Kevin Harvick Gets It!
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I
have a new hero in racing… Kevin Harvick. No it’s not because he drives a Ford,
nor is it because he has won 3 in a row. But it is because he gets it… He gets
the fact that “Grassroots Racing” is what drives motorsports.
At
Sunday’s press conference at Phoenix, after putting a whippin’ on the field,
Harvick sat with Tony Stewart and Rodney Childers talking about the win. Then
in response to a reporter’s question he shifted gears and started calling out
the management of Phoenix for not having the grassroots races there. He went on
to explain how important the Copper World Classic was for many racers for
years. And how the support classes really fueled the sport and racing in
general.
This
man actually gets it… For a long time I looked at him as a brash diva boy, who
landed in a ride with no talent and did, but the more I learned about him and
how passionate he is about racing AND about the history of the sport, he moved
up a few notches in my eyes.
A few years ago a dear friend of mine, Bill
Blair, whose lovely wife Shelia worked for Harvick told me he was a good guy,
so I started looking into some of the things he has done over the years since
hitting the big time. And Bill was right.
Harvick
has helped lots of racers with money, out of his own pocket, while asking to
not be named, helping with fund drives to help drivers who have fallen on hard
times… the things he did for Sam Ard; the list goes on and on. He really gets
it!
The
fact that he stepped up, and used his voice to make something heard about grass
roots racing says a lot. He knows that it is an important part of racing and
that without the grassroots bunch, racing is doomed, and the great thing is he
called out the management of Phoenix Raceway on National TV about it! He said
“But in the end, you better have those grassroots racers and grassroots fans
whether it fits your budget or not, 10 years from now you better hope you got
those grassroots racers and grassroots fans filling those seats, because that
is your hard core racers and fans,” See? He gets it!
When
a track forgets what it takes to put fans in the stands then that track is
doomed, it cannot succeed with one BIG race or two BIG races a year to pay the
bills. It takes the support classes putting fans in the seats week in and week
out. Without those fans, the tracks will dwindle and vanish. And before long
you will have to go to “Lost Race Tracks” to see what happened to them.
Racers
who get it, racers like Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson,
(bad as I hate to say it) Kyle Busch, these racers see it, they see the writing
on the wall. If promoters and track owners don’t see it soon, there will be
nothing left to see.
If
NASCAR put as much effort into the support classes as they do to reading social
media, we might be able to save racing on a local level.