Q&A: Kevin Harvick

Q: How does it feel when you hear the sentence, "Kevin Harvick, Daytona 500 champion"?

Harvick: It feels really good. Just to be able to put your name on that trophy next to all the 500 winners that have come before us, just know how much it means to the sport, our whole race team, it's quite an honor.

Q: Looking back, you probably feel NASCAR made the right call letting you race to the finish, but how did you view the replay?

Harvick: I mean, it was pretty cool. We won the race. After the caution, when the first car spins, we're still ahead. It's a hard call to make, just for the fact you don't throw the caution, you're in hot water, you do throw the caution, you're in hot water. There's really no right or wrong answer.

I don't know that we've ever actually come off of Turn 4 and had the circumstances be that way before. I know we've wrecked on the green-white-checkered before, the caution has come out on the backstretch or something like that the lap before. It's a hard spot to be in. I'm glad I don't have to make those calls.

Q: Does that overshadow the fact you were sixth going into the final lap?

Harvick: I don't think so. I think everybody who's watched the race and understands racing really likes the fact that the race came down to everything that it did. It was a close finish. We were able to make a little bit of a comeback there.

I think most people know where we came from, I think.

Q: You've been now involved with that very close finish at Atlanta and the very close finish at Daytona. Did you take anything from the first finish to the second finish? Can you talk a little bit about what is inside you as a racer that helps you thrive in those situations?

Harvick: Well, I think any time you get that taste of victory and you really want to go after winning everything that you can. If you can get yourself in position, you know how hard the races are to win, you want to capitalize while you're in that particular moment.

When they come down to as close as they were Sunday and you have the finishes like we did, there's no way that you could ever even plan any of that out or try anything different. You race as hard as you can to try to capitalize on the moment and hope it comes out your way.

Q: Drivers were comparing Daytona to Darlington with the tire situation, slipping and sliding. How were you able to overcome that situation?

Harvick: Well, I think the first part of the race, during the sunlight, the cars were moving around a lot, kind of pushing a little bit as you would get into the run. As the sun went down, everybody's car gained a little bit more grip it seemed like and we were able to race two- and three-wide. There with the last 50 laps or so, it was pretty wild.

We got a little bit of experience the day before in the Busch race with the car's handling characteristics and were hopefully able to carry that -- we did carry a little bit of that over to Sunday.

I enjoy the fact that we didn't have any tire problems. I would rather slip and slide around than worrying about my right-front tire blowing out. (Continued)