The reputation of NASCAR drivers in the car racing community is nothing less than that of Hollywood Superstars. When their favorite driver wins a race, the fans rejoice with them. Similarly, when they experience nerve-wracking loss, the fans shed tears with their heroes. Needless to say, NASCAR is not just a sport, it’s an emotion for the motorsport enthusiasts. And when a driver retires, his fans go on an emotional rollercoaster ride.

Tony Stewart is about to lose one of his best drivers to retirement by the end of this year. As many might have already guessed, it’s Kevin Harvick. With the upcoming season, this legendary Stewart-Haas Racing speedster will be putting his gloves and helmet down and picking up the FOX Sports microphone working side by side as an analyst with Mike Joy and former NASCAR teammate Clint Bowyer. However, Homestead-Miami Speedway has big plans for this NASCAR veteran as only 3 races remain till he exits the role of a driver forever.

Homestead-Miami Speedway does for Kevin Harvick what Phoenix Raceway couldn’t do for HMS star

Kevin Harvick has been around in the arena of NASCAR for over two decades now. And over these illustrious years, he has amassed 60 wins in the Cup series along with 47 in the Xfinity series, and 14 in the Truck series. Moreover, he won the Cup Series championship in 2014. As a sign of respect for the countless achievements of this speedster, Homestead-Miami Speedway has decided to pay tribute to Harvick by renaming this week’s race.

Mobi1 and Homestead-Miami Speedway have joined hands and come up with the name ‘4ever 400’ to commemorate Kevin Harvick’s number 4 Ford Mustang that got him most of the victories in his career. Indeed, a remarkable token of appreciation for the 47-year-old driver. But has something like this happened before? It would thrill the fans to know that it has. But there’s a slight twist to the story.

In a recent episode of ‘Rubbin is Racing’, co-host Large said, “Jeff Gordon, the year he was retiring, I guess it was 205, Phoenix had done something where they couldn’t change the name of the race. It’s nice that Mobi1 is changing the name of the race to 4ever 400 but they couldn’t change the name of the race.” But guess what they did instead?

They changed the name of Phoenix Speedway to Jeff Gordon Raceway for that weekend. Large exclaimed, “I think that’s pretty cool.”

Watch this story: NASCAR Veteran Reveals Ford’s “Dead Ringer” Status at Tony Stewart’s Expense.

However, Jeff Gordon had his own share of honor handed over to him. And it includes the surprise appearance of a Hollywood megastar, coming up on stage and showering praises on the 4-time Cup Series champion.

Jeff Gordon was moved to tears at the Sprint Cup Series Awards banquet

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It’s quite abnormal for any motorsport junkie to have not heard the name of Jeff Gordon. The current Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports was once a dare-devilish driver, whose career highlights almost 800 consecutive races and 93 Cup Series wins.

Most fans know him as an unforgiving driver who was once involved in a plethora of on-track squabbles with the likes of veteran drivers like Tony Stewart back in his time. However, few have seen him cry. But it did happen.

When Tom Cruise came up on the stage and dedicated an entire speech to Jeff Gordon, the latter couldn’t hold back his tears. Cruise had become a good friend of Rick Hendrick while he was filming for the 1990 movie “Days of Thunder”.

Cruise said, “He felt as comfortable discussing a championship with George Bush as breaking down Homestead with Kyle Busch, at ease with discussing SNL skits with Jimmy Fallon as racing door-to-door with Jimmie Johnson,”

“Transcendence. A few reach it, and he did,” added Tom Cruise as Jeff Gordon listened on tearfully.

This is the beauty of the sport. Squabbles and confrontations aside, fans are always spectators of the magic that lies underneath. With veteran Harvick’s retirement, fans will get to witness it once again.

Read more: Kevin Harvick Makes an Unlikely Fan Despite a Disappointing End to a Magnificent Race