Kahne, Harvick reveal exactly nothing about 2011 plans

The NASCAR Media Week is in full swing, and judging from the volume of Twitter tweets, you’d think there was a landslide of news pouring out of Charlotte. And indeed there is … if your idea of "landslide" is a muddy trickle. Sure, there’s plenty of information coming out — new spotters, new sponsors, and the like — but in terms of actual hard, non-spun, non-PR-firm-processed news, well … there ain’t a whole lot of that. (Judge for yourself by following our NASCAR Media Week Twitter feed right here.)

Nowhere has that been more evident than in the press conferences featuring NASCAR’s hottest free-agents-to-be. Kyle Busch took the wind out of everyone’s sails on Monday when JGR announced it had locked him down for years to come. And on Tuesday, the Big Two — Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick — met the media with an opportunity to lay the groundwork for their contract years, and delivered … zip.

Neither guy offered any hint of whether he would hang around with his current team — Richard Childress Racing for Harvick, Richard Petty Motorsports for Kahne — after the end of the season.

"The
contract thing, it is what it is," Harvick said in his press conference. "I’m not going to dwell on that. My
goal is to have fun and we’re going to race a lot Nationwide, Truck and
Cup. We’re going to be in the race car a lot and I just want to have
fun with racing and life and do everything in the middle and just make
it a good year. If it’s like last year, it won’t be any fun.”

USA Today’s Nate Ryan noted in his Twitter feed: "Richard Childress admits it got a little acrimonious
w/ @KevinHarvick last yr but seems optimistic keeping him after way ‘09
ended." Childress also noted that "the door is always open" for Harvick to return in 2011.

Kahne, meanwhile, was equally outspoken during the 2009 season.  From Jeff Gluck’s Twitter: [Kahne] "says teams are interested in hiring him but says he would be open to RPM return."

For Kahne to come back, however, it would require "performance … That’s all I’ve ever really asked for. It’s all I ever wanted to do is run well and race well.” Good news for RPM fans, though: as Scene Daily’s Bob Pockrass noted, "Kasey Kahne says he wants to give this new RPM a chance before deciding whether to stay or go."

So, yeah — no real news. But Kahne and Harvick had better get their pat answers ready, because they’re going to be hammered with these questions all year long.

Kahne, Harvick reveal exactly nothing about 2011 plans