Kevin Harvick Reveals How His Father Steered Him Away From His True Passion Over Life-Threatening Concerns

Kevin “Happy” Harvick was hands down one of the most dominating drivers of his time. Especially from 2010 to 2020, this decade has Harvick written all over it, the veteran only twice finished a season outside the top 5 in this time. Well, if we look back in time, 2006 was the season when the world of NASCAR took notice of Harvick. Yes, Jimmie Johnson was all the rage for winning his first title, bagging 5 wins, but Harvick too won 5 races in that season, finishing 4th.

It’s not for anyone that NASCAR makes a new exhibit in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The ‘Harvick 4Ever Champion’ exhibit has all the cars from the 5 championships Harvick won (one in Cup, 2 in Xfinity, 2 in Go-karts). Despite all the accolades, not many people know that Harvick wasn’t always en route to a NASCAR career.

What was Kevin Harvick’s initial goal in racing?

Well, Harvick had the most bittersweet start to his Cup Series career. It was the year 2001, and still a year more left for the Xfinity driver to debut full-time in the Cup. But the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. forced Richard Childress to bring Harvick in a year sooner. And the rookie in just his third race defeated Earnhardt Sr’s biggest rival of the time, Jeff Gordon.

What a fitting tribute! Harvick, all in all, went on to win 60 races in the Cup Series, 47 in the Xfinity, and 14 in the Truck. He is currently 10th on NASCAR’s all-time winner’s list. There isn’t a crown jewel Harvick hasn’t won- the Daytona 500 in 2007, thrice the Brickyard 400, twice both the Southern 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. However, Kevin Harvick‘s racing career path could have been very different had it not been for his father.

The Bakersfield native honed his skills through the traditional route, progressing from go-karts to late models. While most kids who want to enter stock car racing raced in midgets in their early days, but Harvick was into karting due to his passion for IndyCar. But his father was against open-wheel racing and for good reason. Harvick was recently on NBC’s Title 24 podcast, where he opened up about his IndyCar plans. He said, “I grew up a Rick Mears fan. I always rooted for the Mears gang. If you lived in Bakersfield and you weren’t a Mears gang fan you had something wrong with you basically. When I grew up I wanted to race IndyCars and my dad had nothing to do with that.”

From the early 80s to early 90s when Harvick was into Karting, there were a lot of deaths in IndyCar. Like Gordon Smiley, and Jim Hickman, to name a few. In fact, as Harvick mentioned, his own role model Mears, a three-time IndyCar champion, broke his feet and wrist many times when he got into crashes.

Owing to this and his father’s advice, Harvick never stepped foot in an open wheel after he turned 16 and that was the start of his elaborate stock car career. “And as I look back on it now. I look at the injuries that Rick had and the things that were happening in IndyCar at that time. Guys were getting killed, so I never drove anything that was open-wheel once I got the last go-karts. It was all stock cars. I raced go-karts until I was 16, it was kind of the rule at that time. And once I turned 16, I went straight to my local short track there in Bakersfield, started racing late models.”

And all he wanted to do was to win the Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

What does the Brickyard mean to Harvick?

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The track which has been there for more than 100 years is iconic in both IndyCar, for the Indy 500, and in NASCAR for the Brickyard 400. It was earlier covered entirely in bricks but was later turned to asphalt. However, a section of the bricks from the early days was left as it is in honor of the track. And then the track became even more iconic in NASCAR for the famous ‘kissing the bricks” tradition. Which every winner of the Brickyard 400 follows. This year Kyle Larson had that honor!

As for Harvick, being an IndyCar fan turned NASCAR driver, the Indianapolis track always had a special place in his heart. “Long story short the Brickyard to me was what I wanted to do. So the Brickyard for me was where I wanted to win. And to be able to just walk in that place for the first time from a testing standpoint was something in itself. But to be able to celebrate in victory lane and have that car raised up on that elevator and to be able to do that three times,” Harvick said.

And Harvick had the honor of kissing the bricks three times (2003, 2019, 2020). In his first Brickyard 400 win, he defeated, NASCAR veteran Matt Kenseth. And for Harvick to win at Brickyard was a dream come true. “To be able to celebrate and live out your childhood dream that’s about as close as you can get. So Brickyard has always been a pretty special place for me. Because that’s what I grew up wanting to do,” Harvick added. What are some of your memories from Harvick’s Brickyard 400 wins? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.