Latest news with #HarvickHappyHour
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shocked by $50M NASCAR Cost: "Hard for Me to Believe"
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims that the version of the sport he once knew and grew up with has gone. Earnhardt Jr. has noted the staggering cost behind fielding a car in the Cup Series, which he explains starts at approximately $50 million to get the charter, arguing that it has "become this place where only people with that kind of money can play." During an appearance on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast (below), Earnhardt Jr. explained: "I have been around long enough to remember that if you and I just woke up one day and said, 'Man, we're going to enter a Cup car in any race we want,' we can go find us a car, find us a driver, get all the parts and go do it, right? Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks onstage as SiriusXM and Dirty Mo Media broadcast from Daytona Speedway for the 2025 Daytona 500 on February 13, 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks onstage as SiriusXM and Dirty Mo Media broadcast from Daytona Speedway for the 2025 Daytona 500 on February 13, 2025 in Daytona Beach, SiriusXM "Now, there's some couple hoops. You've got to get licensed and got to enter the car, pay the money, the entry fee, all that good stuff. But it was pretty much an understandable challenge. "Today, to just get out there and compete, you need that $50 million charter, and that charter is going to be $100 million and $150 million and $200 million — it's going to go to the moon over the next several years. "It was a good time to buy it 10 years ago. I regret that I didn't. But it's become this place where only people with that kind of money can play." Claiming that it is "hard" for him to believe the changes, Earnhardt Jr. continued: "The world, the NASCAR that I knew, in terms of just being able to field the car and go race, doesn't exist anymore. That's hard for me to just believe, that we're in that — for me to go run an open car isn't realistic. It's not realistic for anybody to do it every single week." Despite this, the 50-year-old former driver acknowledges that this is a great position for the sport to be in. He concluded: "But while that is tough for me to stomach, it is incredibly great for the current people that are involved in the sport. Great for NASCAR, great for the France family, great for the owners and teams that have those charters that are appreciating year after year, hour after hour. "They're just going up. But for somebody who's trying to get in? You can't play unless you got a big entity behind you. Somebody with real cash."
Newsweek
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Kevin Harvick Sounds the Alarm After Denny Hamlin's Fiery Texas Nightmare
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Kevin Harvick and his Harvick Happy Hour podcast co-host Mamba Smith have shared their thoughts on Denny Hamlin's car erupting into flames at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made it to Lap 75 before his car became engulfed in flames. Harvick analyzed the situation during the latest episode of the podcast. The 2014 Cup Series champion claimed: "The flames were really strange, the way that they were almost like it was a fuel fire. It sounds like they broke a valve spring, dropped a valve, and then it exploded. I think this was the third race on that particular engine, based upon the feedback I got from Larry [McReynolds]. Former NASCAR Cup Series driver, Kevin Harvick speaks at the Busch Light activation on the midway prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2025 in Daytona Beach,... Former NASCAR Cup Series driver, Kevin Harvick speaks at the Busch Light activation on the midway prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida. More"It's unfortunate, and I think when you look at this 11 car, they're in good shape. I think that the speed and the things that they have in this car are good. I think that he and Chris Gayle have gotten to a point of being able to know that they can win." Co-host, Mamba Smith, added: "Firstly, I'm glad he's okay, because I felt like he was in that car for a long time for how much smoke was coming through." He added: "We haven't seen engines blow like this in a very long time. And, if they're going to blow, at least they're spectacular." Harvick responded: "Those margins of speed are getting closer together. When those margins of speed get closer together they wind up pushing things a little further so, finding power becomes a lot harder. It comes in smaller increments which means to push the tolerances and parts and pieces a little bit differently. "But, we saw this - what I thought was a valve spring issue last year with the Toyota engines and they blew up three or four of them in a row." He later continued: " I think that when you start hearing valve spring, that to me is terrifying." Hamlin also addressed the incident on his Actions Detrimental podcast. The 23XI Racing co-owner stated: "I haven't been in that spot a ton, but you just don't want to get burned. "You can feel the heat coming from wherever it's coming from, but the smoke is the one thing that I don't want to get in my lungs and stuff like that. You got the safety vehicle people, they're spraying it with all the substance and whatnot. It's just that, but I was able to get out fine." The 44-year-old added that he was not aware that the car was on fire until he stopped. "I didn't feel anything until I stopped. A lot of it was because the wind was pushing it back behind the car. But the smoke got bad really quick. When I came to a stop, that's when the smoke started getting me pretty good."
Newsweek
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Kevin Harvick Reacts To Rodney Childer's Shock Spire Motorsports Exit
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick has shared his surprise at the unexpected exit of Rodney Childers from Spire Motorsports. Childers, who had only worked with Justin Haley's No. 7 team for nine races, left Spire Motorsports at the end of last month. Harvick and Childers partnered at Stewart-Haas Racing, and the duo collected 37 victories together during a decade-long partnership. Speaking on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast, the former driver commented: "That one kind of caught me off guard. Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John's Ford, and his crew chief, Rodney Childers walk on the grid during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on... Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John's Ford, and his crew chief, Rodney Childers walk on the grid during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. More"I think, as you look at the statements and things that everybody shared throughout the process, it seemed like it was a mutual agreement that it wasn't working. So, it'll be interesting to see how everybody moves on." He added: "I think that, you know, the No. 7 ran — didn't run great again this weekend. I think, as you look at Rodney and his credentials, hopefully he winds up somewhere where he'll make a difference, because I think he can. He's got the credibility, and the history of results that go with it." The news broke in late April, when Spire Motorsports confirmed they were parting ways with the crew chief. A statement from Spire Motorsports co-owner, Jeff Dickerson. — Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) April 23, 2025 Childers has since spoken out about the exit. He explained during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, as previously reported by Newsweek Sports: "Going into it, I was super excited about going there," he commented. "They had treated me really well. Our announcement last year [of his hiring] was big, and there was a lot of excitement around it. We had a great off-season. I felt like we had so much fun in the offseason... our equipment looked nice, we had a ton of really good guys come into the building, we were making, what I thought, was gains on the cars and just making them look better and nicer and lighter and all those things. "Really, everything was going fine. You could kind of tell after we got racing a little bit that maybe it wasn't going the way that we all wanted, and a lot of times that's performance-based or that can be how things are going at the shop or how things are going at the racetrack, and what's the communication like, and just the chemistry of all of it. It's not one person, it's not two people, it's 200 people, and just figuring that out as we went. "I think it finally came to a point where they could kind of tell I wasn't happy, and I could tell that maybe they weren't happy. "It just kind of started falling apart a little bit, and I could sense it a little bit maybe a couple of weeks before that. It started getting quiet around there, and anytime it gets quiet, you start wondering. "Overall, it was just one of those things that just wasn't working, and they're the type of team that is willing to pull the trigger, and a lot of teams don't. They're willing to take that chance... It doesn't bother me as badly as I thought it was going to because I didn't really feel it was working either. It just fell apart. "Like I said, they were super good to me while I was there, they're good people, they have a good race team, it was fun to be in the shop with the truck guys, and I'm going to miss a lot of those guys over there. But overall, it's time to think about things and move on."
