(born
December 8 ,
1975 in
Bakersfield, California ) is an
American race car driver and car owner, competing in the
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for
Richard Childress , driving the #29
GM Goodwrench Chevrolet , and owning his own #33 Chevrolet Silverado in in the
Craftsman Truck Series , which is currently seeking primary sponsorship, the #33
Old Spice /
The Outdoor Channel and #77
Dollar General Chevrolet in the Busch Series. He is known for replacing the late
Dale Earnhardt after Earnhardt was killed in
Daytona in 2001, and for his aggressive driving style.
Harvick started racing in
Karting . For ten years until around 1992, Harvick was highly successful. He raced in the
NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series part-time in 1992 and until 1995, while completing high school. He became a full-time driver in 1995, and became "Rookie of the Year" in that series that year.
He then moved up to the
NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series in 1997, and in 1998 became champion of that series while driving for Wayne Spears. He received his first national exposure during the winter of 1997/1998 on
ESPN2 's coverage of the
NASCAR Winter Heat series at
Tuscon Raceway Park .
In 1999 he raced in the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series for
Brad Daugherty .
In 2000 he joined the NASCAR Busch Series, driving for
Richard Childress and winning three times.
For 2001, Childress planned to develop Harvick into Cup with up to seven races in an
America Online sponsored third car, number 30, during the 2001 season with plans to run a full schedule in 2002. Those plans changed and Kevin's career was greatly accelerated, albeit under very tragic circumstances. Dale Earnhardt, who had been Childress's flagship driver up to that point, was killed during the final lap of the 2001
Daytona 500 . It was rumored that a list of drivers were considered as replacements for Earnhardt such as Earnhardt's son
Dale Earnhardt Jr. , Canadian
CART driver
Paul Tracy , and
NASCAR driver
Jeff Burton , who in mid-2004 eventually joined Richard Childress Racing after being unable to find sponsorship at
Roush Racing . In a somewhat controversial move, Childress tabbed Harvick as the replacement. Earnhardt had reportedly told Childress if he didn't move Harvick to the Cup series, he (Earnhardt) would steal him for his own DEI team. The fact that Earnhardt thought this highly of Harvick seemed to be a factor in Childress's decision.
For the first two races afterwards, the cars ran a reverse white and black scheme (what was black became white, and what was white became black), and the pit crew wore generic uniforms, but starting with the third race, they were painted white and red, and Harvick had a white and red uniform, while the pit crew kept the traditional GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms, and the number changed from 3 to 29.
On March 11, 2001, Harvick won, in his third Nextel Cup event, by narrowly edging
Jeff Gordon at Atlanta Motor Speedway by only six one-thousandths of a second (.006), proving to be one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history since the introduction of electronic scoring in 1993. That finish resulted in one of the classic calls on television, and ironically established the Fox broadcast team's knack for calling thrilling finishes, which seemingly has been a part of their coverage.
Harvick would score his second Nextel Cup victory on
July 15 ,
2001 at
Chicagoland Speedway in
Joliet, Illinois . All in all, he enjoyed one of the most successful campaigns by a rookie in recent memory by scoring 2 victories, 6 top fives and 16 top tens. He also went on to score Rookie of the Year honors while securing a 9th place finish in the 2001 points standings, and score a Busch Series championship. Kevin became the first driver to win the Busch Series Champion while also driving full-time in the Winston Cup Series and finishing in the top 10.
Ultimately, 2002 was a year of disappointment for Harvick and the entire Richard Childress organization. Harvick was fined for a post race incident with
Greg Biffle at Bristol Motor Speedway and would later be suspended for rough driving following a Craftsman Truck race at
Martinsville, Virginia . However, Harvick scored his first
Nextel Cup pole position at the
Daytona International Speedway and scored his third Nextel Cup victory at the
Chicagoland Speedway . He finished 21st in the 2002 points standings with 1 victory, 5 top fives and 8 top tens. Kevin won the 2002 IROC Champion in his first try in the series, winning in dominating fashion at the California Speedway and finishing strong in the other 3 events.
In 2003, Harvick managed to wage his most successful bid for the championship title, so far. With the addition of crew chief
Todd Berrier , Harvick managed to come from 21st in the points standings to 2nd, coming within 234 points of Matt Kenseth by October. In addition, he scored his fourth victory by winning the Brickyard 400 at the famed
Indianapolis Motor Speedway . Unfortunately, late season wrecks foiled what could have been a possible championship. Nevertheless, Harvick finished a solid fifth in the standings with 1 victory, 11 top fives and 18 top tens.
However, he also became known for aggressiveness and tough driving. Though he has had his share of run-ins with other drivers, Harvick is not without his sense of humor and charity. This is perhaps best exemplified by his 2004 auctioning of the famous
Matt Kenseth T-shirt, which Harvick wore nearly a week after an on-track skirmish with the 2003 Winston Cup Champion at
Pocono Raceway . Proceeds from the auction went to
Kyle Petty 's
Victory Junction Gang Camp , a medical camp for children and their families living with chronic and/or life-threatening illnesses.
Kevin did not have the year he would have liked in 2004, but is looking forward to the 2005 season after expanding his operations to extra cars. Besides driving for Richard Childress Racing in both the Cup and Busch series, Kevin and his wife, DeLana, have ventured into ownership of their own racing operation, starting their own Busch series team with 2002 Winston Cup Champion Tony Stewart and Tony Raines sharing the driving duties. After a very successful season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series in 2004 with the #6 GM Goodwrench Silverado, Kevin has also hired fellow Californian
Ron Hornaday to pilot the number 6 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Silverado for 2005.
Hornaday made his new owner proud in Atlanta once again, as Bobby Labonte was ironically foiled at the finish line of another NASCAR race in
Atlanta Motor Speedway in
March 18 ,
2005 . Hornaday, in Harvick's truck, defeated Labonte, in the Morgan-Dollar truck, in a two-lap sprint to the finish.
On
April 3 ,
2005 , Harvick won the
Food City 500 at
Bristol Motor Speedway despite starting towards the rear of the field. Harvick won without the assistance of crew chief Todd Berrier, who was serving a four-week suspension for having only four gallons of fuel instead of the standard 22 gallons, violating a rule requiring cars qualify with a full load of fuel at the
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway . It was Harvick's fifth win in Nextel Cup competition, Scott Miller's second win as a crew chief, and Richard Childress Racing's 77th victory in Nextel Cup competition.
In 2006, he continued driving the #29 car for Childress in the Nextel Cup Series. He also owned two cars in the NASCAR Busch Series, one #33 car with alternating drivers (Tony Stewart, Ron Hornaday, Ron Fellows and himself), and one #77
Dollar General car driven by rookie
Burney Lamar . He continued to field Hornaday's entry in the Truck Series, but without backing by GM Goodwrench and with a new number, #33. Stewart won his second consecutive
Hersheys Kissables 300 on
February 18th, 2006 at Daytona in the #33 car, sponsored by
Old Spice .
Dollar General recently announced a deal for the
Music City Motorplex where the winner of the Dollar General-sponsored "Operation Big Chance" contest for the top points-earner at the track will earn a test and a chance to participate in a Harvick-owned truck at the March 2007 Craftsman Truck race at
Martinsville Speedway .
Kevin has recently been doing voice over work starring as himself in the web-based animated racing series ''The Kellys''.
Harvick is among an elite group of drivers to have won a race in all three of NASCAR's premier racing series: Truck, Busch and Cup, and has won races as an owner in
Busch Series and
Truck Series , with a win in each series in 2005.
Harvick finished third in the most popular driver voting in 2004, behind only Jeff Gordon and winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Harvick was the cover driver for
Electronic Arts ' video game "NASCAR 2005:Chase for the Cup".
He is sometimes known as "Happy Harvick" and "Harvey." To his critics he is the "Bakersfield Basher", or basically just "Yap Yap", a name given to him by Ricky Rudd after a controversial incident between the two at Richmond in September 2003.
He became the first driver to win Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series and win the Busch Series title in the same year.
Won in his third start in the Nextel Cup series at
Atlanta Motor Speedway .
Harvick still races in the Busch Series and occasionally in the Craftsman Truck series, helping in the 2003 Owner's Championship in the Busch Series in a combined effort with Johnny Sauter in Childress' Payday #21.
Both Kevin and Delana are from racing backgrounds. Delana's father John Linville was a short-track driver in North Carolina who also raced in the Busch Series in the 1980's. Some of
Sarah Fisher 's NASCAR regional races have been run in cars co-owned by Harvick and Linville.
On Saturday April 22nd, 2006 he became the first driver to win both the Busch Series and Nextel Cup races in the same weekend at Phoenix, and also only the second driver to win a Nextel Cup, Busch Series, and Craftsman Truck Series race at the same track. (
Bobby Labonte , in 2005, was the other to win in all three series at one track, at Martinsville Speedway when he won the Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck Series race.)
Kevin Harvick now races full time in both
Nextel Cup and
Busch Series racing. As of
April 29th, 2006 , Harvick enjoys a 299 point lead over his closest competitor and teamate
Clint Bowyer in Busch Series standings.
Harvick is currently one of the hottest drivers on the Nextel Cup circut climbing from 23rd to eighth in points in only 4 races. Four top tens in a row, including a win April 22nd, at Phoenix.
