Prior to coming in third at Bristol on Sunday, NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick took a break from racing action to travel to Richmond for a tour the Sandston Coca-Cola bottling plant last week and help promote the upcoming Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400 at the Richmond International Raceway.

  In the light-hearted press conference following the tour, Harvick, who does 100 such appearances each year, admitted he was surprised by what he saw at the plant. “I learned that this Coca-Cola facility is probably one of the most sanitary and organized facilities I’ve ever been to in my life,” said Harvick, who along with other members of the tour were required to wear hair nets and ear plugs throughout the tour. 

  Harvick jokingly said he would take the cleanliness standards he saw back home with him. “We took pictures all day and we’re going to take them back to my shop and show them how the floor is supposed to look.”

  During the tour, Harvick loaded 2-liter bottle cartons onto a conveyor, tasted a freshly bottled Diet Coke pulled straight from the line and watched how the plant processes recycled materials. Harvick also helped load aluminum tops into a machine that attaches them to the cans. “The most interesting thing, aside from being clean, was to see them put the tops on the Coke cans.” Harvick could appreciate the speed at which the job was done. “That’s pretty amazing, 1600 cans a minute.”

  But even at the Coke plant, Harvick could not get away from driving for long and ended up using a fork lift to load a pallet into the back of a semi. “Usually I run into something,” Harvick said. “Luckily the one here today had shorter forks than the one I have at my shop. I didn’t hit anything so I did all right.”

  But with the tour finished, Harvick moved back to business and broached several NASCAR issues.

  According to Harvick, RIR is one of the drivers’ favorite venues. “The drivers all like racing here because it’s kind of the short track racing like where we grew up but you still have the speed.”

  Harvick also said that it is the perennial near capacity crowds at RIR that brings the drivers back. “The fans are great here just from the fact that this place is always particularly full.”

  Harvick acknowledged that despite the fact that they are zooming by and over 150 mph, the drivers do see the fans. “When you come to Richmond you expect it to be full and you notice those type of things.” 

  According to Harvick the settlement of several off-track issues has led to a resurgence of NASCAR’s popularity this year.

  “There’s just so many more things that are settled this year and the common fan can relate to that stuff,” he said. “They understand when there’s uncertainty…They’re not stupid, they understand what’s going on and when something is simpler and easier and people know where it’s at, people want to come to watch.”

  Harvick said people don’t enjoy the off-track drama that has been an issue with NASCAR of late. “Nobody wants to watch who’s going to win this (Kentucky Speedway) lawsuit…They don’t want to know how much money you make,” he said. “They want to know who’s winning, who’s losing and who’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Keep it a sport.”

  And speaking of people not doing what they are supposed to be doing, Harvick threw in his two cents on Carl Edwards’ missing oil tank lid.

  “The oil tank lid doesn’t just fall off,” Harvick said. “The right side window, all of the latches were pushed in and evacuating air out the right side window. The oil tank was off the thing and the rocker panels were flared out. I mean you can make a long list of things. We can talk about oil tanks but it was pretty obvious it was more than just the oil tank.”

  Harvick even had a suggestion on how to resolve the controversy. “Those lie detector tests might be pretty interesting to watch,” he said. “Maybe we should put them on that ‘Moment of Truth’ show and see how it all works out.”

  Harvick said the Internet has made it hard for crews to avoid close scrutiny. “You can go home and see pictures for 1000 different angles of everybody’s cars. Harvick said he particularly likes the ones taken from the rooftop at Indianapolis.  “You can see the offset of the nose. You can see the offset of the roof. You can see which direction the roof’s twisted. You can see the hood. You can see everything involved in it.”

  Other items of Harvick’s discussion: 

  Goodyear’s irregular tires at the Atlanta Speedway:

  “The tire was not good,” Harvick said. “But one thing about something like our tire not being good is it’s not good for everybody.

  “Those are times that you come together as a team and try to make the car as good as you can,” Harvick said. “As a driver, you have to stay as focused as you can because it was probably one of the most frustrating days as a driver sitting in the seat because you really couldn’t do anything to make the car right.”

  “That was one of the most challenging races that I’ve ever been involved in because it was 500 miles,” Harvick said. “It was fun for about 150 laps, the challenge of the car, and I’m up for a challenge and it’s fun to do something different, but there was nothing you could do to really fix your car.

  “I went home and my hands were sore, my shoulders were sore, it took me an extra day to get over what that weekend was.”

  Despite the inconsistency of the tires, Harvick did find some good in them. “The one good thing Goodyear did do is we didn’t have any tire failures last week (at Atlanta), which is better than getting into something where we have a bunch of tire failures,” he said. “I’d rather have everybody screaming and yelling about the tires just not having grip than blowing out right front tires, in my opinion.”

  Yet, Harvick feels Goodyear should follow the example that NASCAR itself has set. “They need to step up and do a better job,” he said. “As competitors you want the sport to be as good as you can. You see the teams evolving the cars, you see NASCAR putting better, safer cars on the track. You see the tracks putting up safer walls. I think it’s just time for them to reevaluate their testing procedures and maybe approach the whole program a little differently than they would in the past and try to make a better tire.”

  On Kyle Busch currently being the points leader for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:

  “It’s scary,” Harvick joked, but said he could relate to Busch from his own fiery past. “I think as a driver you can be confident in yourself, you can drive the racecar hard, but you get tired of, if you do things that aren’t acceptable to NASCAR or the public or whatever the case may be, it becomes draining on you and you get tired of doing the same stupid thing over and over.

  “Some people would say I’ve gotten mellower,” Harvick said. “I haven’t gotten mellower as, hopefully, I’ve gotten smarter because if you don’t take those situations and learn from them, then shame on you. I think in Kyle’s case, he’s got tremendous car control, he’s fun to watch race and he’s very confident in what he does and some people don’t understand who he is. I don’t know him that well either but I can relate because I’ve been in that situation where you’re confident in what you do and you’re fortunate to win races, and you’re with a high profile time. As you get older you go through more of that and you just understand how to handle that.”

  The Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race will be run at RIR on May 3 and tickets are still available.