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DAYTONA, FL – FEBRUARY 16: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light #BUSCHRACETEAM Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, fields questions from the media during Daytona 500 Media Day on February 16, 2022 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
via Getty
DAYTONA, FL – FEBRUARY 16: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light #BUSCHRACETEAM Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, fields questions from the media during Daytona 500 Media Day on February 16, 2022 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Kevin Harvick had a very peculiar season in 2022. For the longest time, the veteran suffered from inconsistency, but then, he won a couple of races, back-to-back, qualified for the playoffs, then exited swiftly as well.
Yet these were only the things pertaining to racing.
Harvick’s 2022 covered more than just racing.
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This is because the Stewart-Haas Racing driver, along with Denny Hamlin, became an advocate for driver’s safety with the controversial Next Gen car, firing fiery comment after comment, week after week, toward NASCAR.
At one point, Harvick himself came out of a burning car in Darlington, leading to one of his more iconic rants, one which birthed an entire line of merchandise, merchandise which recently got an update.
The 1x Cup champion recently endorsed the addition of a new black shirt and hat with the slogan, “Happy’s Crappy-A** Parts 4 Less,” on them.
NEW Black Shirt and Hat dropping just in time for a #CyberMonday sale!!
Head to https://t.co/F6bMPjDC5Z at midnight on 11/28 for the new black tee and Richardson 111 and 112 Trucker hats!!
ON MONDAY ONLY, use code Holiday25 for 25% off your ENTIRE ORDER!! pic.twitter.com/Vp6hOdt9Lg
— HappysEShop (@KHI_ESHOP) November 25, 2022
It’s worth mentioning that along with Harvick, his boss and former driver Tony Stewart too expressed his frustrations with NASCAR pretty directly late in the season.
“I’m not going to talk about it,” Stewart said per NASCAR on NBC. “I’m so mad at NASCAR right now, I’m not talking about it.”
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Kevin Harvick blasted NASCAR after his fire-laden exit from Darlington
In his post-race interview, Kevin Harvick didn’t hold back one bit on NASCAR, leading to his merchandise’s slogan, “Happy’s Crapy-A** Parts 4 Sale,” an instant classic among fans.
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“I’m sure it’s just crappy parts on the race car like we’ve seen so many times. They haven’t fixed anything. It’s kind of like the safety stuff. We just let it keep going and keep going,” Harvick ranted, according to Yahoo. “The car started burning and as it burned, the flames started coming through the dash.”
via Getty
DAYTONA, FL – FEBRUARY 16: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light #BUSCHRACETEAM Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, fields questions from the media during Daytona 500 Media Day on February 16, 2022 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The veteran described he ran “a couple laps” but then as the fire began spreading, he began to learn of the danger, something he termed, “a disaster for no reason.”
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“We didn’t touch the wall. We didn’t touch a car and here we are in the pits with a burned-up car and we can’t finish the race during the playoffs because of crappy-ass parts,” he added.
