Kevin Harvick: ‘I would be alarmed if I was still in that Ford camp’

Now that Kevin Harvick is retired he can air out all of the grievances. That means getting very honest about what is wrong with the Ford teams. Things have not clicked this season and the blue ovals are winless in the NASCAR Cup Series this season.

Kevin Harvick did not have a great season in his final year with Ford and Stewart-Haas Racing. In many ways, those same problems are still persisting and weighing down these teams.

It goes beyond SHR to the rest of the Ford camp. Even the new Dark Horse Mustang body cannot fix the issues with these teams. Harvick talked about those issues plaguing the Ford camp on his Happy Hour podcast.

“I think the elephant in the room on the whole SHR thing is the chatter about all the charters and are they gonna sell, not going to sell,” Harvick explained. “That’s a tough position to put the whole team in. Because I hear it just like everybody else, I’m sure you guys hear the same thing, and I think for an employee, a driver, you gotta go through the year. I went through that in 2013, they knew I was leaving RCR but we all sat down and were professionals.

“It’s still difficult, right? Because if it is shutting down, everybody is looking for a job. It’s not too soon to look for a job, ever. So, I think from a Ford standpoint you’ve got the uncertainty with SHR and everything that they have going on. Noah’s run good, we’ve seen some flashes here and there from some of their other cars. I think the 22 is not good. Had a couple of good weeks to start the season, hasn’t shown anything since then.

“Ryan Blaney has had some speed, he was up front at Dover, but nothing really to shine there. Cindric hasn’t been good except for Talladega they were good here and there on the superspeedways. RFK in my opinion hasn’t had the speed this year that they’ve had in the past. Everything that I hear, it’s the same exact problem that they had last year. The cars are tighter in traffic, won’t turn into the corner, won’t change directions well. I would be alarmed if I was still in that Ford camp.”

Kevin Harvick knows how things work in these Ford teams. Even as a retired driver, he has connections and he hears things. He is absolutely right, too. If you are driving one of those Mustangs, then you just don’t know if you are going to unload with speed.