Kevin Harvick weighs in on new manufacturer entering NASCAR

Prior to this past weekend’s season finale for NASCAR at Phoenix Raceway, President Steve Phelps held a press conference regarding the current state of the sport, where he alluded to another manufacturer joining the sport.

There’s been talk regarding a new OEM (original equipment manufacturer) joining Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in NASCAR over the next couple of seasons. Phelps wouldn’t confirm or deny any particular brands, but he stirred the pot a bit by confirming conversations.

Former Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick is someone who would love to see a new manufacturer join the fray, and it’s beginning to look like more of a real possibility. He tried to make sense of the whole situation, including touching on some areas that might not have jumped off the page when originally considered.

“We’ve heard a lot of rumors about Honda coming into the sport,” Harvick stated, via the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “Whether it’s them or not, I don’t know that to be true, but they keep bringing up the fact that there’s a new manufacturer coming into the sport, and I want to see it. I mean, I think that, if we can get another manufacturer to come into the sport, it just opens up opportunities for so many different teams.

“When Toyota came into the sport, the CEO of General Motors was talking in a group and somebody asked, ‘What are we going to do about Toyota coming into truck racing?’ He said, ‘Well, we’re going to make them see our back bumper.’ So on the flip side of that, they had to go out and start finding truck teams. I wound up with a truck team that General Motors started with us, to go out and compete against the Toyotas. That’s really how full-time KHI truck racing started.

“So, bringing another manufacturer in opens up the competition between the manufacturers, but it also opens up the pocketbook between the manufacturers, for the manufacturers to spend more money, maybe with less teams. Then, you have a new manufacturer coming in, and it’s going to change the scope of what that particular team that they choose to be their lead team is. We saw what it did with Joe Gibbs Racing when Toyota came in. You know, you had Bill Davis Racing on the truck side. But it changed a lot for KHI, just because Chevrolet didn’t want to get beat by Toyota.”

As Kevin Harvick explained, a new manufacturer would also cause Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota to up their game. That’s something everyone in NASCAR can get behind, as the on-track product would certainly benefit.

Time will tell when a new manufacturer is added to the sport, but it seems like a matter of when, not if, for the NASCAR Cup Series.