Kevin Harvick Plays Puppeteer as He Controls Few of the Biggest Deals in NASCAR

Apart from being one of the most iconic drivers of the modern era, Kevin Harvick is a successful entrepreneur. Along with his wife DeLana Harvick, the 47-year-old had first ventured into the business side of the NASCAR industry with a racing team. Now, the veteran race car driver owns a sports and celebrity marketing agency called KHI Management. Over the years, they have signed a number of big names and Kevin Harvick has overseen every single one of those deals.

Kevin Harvick’s foray into the business side of NASCAR began way back in 2002. It was back then that he founded the Kevin Harvick Incorporated racing team. The team won two Truck Series titles so far and has also competed in the Xfinity Series. The original team ceased to exist in 2011. However, KHI Management has been a highly successful venture for Harvick so far.

Kevin Harvick’s role in saving a fellow driver’s career revealed

On a recent episode of the Dale Jr Download podcast, KHI Management’s vice-president Josh Jones revealed what it was like working with Kevin Harvick. Jones also revealed how the veteran driver’s insights and information have helped the company secure important deals.

“Kevin oversees our company, he gives input, he sees it all, he is a part of everything. 99.9% of the time he’s giving the right information,” Jones said.

He then went on to describe how Kevin Harvick was crucial in KHI Management signing a prominent figure in the NASCAR Cup Series today, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. In 2019, Stenhouse announced that he had signed a deal with Roush Fenway Racing, keeping him in the team until 2021. However, the team announced later that he would be replaced by Chris Buescher in 2020.

The decision at the time was widely criticized by a number of people involved in NASCAR, especially Kevin Harvick. However, the veteran racer’s business mind helped KHI Management sign the out-of-contract driver and find him a new team that very year.

“Nobody’s perfect but he gives the right information to the point where he was a big part of the Ricky Stenhouse deal. Cause I texted him, told him where I was and within five seconds told me three teams that had drivers available. You gotta remember this, this was after the Roval when this happened,” Josh Jones said.

“Four years ago. This was after the Roval. There’s not much time left in the year to find a job and we were fortunate enough to find it by working together. And we had Ricky…Ricky was let go…he finished the season but Ricky was let go and four hours later we had a contract in hand,” the KHI vice-president added.

Oftentimes what makes a business successful is the personal touch of the boss. It is widely believed that there should be a clear line between the personal and the professional. However, Kevin Harvick has proved that slightly blurring the line is never a bad idea.

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On the same episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Josh Jones revealed how Kevin Harvick talks business with sponsors. It is indeed a testament to how good an entrepreneur the veteran racer really is.

“I mean, he’s (Kevin Harvick) started this company. But one thing about Kevin that you’ll learn that and you’ve known Kevin for a long time you two Kelley. It’s like it doesn’t matter if it’s he’s mad. He’s happy. He’s being a parent if somebody reaches out to him whether it’s work-related client related customer,” Jones said.

“He will stop is what he’s doing and work on it and in this case he has a relationship with these sponsors they’re not just sponsors. They’re friends. They text Kevin after races whether he wins or lose those cinema texts and Kevin responds back He’s that kind of driver, that kind of owner of his management company that he communicates them directly,” the KHI Management vice president added.

Kevin Harvick will say his farewell to NASCAR as a racer at the end of this year. But by no means will he be absent from the action. However, the lack of his presence on the track in the thick of the action will indeed feel a bit bizarre after so many years.

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