We all remember Kevin Harvick’s 2014 championship season, the fight between Jeff Gordan and Brad Keselowski, and Harvick leaving his home of 13 seasons at Richard Childress Racing to join Stewart-Hass Racing, looking to win his first and only Cup Series championship.

“Why I went to Stewart Haas was to have a chance to win a championship,” said Harvick in his recent podcast when asked about his championship season and the shift to his new team. We all know what happened that year, 5 wins and a championship triumph with the Harvick and Rodney Childers linking up for their very first year.

But what we might not know is that there was a hand of someone unexpected behind Harvick’s success that year. 

Kevin Harvick had the backing of a secret ally

“We went into the weekend and actually struggled in practice. And Jimmy Johnson was a huge help….after every practice, he would stand there, What do you need? How’s it going? What’s the struggle here? But we had the relationship with the Hendrick Group at that time. And so Jimmy was a big help. And we worked our way through getting the car better,” Harvick admitted in his podcast. This was the championship race in Homestead Miami Speedway in 2014 and the first year where the new playoff system was implemented by NASCAR.

Despite jumping ships from Richard Childress Racing and their Chevy program, Harvick and the No. 4 team were somewhat in cahoots with Hendrick drivers, and Johnson played a role in their success. Harvick further explained how this relationship and the hand of one man was crucial for his championship run, Rick Hendrick himself. 

“I think when you talk about Jimmie, I felt like you needed to have an H [Rick Hendrick] in your equation with the Hendrick side of things and have that relationship, and they had that. I thought that at that time, that was the only way that you were going to win a championship was to be in something that they supported and have those engines in the car with the Chevrolets and everything that they did.” Harvick admitted.

Well, thanks to this support, Stewart Haas Racing became part of the Big 4 organizations. Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske and Stewart-Haas were the giants of the last decade. Rodney Childers and Harvick after bagging the championship, came close to winning the title five more times with championship 4 appearances until 2019. This was followed by 36 race wins and an All-Star victory. But, after 2017, SHR opted to switch partners and joined the Ford camp.

Apart from the memory lane visit to his championship-winning year, Harvick was also thorough with the latest happenings and big talks after the race weekend in Vegas. Although this was Josh Berry’s crowing moment, the former SHR driver couldn’t help but share his views on Christopher Bell’s pit road antics.

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Harvick questions NASCAR’s neutral stance

Ideally, Bell and the No. 20 team should’ve been chasing a fourth consecutive win in Vegas. However, unforeseen circumstances on the pit road led to their hustle to avoid a penalty from NASCAR during their trip to pit road. The No. 20 Toyota Camry had a loose tire after Bell left the pit box, had the tire fallen off the race car his team would have received a potential suspension. But Adam Stevens and Bell it smart and before he exited the pit road, he parked his race car in the No. 10 pit box and tightened the lug nut.

He was sent to the rear of the field during the restart, but he saved his team from the suspension and potential fine. Although this was a safe practice then a wheel coming loose on the racetrack, Harvick couldn’t help but highlight the flaw in this tactic. “What about the guy who only has one car, is that fair, who doesn’t have a teammate to stop in their box?”

“If Chase Elliott decides he’s going to pull into Chase Briscoe’s box, is it okay? Or is he just there for the sale? So now every team is going to do it. I agree with the safer piece of it, it’s better to not have the wheel fall off, but is it fair? Because in the end, it has to be fair,” Harvick argued.

He was speaking for single-car teams like Hyak Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing, and Haas Factory Team. They do not have the option like the legacy teams to rely on their teammates or partners on the pit road. So in turn this new trend could even send them down in the pecking order. Well, NASCAR needs to find a fix for this issue and this should come soon, a lot of loose tires have been sliding out of the racecars in 2025.