Kevin Harvick is a NASCAR Hall of Famer: ‘People don’t realize how good he is’

Kevin Harvick began his NASCAR Cup Series profession beneath the worst of circumstances, having to unexpectedly fill the footwear of the late Dale Earnhardt. On Tuesday, the business acknowledged that profession as Hall of Fame worthy, giving Harvick the last word feather in his cap by selecting him as a first-ballot inductee.

“I was sitting in a pickup in the parking lot,” Harvick stated. “It’s been really weird. It felt so arrogant to come sit in the room. I’ve never been someone who wants to pat myself on the back or show that you’re so confident in something. I wanted to be respectful, and I wanted to be so that it feels right, and I don’t want anyone to think it’s taken for granted. No matter what you think the scenario is on the voting process, or where you stand.”

He acquired 92% of the vote.

The numbers make it straightforward to see why Harvick was a lock for choice. In his 20-year profession at NASCAR’s high stage, he received 60 races, together with a minimum of one in every of 4 crown jewel occasions: Daytona, Charlotte, Indianapolis and Darlington. He was the 2014 collection champion.

He is additionally a two-time O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion. Across NASCAR’s three nationwide ranges, he has a mixed 121 race wins.

“Even though you’re expecting the call, it’s still somewhat weird to get the call,” Harvick stated. “When this all started, I was just a kid out in the middle of the field racing go-karts, and then you go through the years of what’s next week? It’s always been looking forward, grind, grind, grind. You never really stop and think to look around.

“To be among the many greatest which have ever been achieved in our sport, it is fairly rewarding.”

It goes further, though.

Harvick, 50, successfully transitioned into broadcast work with Fox Sports and has become a trusted and respected voice in the industry. He is a championship-winning car owner, a partner at a racetrack, the owner of a series and the owner of a management company, among other roles.

“It’s justified,” Tony Stewart said of Harvick’s first-ballot selection. “He’s undoubtedly deserving, for certain. The factor that I discovered firsthand working with Kevin and driving his automobiles, he is the entire package deal, and I’ve been saying this ever since he got here to [Stewart-Haas Racing]. Everyone is aware of the stats and the circumstances of how he got here into the Cup Series, and what psychological toughness he needed to have for that, however I feel the stats are a piece of it, however not all of who he is.

“He’s such a well-rounded person. He’s a great race car driver, and he’s great in the booth, but he’s an amazing car owner; he knows how to build the packages and hire the right people, he’s excellent with sponsorships, and excellent on the management side. People don’t realize how good he is.”

Stewart, a driver, proprietor and promoter in his personal proper, went so far as to say Harvick is essentially the most well-rounded individual in NASCAR proper now, and has been for a whereas. “There is nobody,” Stewart stated, “that can do what he does. I’m not even close to what he does.”

Harvick would say that typically he wasn’t the quickest, so he had to determine how to do the whole lot else. From the start of his racing profession, he was advised to determine how to purchase his tires, and if he could not, name somebody who may. He discovered from his father that reaching out to sponsors, not having another person do it, was necessary.

“When you look back at my Cup career, we had a lot of slumps, but we had a lot of really loyal sponsors,” Harvick stated. “We engaged with them. We sent them a text on their birthday. We did the things we weren’t supposed to do. We delivered everything we were supposed to under the contract.”

Richard Childress was a good mentor for that, and lots of different issues, as had been veteran drivers that Harvick noticed.

At 25 years previous, Harvick entered the 2001 season competing for an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship when Childress all of the sudden wanted him to drive Earnhardt’s automotive within the Cup Series. Earnhardt was killed in a crash on the ultimate lap of the Daytona 500, and it made Harvick the heir of the grief the game was feeling.

It was not a position I wished. They weren’t footwear he may fill. He advised everybody as a lot in his introductory information convention.

“It wasn’t like he volunteered for anything,” Mike Helton, NASCAR president on the time, stated. “But it wasn’t like he ran from anything. He was matter-of-fact about stepping into the responsibility and standing up to it.”

Harvick would go on to grow to be one of the game’s most polarizing figures. When he wasn’t having fun with the of his success, he was creating spotlight reels for, relying on the purpose of view, the flawed causes. He by no means shied away from a microphone or a rivalry. And as a result of of that, ending up spending a lot of time in entrance of of us like Helton.

“Ironically enough,” Helton stated, “Kevin and I became real good friends not over the good things that happened but the big brother, little brother — he would say father and son — discussion that we had to have and the authority that I had to represent on behalf of NASCAR.”

Over the years, with time and maturity, Harvick advanced as a driver and as a individual. Helton had a front-row seat for it, and it is why he did not hesitate when requested if he can be the one to tell Harvick of his Hall of Fame nomination, doing so on the Fox pre-race present at Martinsville Speedway.

Harvick’s profession reached new heights driving for Stewart and being paired with crew chief Rodney Childers. It’s the place most of his victories (37 of them) got here, and his championship.

“He could just make the car go faster than others,” Childers stated. “It wasn’t that it could be looser or tighter, it would just go faster. He was smart and could tell you what he needed, and the one thing that would make him go faster. You would fix that one thing, and it was game on.”

Childers credit Harvick with altering his life via their success, and he is additionally one who believes Harvick’s affect and which means within the sport are far higher than is perhaps acknowledged. There are solely sure guys, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick, whom Childers would belief to deal with the place the game is and must go.

“He means the world to so many people who have worked for him and with him,” Childers stated. “We are all proud, and so thankful.”

Those closest to Harvick cited his self-discipline and work ethic among the many causes he was so spectacular. Then there was his mindset. Harvick wished to be the very best every single day.

Mission achieved. And now Harvick has formally taken the final step into NASCAR greatness.

“Hopefully, a winner,” Harvick stated of he’ll be remembered within the sport. “Your reputation is the first thing that you have. The result is your results. Ultimately, whether I was high-strung or competitive or rambunctious or the guy that everybody didn’t like or liked, hopefully, they can still respect you.”