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Ward Burton
Guest
NASCAR Winston Cup driver Kevin Harvick hopes to announce within a month plans to run a full Craftsman Truck Series program in 2004 with a hired driver.
Harvick started a Truck Series team at Kevin Harvick, Inc., at the end of 2001 and ran his first race at Daytona in 2002. Since then Harvick has driven most of the truck's races, but that will change, he said Tuesday.
"When I started it I just wanted to go out and have fun," Harvick said. "I wanted to race something that I owned and put together.
"And now it's evolved in what looks like a full schedule next year with another driver and I'm going to have to watch it go around.
"My ultimate goal was to have a truck team and make mistakes as an owner -- well, I guess you could say while I could afford to make mistakes as an owner -- and not have to do it at a Busch or Winston Cup level."
While Harvick has been successful driving his truck -- he finally got a coveted Craftsman Truck Series victory last season at Phoenix, making him one of only six drivers to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national series with Mark Martin, Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader, Bobby Hamilton and Greg Biffle -- he was also suspended from a Winston Cup race at Martinsville after an incident in the truck race.
That did not stop Harvick from pushing ahead with the program, which he said would use engines from the Richard Childress Racing program he currently drives for in the Winston Cup and Busch Series.
"Hopefully we can get all the sponsorship stuff done in the next month and start hiring people and really start paying attention to who we want to put in the truck," Harvick said. "I want a young, marketable, aggressive driver somewhere between (the age of) 18 and 24.
"We want somebody we can use at RCR and maybe put in a Busch program or Cup program down the road. Hopefully, it'll be somebody who has had experience in the Truck Series."
Harvick said he's happier when he's racing more, but this step would fit in his larger scheme for the future, as well.
"I built that (truck) stuff so I could go out and drive it," Harvick said. "But now I'm so busy with the Busch car and Winston Cup car (that) I'm going to have to separate myself from being the driver and step back and be the owner and let the race fans and the sponsors relate to the driver we put in the truck.
"That'll be a little tough. But that'll give me some more time to run some more Busch races next year and still have plenty to do and a lot of fun."
