 | | Kevin Harvick goes on record as saying he would like to stay with RCR. Credit: Autostock |
By David Newton, NASCAR.COM
April 21, 2006
08:38 PM EDT (00:38 GMT)
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Kevin Harvick hopes to have a new long-term contract with Richard Childress Racing by the May 6 Nextel Cup race at Richmond. "That's my goal,'' Harvick said on Friday before practice for Saturday's race at Phoenix International Raceway. Harvick, who reportedly has been a target for Toyota when it enters NASCAR's premier series next season, said that team owner Richard Childress knows what it will take for him to re-sign. "The ball is pretty much on that side,'' he said. But Harvick said commitment to winning a championship, not money, is the driving factor. And he made it clear that his proposal to Childress wasn't a "take-it-or-leave-it'' deal, that it merely was the first step toward a resolution. "I don't need money,'' said Harvick, who owns his own Busch and Truck series teams. "I like to win and that's what I want to do. I want to win races and I want to win a championship, and that's my goal. "I may have been a little outspoken as far as what it would take to get this organization there and our team there and my team there. But that's what I want to do. Whatever it takes to do that, then that's what I want to achieve.'' Childress is on a hunting trip in Africa and not available for comment. But he has said repeatedly he wants Harvick to return as long as there is a commitment to winning from both sides. "I don't think the commitment was ever an issue,'' Harvick said. "It was just the lack of knowing exactly what we needed to do. Just start somewhere and start fixing it. I think that happened in the middle of last year.'' Harvick has only one victory since the middle of the 2003 season. He missed the Chase the past two seasons, finishing 14th both times. Harvick started slowly this season, ranking 23rd in points after a 39th-place finish in the fourth race at Atlanta. Since then he's gone second, seventh and fifth to move to ninth. But Harvick insisted he would feel the same way about re-signing if he weren't in the top 10. "We could very well be 15th or 20th in points right now,'' he said. "Our stuff has run good all year. We had a hiccup in California [29th], but everywhere we've been the cars have run good. It's hard to achieve that in this garage. "It's just a matter of everybody pulling in the same direction. That's the main focus we're trying to achieve going forward. I want to make sure I'm on their side, they're on my side no matter where it winds up.'' Harvick said RCR's commitment to Mike Dillon, the team's general manager of competition, played a factor in his decision to hopefully stay. "Just knowing he's going to be a part of the race team going forward,'' said Harvick, who started at RCR with Dillon in the Busch Series. Harvick hasn't always been so adamant about returning to RCR. In the end, he said the relationships built throughout the past seven years were too strong to discard. He also said that starting his own race team from scratch, which always has been an option, would be tough. "It's not something you can't ever rule anything out,'' Harvick said. "I want to do what's best for my career and if that's what it takes to do, then that's what we'll do. "The number one priority is to salvage this seven-year relationship and let's build on that.'' | 
