INDIANAPOLIS — Kevin Harvick admitted on Saturday that while he was in Italy this past June with his son Keelan, he had a fall. As a result, he suffered broken ribs.

Harvick subtly said that it had been an interesting year for how things have worked out this season. He felt like they had performed okay with what they had.

“The guys have done a good job in making something out of it,” he said on Saturday morning from the IMS media center. “We put ourselves in position to have a chance to win a couple of races. Had some bad ones and some good ones, kind of fought and scraped and worked through an injury after the break.”

Injury??

That’s exactly what he said and meant.

“I fell down a flight of steps in Italy and had a stack of busted ribs for several weeks,” Harvick acknowledged Saturday to the surprise of the assembled media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

While the timetable isn’t exact on when in June he was there, it would make sense to be during the off week.

In the five races prior, he finished in the top 11 in each (11th, 2nd, 11th, 10th, 11th). In the three races after? 24th, 29th, 30th. Those three took place in Nashville, Chicago street race and Atlanta.

Since Loudon, he’s turned it back on in finishing 4th, 4th, 10th, 8th the last four weeks.

Now, Harvick comes to Indy making his 23rd and final start here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last three on the 2.439-mile road course layout. The Bakersfield, California native doesn’t hide about the fact that he’d rather be racing on the oval instead.

“I love the shared weekend. Look race car drivers like being around race car drivers. I like watching other divisions race I just don’t like racing on a road course,” said the 3-time Brickyard 400 champion last year. “I feel like it’s a parking lot track but doesn’t flow very well. It’s not a very it’s just not a very good course. I mean, it’s not Road America and it’s not Sonoma and it’s not Watkins Glen and it’s, you know, it’s just not a good track.

“Running on the roval is embarrassing for our series.”

With the rumored move back to the oval next season, would Harvick entertain one more race on it? He said absolutely not on Saturday too. That’s because not only did he win the last time out on it, he won the last two times at that. He’s very satisfied for those to be his mic drop walk off.

“My last race on the oval I won, so I feel pretty good about that,” said Harvick, who won the Brickyard 400 in 2003, 2019 and 2020. “It just kind of ended up that way.”