MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Kevin Harvick won’t be celebrating a championship Sunday evening at Phoenix Raceway, but Harvick is certainly a champion.
The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, three-time Brickyard 400 winner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and 2007 Daytona 500 winner is certainly one of the very best drivers of his era.
To many, he certainly belongs in the conversation among the very best drivers in NASCAR’s 75-year history.
With 60 victories, Harvick ranks 10th in all-time NASCAR Cup Series winners. Harvick won more races than Rusty Wallace (55), Lee Petty (54), Ned Jarrett (5), Junior Johnson (50), Tony Stewart (49), Bill Elliott (44), Mark Martin (40), Fireball Roberts (33) and Buddy Baker (19), just to name a few.
All of those drivers are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Harvick will join them soon when he becomes eligible.
He followed a legend, a sudden replacement at Richard Childress Racing after Dale Earnhardt was killed in the last turn of the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Three races later, Harvick drove the RCR Chevrolet to victory in a stunning and emotional win, defeating one of Earnhardt’s greatest competitors, Jeff Gordon, by just .006-of-a-second at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
That day on March 11, 2001, began with tears of sadness as Earnhardt’s death still hung heavy over the sport and ended with tears of joy by Richard Childress and his team.
Harvick was the tough kid from Bakersfield, California and his hero was hometown hero Rick Mears. Harvick dreamed of following Mears to the Indianapolis 500, but he found a career in stock cars instead.
He was strong and rugged, slightly intimidating, but never intimidated.
Harvick wasn’t afraid to take a swing at another driver, even confronting muscle man Carl Edwards in the Charlotte Motor Speedway garage area after a dispute in NASCAR Cup Series practice one day.
But most of all, Harvick was a winner.
He may not leave Phoenix Raceway Sunday evening as the race winner, but he certainly parks his race car for the final time as one of the great champions in NASCAR history.
“Obviously, it’s been a great ride and I think for me it’s something that I love to do, and I think as you look back on it and realize all the things that you’ve been able to be a part of and be fortunate to be somewhat successful at, it’s been fun.,” Harvick said Friday at Phoenix Raceway. “Obviously, I’m not going far.
“I guess I’ll just be sitting on the other side of the table asking the questions, but it’s been a great ride.”
Harvick is leaving the driver’s seat and entering the broadcast booth as a member of FOX Sports coverage of NASCAR beginning next season.
In many ways, Harvick can’t wait.
“For weeks Piper (his daughter) has been like, ‘Dad, why do you have to go to the next one? You’re already retiring.’ So, she’s pretty much over it,” Harvick said. “Keelan (his son) is terrified just because of the fact that he knows I’m going to be at way more races than what I was before, and he knows that I’m going to be all over him a lot more than I am right now.
“Right now, he can go off and do his thing and race and dad is not there to critique every single move that he makes, so that party is over, but I think it’s fun.
“Piper told Cheddar (Smith, his car chief) earlier. He asked her, ‘What are you looking forward to the most?’
“She said, ‘Well, dad is going come watch me race, so that’ll be fun.’”
Harvick has handled his retirement tour with ease and grace, but he admits this weekend will be different because of the finality that, this is the end of the road.
“For me, all the weeks leading up to this particular one were really not that hard,” he said. “I think this week was a little more difficult just because it is the last week with your guys and the people and everything that you do is actually coming to an end.
“I don’t think up until this point, I don’t think anybody really thought it was real and this week it’s pretty real. I think this week has been definitely different than everything leading up to this just because of the fact that there isn’t a next week. There’s been a next week up until this week.”
But there is a next year, and a new chapter to Harvick’s life. It’s one he is ready to tackle.
“Look, it’s very different – the things that we have to do going forward, but it’s all planned out,” Harvick said. “I talked to Dale (Earnhardt) Jr.; he was in a very similar situation where the TV piece of it was planned out. The race team piece of it is planned out. We have a management company. We have golf cart stores. All of those things are already functioning.
“I think it would be much different if you weren’t closing the book. I think, for me, I feel very fortunate to be able to open the book.
“Obviously our first chapter was a little bit different than most people’s, but it’s the time that we chose to be able to say, ‘OK, this is it.’ And this is going to be the last week coming to Phoenix and racing here for the last time.
“When you used to come here and race just for a hobby and you looked forward to coming to this particular race track on Cup weekend and in February for the Copper Classic every year. As a west coast racer that’s what you did.
“It is a lot different than the week’s past because there isn’t a next one.”