Harvick jokes, 'no pressure' on Lou's Rhodes

Ben Rhodes has yet to graduate high school -- that comes later this month -- and he's already a NASCAR champion in the K&N Pro Series East.

The Louisville native also has his own weekly TV show in town, sponsorship backing from his father's company, Alpha Energy Solutions, and a 10-race deal to drive a car that's already won twice in the Xfinity Series with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel.

Harvick, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion, joked Wednesday at an appearance in Louisville that there's "no pressure" on Rhodes. Of course, expectations are high for the polished 18-year-old Holy Cross student as he prepares for his May 17 Xfinity (formerly Nationwide) Series debut at the Iowa Speedway.

"I've been around him some," Harvick said, speaking at the opening of a new Ollie's Bargain Outlet at 9236 Westport Road. "Obviously he's been around all the weekends trying to learn and take information in. He seems like a good kid. I'm always back and forth working on the car, so I haven't been able to spend as much time with him as I probably should. But the cars are running great.

"...I know he wants to do good as bad as anybody, so it'll be good for him to get in the car and get that first race out of the way."

Rhodes spends most weekends at the track, observing the day-to-day operations of the team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who along with Cup Series regular Kasey Kahne also wheels the No. 88 Chevrolet on occasion.

Harvick drove the car to wins at Atlanta and again at the Auto Club Speedway in California, setting up Rhodes in one of the circuit's most-competitive rides. For Rhodes, "Right now it's just a matter of getting in there, getting experience and learning what it is you need to be doing," Harvick said.

Rhodes will have to make the most of his limited time behind the wheel. While Earnhardt Jr. said last month he hopes the Louisvillian will run full-time in the Xfinity Series, that means eventually finding more sponsorship.

"The sport's a lot different than what it used to be," Harvick said. "When I came in, there were a lot of opportunities, and the opportunities nowadays are a lot less than what they used to be. So you have to be polished. You have to be well-rounded. Then it just comes down to the performance on the track."

Harvick also fielded questions about this summer's Quaker State 400, set for July 11 at the Kentucky Speedway, as well as NASCAR's new rules package that this year reduced horsepower for Cup Series cars.

You've said you'd like to see NASCAR change the schedule up a little bit. Would Kentucky be a place you'd like to see maybe get a second race?

I don't think any place deserves a second race. I think when you look at maybe Daytona and some of the other race tracks -- if you look at the grandstands, and the grandstands aren't full, there's no way you should have a second race. You look at (Auto Club Speedway in California) -- they've done a great job. They used to have two races. They made one really great race from two mediocres. (Having two dates) doesn't accomplish anything for anybody. There's a lot of different places you could look at going, and I think Kentucky's good with one race.

The Quaker State 400's right around the corner. What are your thoughts on the track and coming here every year?

Kentucky's a unique racetrack. It obviously has a lot of character and a lot of bumps -- really fast race track even though it's worn out. So for us, it creates a lot of different challenges that we don't face on a weekly basis with our normal mile-and-a-half program, because it is so rough. It's a great race track. I'm looking forward to coming back.

Do you see the racing changing there because of the new rules package, or do you think it'll be pretty consistent with last year?

That's really the million-dollar question. You could look at it from a lot of different angles. I don't look at the stats. I don't watch the races. For me, we try to keep our head down and just grind away at what we're doing, so I think when you look at the rules package and the things they changed going into this year, there's a lot of different reasons why they did those things. The racing has been fairly good. You can classify a good race a good race of a bad race just like you can classify a good football game or a bad football game. And you never know why.

You look at the Pacquaio-Mayweather fight. It was one of the worst things I've ever watched last week, and it was billed as the fight of the century. A lot of times the hype and the expectations can be a huge letdown. I think we've had several good races this year. I think that's attributed to a lot of the rules changes and things they've done...There's always room for improvement, so as we go forward, we have to continuously look at what we're putting on the racetrack.

You guys seem to be fast everywhere. Is this the best you've performed dating back to the end of last season?

I think really, the performance all of last year was good. We had some mechanical issues that we had to work through at the beginning of last season, but the performance has been really good for a year and a half now, and everybody at Stewart-Haas racing is doing a good job. Rodney Childers, our crew chief, is just a machine and does a great job with a great team. So it's been a lot of fun to be the guy who gets to drive the car.

You said you saw the fight; did you watch the Kentucky Derby?

I didn't watch the Kentucky Derby. I was actually playing golf, but I did buy the fight. Yeah, I was pretty disappointed all in all, but I still watched.