After a championship-winning career spanning 23 fulltime NASCAR Cup Series seasons, Kevin Harvick retired from driving at the conclusion of the 2023 season and joined FOX Sports as an analyst, calling NASCAR Cup Series races alongside Mike Joy and former teammate Clint Bowyer beginning with the 2024 season.
Prior to retirement, Harvick served as a FOX NASCAR guest analyst for multiple NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races, and during multiple NASCAR RACE HUB appearances. In 2015, he was the first of five active NASCAR Cup Series drivers selected by FOX Sports to be a guest driver analyst in the network’s inaugural year of Xfinity Series race coverage, making his debut in the season-opening race at Daytona. Harvick’s rotation in the FOX Sports booth eventually led to his annual stint as play-by-play announcer for FOX NASCAR’s “Drivers Only” Xfinity Series race telecast, commencing in 2017 and running through his final season in 2023.
From 2015 to 2023, Harvick served as a FOX NASCAR guest driver analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Adam Alexander for nearly 30 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, in addition to several Truck Series races. In 2023, he joined the FS1 booth for four Xfinity and three Truck Series races.
Behind the wheel, the 2014 NASCAR champion notched 60 NASCAR Cup Series wins, 251 top-five and 444 top-10 finishes, in addition to 31 pole positions. He earned the 2001 and 2006 Xfinity Series championships on the strength of 47 series wins, 186 top-five and 261 top-10 finishes, one of only three drivers to earn both a Cup and Xfinity Series championship. In 23 Cup Series seasons, Harvick finished in the top five in the point standings 13 times and in the top 10 a total of 17 times. Furthermore, he holds 14 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victories.
The 2007 Daytona 500 winner advanced to the Championship 4 five times, including a run of three consecutive years (2017-2019), sits ninth on the all-time Cup Series win list (60), and is one of only four drivers to win all four of NASCAR’s crown jewel events: the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The height of Harvick’s success was realized at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), for whom he drove from 2014 through retirement. His tenure there produced a championship in his first season, a runner-up finish the next (2015), in which he finished one point behind the champion, third-place showings in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and a regular-season title in 2020.
In 2015, Harvick became the first driver to lead more than 2,000 laps in back-to-back seasons since four-time champ Jeff Gordon in 1995 and 1996, in tandem with three wins, 23 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes. While he didn’t score a championship, 2020 was arguably his best season. Harvick, then 44 years old, earned a series-best nine wins, including his milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Darlington Raceway. He went on to earn the regular-season title prior to the Playoffs, in which he finished fifth.
While he enjoyed the most success at SHR, Harvick first made a name for himself at Richard Childress Racing when he replaced the legendary Dale Earnhardt, who lost his life on the final lap of the season-opening 2001 Daytona 500. At the time, Harvick was set to compete fulltime in the Xfinity Series with select Cup Series starts in the No. 30 RCR entry after finishing third in the Xfinity Series championship with three wins and earning rookie-of-the-year awards in 2000.
In the days following the tragedy, Childress renumbered the No. 3 entry to No. 29 and appointed Harvick to drive in place of Earnhardt, beginning with the second race of the year at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. Harvick would continue competing fulltime in the Xfinity Series at the same time, becoming the first driver in history to compete fulltime in both series simultaneously. In one of the most iconic moments in NASCAR history, Harvick, in just his third Cup Series start, beat Jeff Gordon by .006 seconds in a thrilling, emotional finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway to claim his career first Cup win. More importantly, the victory provided an emotional salve and sparked the beginning of the healing process for a team and fan base reeling from grief.
Harvick went on to win again in 2001 in the inaugural race at Chicagoland Speedway and earned rookie-of-the-year honors en route to a ninth-place finish in the point standings. He also claimed the Xfinity Series championship on the strength of five wins, becoming the first driver to earn the Cup Series rookie-of-the-year title and Xfinity Series title in the same season.
Harvick’s strong rookie performance earned him a spot in the 2022 International Race of Champions (IROC), in which he scored a victory at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and four top-10 finishes, leading to the championship in the prestigious four-race series amongst all-star drivers of multiple disciplines.
He went on to claim multiple accolades during the course of his time at RCR, including the 2007 Daytona 500 by .02 of a second over Mark Martin, as well as the 2007 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte. In 2003, he became the first driver to win the Brickyard 400 from the pole position.
Early in his racing career, Harvick won rookie-of-the-year honors and finished 11th in points in the 1995 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour, the same year he made his first career Truck Series start for his family-owned No. 72 entry at Mesa Marin. He drove his family’s Truck Series entry in 1996 before taking over the No. 75 Spears Motorsports entry the second half of the 1997 season. Harvick competed fulltime in the 1998 Truck Series while simultaneously campaigning a fulltime NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule, winning five races en route to the series championship.
He cut his racing teeth in go-karts, receiving his first go-kart for kindergarten graduation, and earned seven national and two Grand National championships before moving to full-bodied stock cars in 1992. Harvick went on to race Late Models at local tracks, winning the 1993 Late Model title at Mesa Marin Speedway in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif.
As owner of Kevin Harvick, Inc. from 2002-2011, Harvick won the 2007, 2008 and 2011 Truck Series owners’ championships with Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. Harvick earned his first Truck Series win as a driver in 2002 at Phoenix in a partial schedule, also marking his first in his own equipment and the genesis of Kevin Harvick, Inc.
In January 2023, Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton and Justin Marks announced they had purchased the CARS Tour, serving as co-owners of the Southeast’s premier asphalt late model series beginning with the 2023 season. A passionate late model supporter, Harvick’s primary motivation was to ensure the CARS Tour and short-track asphalt racing continue to grow and succeed for many years to come.
In 2012, Harvick established KHI Management, LLC, a full-service sports and celebrity-marketing agency representing some of the most successful and high-profile professionals in the sports, broadcasting and music industries, as well as offering a variety of consulting and marketing services to corporate sponsors.
In 2010, Harvick and wife DeLana formed the Kevin Harvick Foundation to support programs that positively enrich the lives of children throughout the United States, and the organization has funded multiple youth development parks across the country. Each park, located in an underserved community, features a synthetic-surface, outdoor field suitable for soccer, baseball, flag football and lacrosse.
In 2015, Harvick won an ESPY for “Best Driver,” appeared on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and was feted in his hometown of Bakersfield, when Mayor Harvey Hall proclaimed March 18, 2015, as “Kevin Harvick Day.”
The Harvicks reside in Charlotte, N.C., with their two children, Keelan and Piper, and the family enjoys golfing, outdoor activities and attending sporting events. For more information, please visit www.KevinHarvick.com and www.KevinHarvickFoundation.org. You can follow Harvick on Twitter at @KevinHarvick.
