking, and I felt good about that,” added Kevin Harvick.
He also spoke about how important it is to have a good braking system as they head to a hairpin turn on the track and he said that it is all self-dependent and it all relies on how good one is at judging the right speed for a corner and quickly adapting to it and he concluded by saying that the complete control over the car is crucial to maintain a good position on the track.
“I think a lot of that just takes care of itself. It’s a pretty straightforward corner as far as braking, and that’s really what it comes down to – just who can get in there the hardest on the brakes and be able to keep the car under control and still make the bottom of the corner,” concluded Kevin Harvick.
With Kevin Harvick standing 13th in the points table currently, he has to acquire a victory to confirm his spot in the playoffs this season.
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