Kevin Harvick reflects on return to racing, getting smoked by Bubba Pollard, losing to him in beer drinking as well

Kevin Harvick was back on the racetrack this past weekend, taking part in an ASA race at Five Flags Speedway on Friday. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour show, Harvick talked about his experience of competing in the race after announcing his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series last year.

“It was fun. I had a blast,” Harvick said. Learned a new racetrack, learned a new car, got my butt kicked by Bubba Pollard, Bubba Pollard lapped me, so that made me feel pretty good. We went to Pensacola, Florida to Five Flags Speedway. I think they had almost 6,000 people show up to the race, which is the track where they have the Snowball Derby.

Harvick went on to say he, “stuck around after the race and signed autographs for about an hour and a half with the fans, which led to a beer-drinking competition that I’ll always lose against Bubba Pollard. Thank God it rained because that would have been a disaster. It started downpouring, and we had to leave.”

Despite getting beat by Pollard on and off the track, Harvick loved the experience. “We’re going to the short tracks and enjoying the time,” Harvick added. “I definitely enjoyed myself. We definitely need to work on our car a little bit to make it a little better, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we race a few more times. It was too much fun.

Kevin Harvick wanted to step out of his ‘comfort zone’

Harvick then talked about being nervous when he first got there. “I’d never been there, I’ve hadn’t driven the car,” Harvick revealed. “You’re racing against the best of the best super late model guys in the country. They can go anywhere in the country, that group of guys, and win races. But that’s how I wanted to do it. I wanted to step away outside of my comfort zone to be able to say okay, these are the cars I want to race. I need to go race against the best guys, because that’s how you get better quicker.”

Harvick then said he “felt good” until the 50th lap when he started getting hot. He revealed the alternator went out, the cool shirt went out, and all of his fans went off. Thankfully, Harvick survived the Florida heat as he will be racing at North Wilkesboro in August.

“We’re just gonna switch up cars,” Harvick said. .”..It’s a totally different car, late model stock. It’s CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro. That’s the series that myself and Dale [Earnhardt Jr.] and Jeff Burton, Justin Marks own that we’ve ran for the last couple of years. I’m looking forward running that race at North Wilkesboro Aug. 3.