With Darlington Throwback Weekend in Jeopardy, Kevin Harvick Reveals Who He Will Honor And the Mind-Boggling Reason Why

NASCAR’s Darlington Throwback Weekend is more than just a race—it’s a time machine. Every year, the track comes alive with vintage cars, throwback paint schemes, and stories that tug at your heartstrings, connecting today’s fans to the wild, fearless days of the sport’s past. But now, in April 2025, that tradition feels shaky. Growing up on tales of drivers wrestling clunky, roaring machines around tracks at breakneck speeds—legends who didn’t just race but survived.

And of all people, it was fan favorite Chase Elliott siding against the Throwback weekend. He explained, “I thought I lost it (its luster) about four or five years ago, so I was way too early to that conversation, I think. Not to be a downer — I joked about this years ago, but if we kept going down the road, we’re going to be throwing it back to me in 2018. At some point, I think we’ve got to chill on it a little bit. I think we’ve rode the horse to death, and we tend to do that a little bit too much.” 

Darlington keeps that spirit alive, a living tribute to the grit and guts of those early years. Kevin Harvick gets it, too. Recently, he opened up about a moment that shook him to his core, a near-miss that tied him even tighter to the Wood Brothers, one of NASCAR’s most iconic families. It’s not just about cool old cars—it’s about honoring the people who risked everything to build this sport.

Here’s where it gets downright jaw-dropping. Harvick laid it all out in a conversation in his Happy Hour podcast that pulls you right into the driver’s seat. “The Wood Brothers, they brought one of Neil Bonnett’s cars from the 80s and they brought a 71 Mercury that I drove, that David Pearson won in at Darlington. And what an honor to go out and drive those cars. And you talk about the history and throwback weekend and having these cars at the racetrack for people to see the evolution of the race car. If you’re a new fan and look at this car, you’ll be like, oh my God, somebody actually rode around in this car at 180, 190 miles an hour. That thing had power.”

For those who don’t remember, the Silver Fox’s glory days in NASCAR came with the Wood Brothers team, and he raced in a car that was called the 71 Mercury. Harvick’s point here is to bring in that iconic element. Pearson didn’t just drive the Mercury. He dominated the track. In the 36 starts he made in two seasons with the car, he won 19 races! That’s a 52% win rate. And it wasn’t just that. As Glen Wood explained, “The factories weren’t paying for anything. In fact, they had quit at the end of 1970. So we had to make do with what parts and supplies they had given us over the years.” 

Harvick further added, “Clint’s car had chains linked to the seatbelts so that they didn’t get bound up like an actual chain. These cars were right off the racetrack. But to be able to drive these cars and just look at the inside of these race cars and see the technology. They were really the ones that invented the modern day pit stop. And really started the evolution of the modern day pit stop.” 

That’s why Harvick honors the Wood Brothers—they didn’t just race; they rewrote the rulebook. At Darlington, Denny Hamlin snatched a win with a perfect pit stop and a sprinkle of luck, proving their legacy still kicks. Today’s crews swap four tires and fuel in a blink, a far cry from the Wood Brothers’ early days with basic tools and big dreams. This was obvious when a member from the team said, “If we got a little behind on the track, a lot of time was made up in the pits.” 

“And so we had Richard Petty up in the booth this weekend talking about the invention of the window net. And a lot of people talk about it was a tennis net, that’s not true. He set that story straight this weekend. So you’ve got the Wood Brothers who invented the pit stop and the Pettys who invented… and invented the window net and those are the types of things that the drivers, team members, fans, people need to know about,” revealed Harvick.

That’s the soul of it—Harvick’s honoring the Wood Brothers because they didn’t just race; they changed the game. As Darlington Throwback teeters on the edge, Harvick’s voice rings loud about history isn’t just worth saving; it’s worth celebrating. Will NASCAR fans understand?

Kevin Harvick highlights the importance of pit crews in Next-Gen

The biggest talking point during the last race was Denny Hamlin’s pit crew. When the No. 11 car came in during Kyle Larson’s caution, the crew went to work instantly, servicing Hamlin and putting him in the lead of the race amidst the chaos. And it wasn’t simple. Right from the jackman to the wheel changers, everyone was on point. It was clear when the jackman made a flashy move, spinning the jack behind his back in a swift motion when moving to the other side. Harvick believes this is the key factor when it comes to finding seconds worth of difference.

In an era when parity is the focus, finding something that gives you an advantage can be big for teams. Kevin Harvick supports this idea. “And in the end it, it comes down to these scenarios a lot. And Denny’s pit crew executed again in that high-pressure situation that we saw during the day. Once again, we saw a lot of miscues on pit road. We covered it during the race. So we see the technique that those guys are using on the pit stop and like Denny said in the victory lap, getting in the pit stall down pit road, the pit crew does their job out-of-the-box off of pit road.” 

“And when Jamie was interviewing that group and they talked to the jackman there about that choreography and the things that he did to figure that out, he said it took them all winter. But in the pit crew’s instance, you talk about just little moments like that and picking up a couple of tenths here and there and consistently being able to do that better. In today’s day and age, being able to do something a couple tenths better is lights out and a huge advantage because the advantages are smaller than they used to be,” he explained.