Kevin Harvick’s first year in the booth full-time for FOX went swimmingly, as he drew rave reviews from NASCAR fans, media and drivers alike.
Now that FOX’s portion of the schedule has come to a close, Harvick can focus his attention on other matters, but he’s still providing some interesting commentary on the sport, through social media and his Harvick’s Happy Hour show, which is produced by FOX. There’s enough Harvick to go around.
Speaking with Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal, Harvick provided some insight into how content works with FOX. Evidently, the company truly allows him and his peers to be themselves, as they want everything to be as authentic as possible as it pertains to the broadcast.
“That’s one of the unique things I found with Fox is that they hired you for a reason and they kind of turn you loose and if you do something wrong, then they’ll say, ‘Hey, you may want to do this or that,’ but they want you to be yourself,” Harvick explained, as he was initially surprised by the matter.
While his Harvick’s Happy Hour show has been a hit — Stern noted it’s been praised as the No. 1 NASCAR podcast during much of the first half of the season via Fox’s Senior VP/Digital Content Michael Bucklin — it’s the broadcast where most hear Harvick’s takes.
The former NASCAR champion joined veteran play-by-play announcer Mike Joy, and his former teammate and driving peer Clint Bowyer in the booth. It really helped create an interesting dynamic, and Harvick realizes that.
“It’s not that I didn’t know Mike but I didn’t know him like I knew Clint,” Harvick said, regarding the FOX booth. “Clint and I are just total opposites of who we are as people and that has become more of a constant with the natural interaction and ribbing between us and finding that balance of what’s too much. Mike is a good referee and has really been able to give us a lot of balance and structure.”
One instance Harvick cited as an awesome learning experience was the photo-finish at Atlanta in February, where Daniel Suarez won the race via a three-wide battle at the line. It’s stuck in Harvick’s mind as he looks back on the season that was.
“Clint was super comfortable with going back and forth with Mike and I just sort of stepped back and watched with that one, just finding the areas where you intervene and raise your voice and when you feel like you need to make a bold comment — finding that timing of when all that is right, you just have to do it and talk about it all when you get done because it’s really a trial-by-fire thing,” Harvick revealed.
Alas, it’s evident that Kevin Harvick is pretty dang talented when it comes to this whole broadcasting thing. Moving forward, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion will only improve, and it should continue being a joy to receive his insight on the day-to-day operations in the sport.
The post Kevin Harvick: FOX will ‘kind of turn you loose’ in the NASCAR booth appeared first on On3.