It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Kevin Harvick, and a team member from Prince Edward Island has contributed to that success.
Kensington native Mike McCarville is the shock specialist for Harvick at Stewart Haas Racing.
“It’s been a great start to the season for 2018,” said McCarville in a phone interview with the Journal Pioneer from Arizona on Wednesday. “Daytona didn’t go exactly the way we wanted getting wrecked out of the 500 (on Feb. 18). We had a very fast speedway car and got wrecked out, and we were running third at the time.
“It is bad luck when you wreck out of a race like that at the front of the pack, usually it’s mid pack or at the back that they are causing all the wrecks. We showed some speed at Daytona and we left there somewhere around 30th position (in the points standings) due to that. . .
“We went to Atlanta and won there (Feb. 25), and that was great for Kevin and his family. Then we came out to Vegas and unloaded quick with another mile-and-a-half intermediate car, and ended up winning there (March 4). Two wins out of the first three races and being able to go to Phoenix this coming weekend and being P1 in the (playoff) points, definitely says a lot about this race team going from 30th when we left Daytona.”
21st year
The 56-year-old McCarville is now in his 21st year working on the NASCAR Cup circuit.
“Still crawling under racecars like I’m 20,” quipped the son of Gerald and Jennie McCarville of Kensington.
On a serious note, however, McCarville’s job description entails many responsibilities.
“As a shock specialist on the 4 car of Kevin, basically week in and week out I’m responsible for all the shock builds and everything associated with the shock absorbers on the car, having our starting stuff ready and any rebuilds that have to happen due to it going to NASCAR tech deal for a tear down after a win, keeping everything updated with new seals and O-rings and all the pieces and parts that make up the Penske shocks that we use on the racecar.
“Also, on the bump stops that the car rides on we will take care of those, and also taking care of all the springs that are on the trailer and having everything available for the guys on the road when they need to change something on the racecar.”
Thus, depending on how race day goes, it could be a long following week for McCarville and crew members.
“We pretty well kept to a schedule the whole off-season as well,” said McCarville, a graduate of Kensington Intermediate-Senior High School (KISH). “In fact, we worked the off-season like it was the regular season.
“It’s paid off dividends early in the year, and we’ll just see how it goes as we go farther down the road in this 2018 racing season.”
How would a normal week unfold for McCarville during the racing season?
“Traditionally, when we are on the road and racing, we will have Mondays off after race day and we are back in the shop on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and we are back in the air in a plane on Thursdays flying out to the next race,” explained McCarville. “We don’t really have a whole lot of time off during the season once it starts.
“When we do get a chance to get a break, like this week we didn’t fly back to the East Coast. We won in Vegas on Sunday and we are day-tripping through Arizona.”
The team’s shop is based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, which McCarville describes as east of Charlotte.
“We have a two-building shop,” offered McCarville. “One building houses our (NASCAR) Cup stuff and everything we need to be on the Cup circuit. The other part of the F1 team and our Xfinity car that Cole Custer drives is out of the second building. We have quite an operation in Kannapolis, and pushing close to 400 employees.”
[email protected]
Twitter.com/JpsportsJason
https://www.facebook.com/jason.simmonds.180
