CONCORD, N.C. - Go ahead and talk about Kevin Harvick’s burnouts. Go ahead and delve into the notion, raised by some competitors this week, that burnouts where the tires blow or the car hits the wall are a sneaky way to destroy something that might not be legal and could be found by NASCAR in inspection after the race.
Go ahead and keep talking because Kevin Harvick is going to keep doing burnouts.
“Ron Hornaday started that back in 1998 with the burnouts and the things that go along with that,’’ Harvick said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I’m not going to tame down my celebration because that might be the last time I ever win a race.
“I know if you look at Carl Edwards, right here, he knocked the front end off his car. Things happen sometimes in postrace celebrations. I watched Denny Hamlin drive his car straight into the wall at Pocono for whatever reason. Those type of things are going to happen. I’m not going to back down celebrating. We work hard to get into those positions.’’
Asked about the talk this week about burnouts just days after his dominant win at Dover International Speedway, Harvick said: “Right now, we just move forward and try to do the best we can. They can talk about everything they want to talk about. For us, we’re going to talk about how to make our race car go faster and hopefully get back to Victory Lane and try to do that again.’’
Harvick says that there are times when he hasn’t done extensive burnouts after wins. He didn’t do one after his Xfinity win this season at Auto Club Speedway for JR Motorsports or with his truck at times because of the costs.
“I know it costs them $2,500 or $3,000 every time you do the burnout because you’ve got to replace the axles and things,’’ Harvick said. “On the Cup side, they’re going to throw them away anyway, so you might as well celebrate because they’re hard to win.’’