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FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kevin Harvick doesn't understand why people keep speculating that he is not going to stay with Stewart-Haas Racing as it makes a manufacturer switch to Ford for the 2017 season.
"As far as I know, I thought I had a team extension that had two more years on my contract anyway," Harvick said at Samuel Beck Elementary School on Thursday.
"I don't know what everybody is talking about because of the fact that I do have a relationship with SHR, the contracts that we are in, the situations that we're in are already there. I just let everybody just keep talking about it just because there is really nothing to it."
An SHR team spokesperson said the team does not discuss contract details.
"I feel like I've got the best organization that I could possibly fit with," Harvick said. "I think I got the best crew chief in the garage. Got everything that we spent years lining up. It would seem silly trying to do something different. Nothing's changed."
Those words echo what Harvick, who has driven a Chevrolet his entire Cup career, has been saying since the news of SHR's move from Chevrolet to Ford was announced in late February.
Harvick took to Twitter on Thursday night to reiterate that he plans to drive the No. 4 car for a long time, a message that the official SHR account retweeted.
At SHR, Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers have teamed to win the 2014 championship and nine wins in 78 starts together entering Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Duck Commander 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Texas Motor Speedway. Harvick comes into the race as the points leader with a win, three top fives and five top 10s in the books thus far. Childers inked a multi-year extension to remain at SHR in June of 2015.
On top of that, Harvick's words about three-time champion, friend and SHR co-owner Tony Stewart's involvement while sidelined with a back injury sounds like a driver who is in no hurry to leave.
"I think we are getting a glance into the future," Harvick said. "I think as you see Tony so engaged and so a part of what we are doing, so much around the cars and people and in tune with what's going on. Very encouraging for all of us to see what we are going to be looking at down the road as far what he wants to do and how he is going to fit in with the communication. That's been exciting for me."
Harvick was at the Trophy Club, Texas school to speak to students on Thursday morning as the special guest for a full assembly where he presented fourth-grader Jenna Johnson with a scale replica die-cast of a winning paint scheme she drew for Lionel Racing's "Design A Die-cast" competition among 11 schools and 6,500 students competing in Texas Motor Speedway's Speeding To Read program. The 2014 champion also took student questions and officiated a tricycle race.