(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
I was three months shy of eight years old on Feb. 18, 2001. Too young to fully grasp concepts like love, pressure, life and death. But it’s one of the first days of my youth that I can remember, because of one key moment that ultimately helped form the early foundations of each concept in my mind.
That was the day my childhood hero, and the champion of many American racing fans – Dale Earnhardt – died in a last-lap crash during the Daytona 500. I was jumping around on the couch when my mother received a call from my sister, letting her know the news of his passing after seeing it emblazoned on whatever news program she was watching at the time.
What followed were months of sorrow, processing and grief. I was too young to completely grasp what was going on, but many others were forced to come to terms with Earnhardt’s inconceivable loss while trying to rediscover some semblance of normalcy. Many lives were irreversibly altered.
Then there was Kevin Harvick.
Harvick’s rise to the NASCAR Cup Series was coming due at the time. The young prospect from Bakersfield, California, had shown promise in his first Busch (now Xfinity) Series season in 2000, scoring three wins while claiming Rookie of the Year honors and finishing third in the championship despite a DNQ in the second race at Rockingham Speedway.
Richard Childress Racing had a potential star on its hands. Harvick was poised to take a step forward in his sophomore season at NASCAR’s second level, contending for the series title while making select Cup starts. The 25-year-old seemed an obvious candidate to either become a teammate to or replace Earnhardt in 2002, should the seven-time Cup champion elect to retire.
But Earnhardt never got that chance, and Harvick no longer had the extra time to grow. On the Wednesday after Earnhardt’s passing the call was made to lift Harvick up to the Cup Series, meaning he’d run full-time in both of NASCAR’s top levels for the rest of 2001. He’d be on-track at Rockingham in two days and make his official Cup debut two days after that.
In doing so, Harvick would carry the weight of a crestfallen team, the necessities of reeling sponsors and the emotional toil of an entire sport.
RCR did what it could to help Harvick stand on his own, painting the car white instead of its iconic silver-and-black, and changing the number from 3 to 29. Harvick himself did what he could to limit expectations, telling the assembled media “don’t expect me to be like him” prior to his Rockingham debut. Yet it was impossible for the kid from California to immediately step out of Earnhardt’s shadow.
That would take time – so, so much time. Time Harvick might not ever be afforded if things went sour. At the moment, Harvick was stepping into a ride prepared for a NASCAR icon with the need to soothe a grieving fan base.
The expectations were arduous. Incalculable. Unfair.
But somehow, someway, Harvick rose to the occasion.
His first Cup start ended in a quiet 14th, coming two days before his marriage to wife DeLana. A week later Harvick rose into the top-10 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing eighth. But it was Harvick’s third start at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a track he’d later become noteworthy at for his tire management running the ‘Harvick Line’ around the bottom, where the Californian truly made his mark.
Harvick exceeded all expectations on that day, prevailing in a five-car battle over the last 10 laps and surviving a last-corner lunge from longtime Earnhardt rival Jeff Gordon in a .006-second photo finish to claim his first Cup win in just his third start.
The crowd roared. His crew – Earnhardt’s crew – openly wept on pit road. Harvick smoked his tires, turned his No. 29 Chevrolet around and stuck three fingers out of his driver’s side window, raising them to the fans and the sky in one of NASCAR’s greatest, most cathartic moments.
For a few brief minutes, everything felt right with the world. Many in NASCAR, including this young soon-to-be-eight-year-old in Indiana, healed a small amount that day.
Had Harvick done nothing else, that memory would have etched him into the sport’s lore forever. But he quickly proved the early success to be no fluke.
The 2001 season saw Harvick tally a second win in Chicagoland Speedway’s first Cup race, along with six top-fives and a ninth-place points finish. He earned Rookie of the Year honors once again, beating out soon-to-be Cup champ Kurt Busch and Casey Atwood. In the Busch Series, Harvick performed as expected, winning five races and claiming the championship in an effort that foreshadowed NASCAR’s ‘Buschwacking’ era, where Cup stars began to take wins and championships from series regulars en masse.
In the ensuing years, Harvick began to carve his own niche in the sport. He won again at Chicagoland in 2002 and scored his first marquee victory in the 2003 Brickyard 400. Harvick’s first breakout year came in 2006, where he triumphed five times while also claiming another Busch Series title. Three months later Harvick claimed NASCAR’s ultimate prize, winning the 2007 Daytona 500 in one of the Great American Race’s most iconic finishes.
Along the way Harvick feuded with veterans (Ricky Rudd) and fellow newcomers (Greg Biffle) alike. Early questions over whether he was trying to be the Intimidator faded away as Harvick showed that he brought his own style, wit and competitive intensity. Harvick remained a contender and unique personality as the years went on, steadily becoming one of NASCAR’s leading figures. He slowly marched out of Earnhardt’s shadow and began to build an impressive legacy of his own.
Harvick continued on with RCR from 2001 through 2013, winning 23 Cup races and finishing as high as third in the standings.
That era was defined by key moments. Winning at Atlanta and Daytona. Hopping over Biffle’s car to lunge at him in a WWE-esque move in 2002, walking across the roof of Rudd’s car in 2003. Intentionally wrecking Coy Gibbs in a Truck race at Martinsville Speedway.
There were also the quotes, both from and against Harvick. In 2010 Harvick spoke of the famed “golden horseshoe” that was joking alleged to be stuck up the rear of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 team. The same year brought the accusation from a young Joey Logano that Harvick’s wife. DeLana, “wears the firesuit in that family and tells him what to do.” Rudd said he couldn’t tell what Harvick was saying because “he’s got that little yap-yap mouth” after their 2003 run-in. Over time Harvick was awarded the ironic nickname ‘Happy’ for his dry sarcasm and general chippiness.
But perhaps Harvick’s biggest moment in his RCR tenure was a key decision he made before what became a lame-duck season with the organization in 2013, when the Californian elected to make the leap to Stewart-Haas Racing for 2014.
The move was a risky one, but it quickly proved worth the effort. Not only did Harvick get establish his own legacy as the organization’s top driver, but it also paid immediate dividends when Harvick marched through the first elimination playoffs and made the Championship 4 with a key victory at Phoenix Raceway. One week later he narrowly defeated the underdog Ryan Newman from RCR itself to secure his lone Cup title.
That first year was a sign of things to come.
Despite racing through what statistically should have been the twilight of his career, Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers have rang up 37 of Harvick’s 60 Cup wins over the past nine years. Harvick’s never hoisted up another Cup title, but he’s made the Championship 4 four additional times and finished fifth in two of the other campaigns.
The noteworthy moments have continued to pour in. Harvick’s scuffled with Jimmie Johnson at Chicagoland Speedway and pushed Brad Keselowski into a memorable tussle with Gordon and his crew at Texas Motor Speedway. He caused a controversial crash that helped him advance in the playoffs at Talladega Superspeedway in 2015 and feuded on-track with Chase Elliott in 2021, crashing out of postseason contention at the Charlotte Roval while trying to outrun an angry Elliott after Harvick had sent him into the barrier earlier in the race.
Off-track, Harvick’s grown into a leader. Where once his soundbites were tied to vitriol with other drivers, they’ve recently been used to support the driver safety movement spurred on by concussion concerns with the Next Gen car. He’s mentored young drivers as those he grew up with exit the sport and has spent time raising his two children, bringing them each along for celebratory burnouts after wins at Michigan International Speedway.
Spending that quality time with his kids was one of Harvick’s clear aims for the future. His son Keelan, 9, has taken early steps toward his own racing career, competing in karts. Harvick’s missed many of those early races due to his NASCAR conflicts. That’s part of the reason Harvick is retiring. He wants to be present when Keelan is racing and as Piper, 5, grows into her own hobbies and ambitions, and to be able to give assistance and guidance to the young athletes associated with his KHI Management company.
That requires time, and NASCAR doesn’t afford much of it to its competitors. The series is notorious for taking up the bulk of its participants’ free time with its 38 busy race weekends and myriad associated requirements. It’s impossible to dedicate everything required of a top-level racer and still have the time to be at all family events.
“From a personal side, I’m just out of time,” Harvick said in an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “When I see that I’m having to give up days because I don’t have options. I need things to do (sic) where I have more options with my kids.”
“I’ve always told you that when it started affecting my kids it was going to be probably the deciding factor,” he added. “That’s really in the end what the deciding factor was.”
His time to leave has come, so ‘The Closer’ is going about closing out his legendary career.
#4EVER pic.twitter.com/iH5dzpt4HY
— Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick) January 12, 2023
And it has been legendary. Harvick is a Cup champion, has two Xfinity Series titles, won the old Winston West series in 1998 and even tacked on an IROC championship in 2002. He’s entered the top-10 on the all-time wins list with 60 Cup victories, many of which come in the sport’s biggest races – a Daytona 500, two Coca-Cola 600s and Southern 500s, a pair of Brickyard 400s. Two All-Star Race wins. Harvick’s also claimed Craftsman Truck Series titles as a team owner owner and 14 races in the tour as a driver.
A Cup career that began in the darkest of circumstances has shined bright for over two decades, entertaining NASCAR fans from the sport’s golden years into the Next Gen era. Harvick could have been forgiven if he floundered under the immense weight of the circumstances he was placed in upon his arrival, but he carried the burden better than any could have hoped, becoming a bona-fide star and future Hall of Fame inductee on his own merit.
“The unbelievable became the believable thanks to the help and support of so many,” Harvick said of his career in his retirement video.
One can only hope he realizes just how many people he’s helped and supported along the way, too – whether in that emotional 2001 trip to Atlanta or in the 22 years since. I’m sure plenty of people plan to remind him throughout his final year behind the wheel.
