KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – From 1988 through 2000, Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series, or as it was called back then, the NASCAR Busch Series.
On one particular evening 20 years ago, the .538-mile oval just off U.S. Route 501 served as a unique junction in the careers of Kevin Harvick, Rodney Childers and Tim Fedewa.
Harvick is the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion and driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Childers is Harvick’s crew chief, and the duo currently own the longest-tenured driver/crew chief relationship in the NASCAR garage. Fedewa is Harvick’s spotter. All three have been together since the inception of the No. 4 team in 2014 – a year where each ended the season with a championship ring on their finger.
But on June 17, 2000 – the last Xfinity Series race to be held at Myrtle Beach Speedway – Harvick, Childers and Fedewa were all just trying to make it as drivers in the stepping-stone division to the elite NASCAR Cup Series.
Jeff Green won the race by 1.029 seconds over a 25-year-old Harvick who was making just his 16th career Xfinity Series start for Richard Childress Racing. It was Harvick’s best career Xfinity Series result, as the first of his 47 Xfinity Series wins was still more than a month away.
Making his 214th career Xfinity Series start was Fedewa. Driving for Cicci-Welliver Racing, Fedewa qualified 11th and finished 38th after being involved in an accident on lap 198.
The Myrtle Beach 250 was Childers’ first and only Xfinity Series start, and it came with Jay Robinson Racing. Childers qualified 33rd and completed just 69 laps before an accident left him 43rd.
The levels of recollection vary. Harvick remembers that Green won. Fedewa had to visit YouTube to watch the TNN broadcast. Childers, however, said, “I remember everything about it.”
The trio recently looked back on the one and only race where Harvick, Fedewa and Childers all competed as drivers.
Rodney Childers
“I was racing late models for a guy who owned a grocery business – Jay Robinson,” Childers said. “I started driving for him that year and we were racing in what is now called the CARS tour. We went to the first six races and won all of them.”
Childers and Robinson were told very politely that no one wanted to see the same car win every week, and would they possibly consider leaving the series. Robinson immediately set his sights on the Busch Series and headed to an auction to purchase a car. They put together the car, but the team consisted of only three people. Every time Childers would practice, he had to get out of the car and be hands-on with the adjustments, losing valuable track time.
“We went out for qualifying and there were like 57 cars there for the race,” Childers said. “Everybody had been picking up on their second lap, so I was going to take it easy on my first lap and get after it on my second lap. Well, my first lap, I was actually quick enough for 30th out of 57. My second lap, I buried it in the corner and got loose. Threw the lap away.”
Besides the lack of a full crew, Childers found the car to be lacking too.
“About lap 10, I found out I didn’t have any brakes,” Childers said. “But we were just riding around there and Randy LaJoie and Jeff Purvis got together in turn one. Everyone was checking up and Blaise Alexander was in front of me and he turned down into my right front because someone turned into him. I jerked the wheel to the left, but got hit and the next thing I knew I was nosed into the inside wall in turn one.”
Turns out, the steering box wasn’t quite up to snuff, but Childers looks at the bright side.
“To be able to make the race with that many cars was actually a huge accomplishment,” Childers said. “There were a lot of people back then that were missing Busch races.”
Tim Fedewa
“You forget the level of competition,” Fedewa said. “I ran between 13th and 10th and I can’t believe how hard it was to even get to 10th.”
Fedewa won four Xfinity Series races in his career and scored his final victory on May 13, 2000 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
“You probably had 45 good teams that were just racing in the Busch Series,” Fedewa said. “Maybe they didn’t run all of them, but they ran most of them. The short tracks, it was doable for a late model team to buy a car and compete. Because we didn’t have wind tunnel time, a short track team could buy a car or build a car, go to Myrtle Beach and make the show.”
Kevin Harvick
“I remember a few things about that race,” Harvick said. “Myrtle Beach is a high tire-wear race track and I hadn’t ever raced there before like a lot of guys had from the East Coast. Going there for the first time, I didn’t have the right concept of what I was supposed to be doing with saving tires and stuff like that. I was hammer down all the time.”
Green, who won six races that year on his way to the championship, denied Harvick the victory.
“I lost to Jeff Green and the only other thing I remember is that I jacked him up at one point just trying the mess with him because that’s just what we did back in those days,” Harvick said. “Jeff and I went back and forth during the 2000 and 2001 time period. He was sort of the guy at that point, and I wanted to be the guy. I thought running into him was the best way to get the most attention. Obviously, in the today’s world, you realize that beating him would’ve been much better.”
Green was asked about his run-in with Harvick in victory lane and said simply, “He’s a rookie and he’s learning too. But I did the same thing back when I was a rookie, too.”
Click below to keep reading.