Conversation: The Harvicks (cont'd)

Kevin: They say it takes you a week to catch up, and if you miss a week it takes you a month to catch up.

DeLana: And that's not a joke. Honestly we're so fortunate to have people in place that [Kevin] can go focus on his Cup car and his Busch stuff and not worry about it -- we have such good people in place, and that's taken time.

We've made some mistakes, and we've learned and that's the hardest part of doing this, is that your head has to rule your heart.

Kevin: It's not always fun.

DeLana: It's not always fun, and some of the decisions we've had to make have not been fun, and not been what I wanted to do, but that's a big thing that I've learned over the last couple of years.

We were just two kids that wanted to have a race team. We didn't realize that it came with everything else -- so we have made mistakes, but we realize that with the Truck team and the Busch team that if we did make mistakes, it wouldn't be as huge as if we were in the Cup Series.

A lot of people ask us all the time, 'When are you going to go Cup racing?' We don't want to go Cup racing. That's not what we want to do. We're having a good time, we enjoy what we're doing. And if it's not fun -- and we always preach this to our guys: If you're not having fun, don't do it. If you don't want to come to work every day, if it's too hard, don't come to work -- go do something else. And we haven't gotten to that point yet, where we want to do anything else. We know we don't want to Cup race -- it's just too hard and we want to have somewhat of a normal life.

Kevin: For now.

DeLana: For now. We've never been people to have a plan in place where, 'in five years we're going to be here,' so it's really odd how all these things worked out. Like Kevin said, we started the Truck team because he'd never won a Truck race. So we go out in our first race and we almost win -- and that's fueled us.

We lost to Sprague at Richmond. And then we ended up getting a full-time sponsor, so we started running the truck full time. Then Tony Stewart came to us and said, 'I want to run some Busch races.' And that's how our Busch program got started [with two races in 2004], so it was never just a sincere plan that we had, it was just a little bit fly by the seat of your pants, which was completely how [Kevin] operates -- but completely not how I operate. So it's been a little mesh of the two.

Q: If you thought 2007 was never a dull moment, how do you see Hornaday and Sprague racing on the same team next season?

Kevin: There's a lot that's going to change next year, in our company, and [getting Sprague] is one big piece. We built the 2 truck this year to go out and help the 33 race for a championship, and myself and Clint Bowyer and Cale Gale drove that truck. That truck, in the beginning of the year, was specifically for R&D purposes so I could go out and evaluate the team -- just so we had more resources to go out and [compete]. We cut the body off that 2 truck three weeks in a row -- three races in a row -- and brought it back to the racetrack.

But it helped escalate the 33 team and helped them evolve through the motions a lot faster. So having Ron and Jack next year will be what we're all about. They both really drive hard. Every once in a while, things get tore up, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Off the racetrack they're really good friends and respect each other. Hornaday was kind of the one who pushed that deal to make it happen so I think they'll help drive each other to make each other better.

Q: Will you do a third truck to get you in the seat for any races, or to do any additional R&D work?

Kevin: The plan right now is to just have the two full-time trucks and then myself and Cale Gale will split the 33 [Nationwide Series] car, for a full season. We're going to run [Gale] part time in the 77 [Nationwide Series] car I think six or eight races, and that will be it. We're focusing on those four drivers: myself and Cale, and Ron and Jack, and that's it.

The Busch program is about halfway to where the Truck program is right now, so we're just trying to speed that process up and me being able to focus on just the 33 car next year and not the 33, the 77 and the [RCR's] 21 [will be better]. That took a little bit away from what we've done this year. We still had a great season in the Busch Series, sixth in owner points with the 33 and 15th with the 77, but you always think it can be better.

Q: To look out the back of the current shop at the original structures is a pretty neat contrast in how far KHI has come, so who would each of you say is the biggest influence in getting you to this point?

Kevin: I think the biggest influence is just the way DeLana grew up and the way I grew up. She saw her dad [former Late Model Sportsman and Busch Grand National owner / driver John Paul Linville] struggle with not the right equipment. We [Harvick and his father, Mike Harvick] had some of the right parts and pieces but we never had the money to appropriately race as I was growing up, and really do it 100 percent right week in and week out.

So when we got the opportunity to do that, I think that was probably the biggest influence. One of the biggest influences behind being able to do what we do is to run race teams and run 'em right -- to be able to go out and compete. But this [Truck championship] is a little bit different probably than anything else because it is Hornaday and he kinda stepped out and said he wanted to drive for us. We've been friends for a long time, so that makes it a little bit different. (Continued)