Kevin Harvick enters this weekend’s race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in survival mode, suggesting there’s a 50 percent chance he’ll wreck and get a precautionary ride to the garage in an ambulance.
“You just go, and you push and shove as hard as you can all day and try to keep yourself out of all the wrecks,” Harvick said. “Hopefully, it’s your lucky day and you don’t wreck. You have a 50-50 shot of survival when you go to Talladega, and that is just kind of how it is.”
Harvick, who has produced nine consecutive top-10 finishes to climb to fifth in the standings, has become the king of survival. He has not recorded a “did not finish” in 73 consecutive races, a modern-day (1972- present) NASCAR record.
He might be concerned his luck will end at Talladega — NASCAR’s biggest oval at 2.66 miles — because a mistake by one driver can often cause a 10-car wreck.
“Basically, all you do is to try to put yourself in the best position to stay up front,” Harvick said. “However, you have seen that the wrecks can start anywhere. There is really no safe spot.”
Newman could drive.
When the 2001 movie “Driven” was released, Paul Newman must have been embarrassed of his craft. Both crafts.
Newman was a legendary actor and predominant team owner in the Champ Car World Series, upon which “Driven” was based. If he had anything to do with the movie, he would have insisted that director Renny Harlin seek counseling and remind actors Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds that putting out bad films is no way to revive a Hollywood career.
It was the worst auto-racing movie ever, so far-fetched and unrealistic that it made Tom Cruise’s “Days of Thunder” look respectable, which it was not.
Newman was an expert racer, a competitive driver who built Newman-Haas Racing into one of the best teams in the American open-wheel ranks.
His death last week might have hit the racing community the hardest because he never lived the Hollywood lifestyle, and he almost never missed a Champ Car race when healthy. His passion for the sport and deep-rooted charity work for the less fortunate resonated with his racing peers.
“The Paul Newman I knew loved his family, fast cars and fishing,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of NASCAR’s Hendrick Motorsports. “He was an amazing actor, a generous philanthropist and a caring friend. I’ve never met anyone so diversely talented, yet so humble and authentic. He was pure magic.”
Hollywood was fortunate to have Newman. In auto racing circles, we were blessed.
“He’s going to be missed, not just in the motor racing world but in every area that he participated in,” said Justin Wilson, a former Loveland resident and Newman-Haas driver. “He affected so many people in a positive way.”
