From a 2001 truck and a 2004 Busch purchase to owners' titles and a 2012 absorption into Richard Childress Racing, KHI shaped a generation of Nationwide and Truck racing.
Kevin Harvick, Inc. was a team owned by the former Cup driver Kevin Harvick and his wife, DeLana. It raced in the Nationwide and Truck series, won the 2011 Truck owners' title, and was absorbed into Richard Childress Racing in 2012.
Kevin Harvick, Inc., known as KHI, was a team that former Cup driver Kevin Harvick ran with his wife, DeLana, whose father was the former Busch Series driver John Linville. The team fielded cars in the Nationwide Series, the Truck Series and the ARCA Re/Max Series before it was absorbed into Richard Childress Racing in 2012.
Where did the team's equipment come from?
The Nationwide Series equipment was originally bought from BACE Motorsports and Andy Petree Racing.
In September 2011 the company announced that it would merge with Richard Childress Racing from 2012. After that season KHI would no longer field a vehicle in any of the top three NASCAR divisions.
A team built around a Cup star that won Truck titles, then folded into Richard Childress Racing and returned as a management firm.
How did the No. 2 and No. 4 Nationwide cars perform?
The No. 2 ran full-time in 2011 with Elliott Sadler, who worked with crew chief Ernie Cope. The team struggled early in the season but found momentum, and it battled Roush Fenway Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the points lead. The car went winless, but Sadler finished second in the points standings. The team returned in 2012 under the RCR banner.
The No. 4 was used for part-time efforts from 2009 to 2011. J. R. Fitzpatrick drove a second KHI car at Watkins Glen in 2009, sponsored by Schick Canada. Tony Stewart drove the No. 4 in the 2010 season opener at Daytona, winning with Oreo and Ritz Crackers sponsorship, and he returned to win the opener again in 2011.
That 2011 win was a last-lap pass on teammate Clint Bowyer, and it gave Stewart his fourth consecutive season-opening victory. Harvick drove the No. 4 at Talladega, Daytona and Kansas that year with three different sponsors.
What was the story of the No. 33 Nationwide team?
The No. 33 team was formed in 2004, when Andy Petree Racing shut down its No. 33 Busch team halfway through the season. Harvick bought the operation, and it made its debut at Chicagoland Speedway, the 19th race of that year, with Clint Bowyer driving. Bowyer started 40th and finished 42nd after rear-end trouble, and he later drove at Darlington, where he finished 15th.
Stewart gave the team its first Busch Series victory in February 2005, at the Hershey's Take 5 300 at Daytona. Stewart and Tony Raines shared the car that season. Raines collected nine top-10 finishes and finished 20th in points while running 23 races. Stewart's only win came in 10 races, at Daytona.
Canadian driver Ron Fellows had befriended Harvick in 2002 and asked for a ride. He drove for the team on several occasions over the years, performed well on road courses and had solid oval results too. His last race for the team came at Watkins Glen in 2007, and at Montreal that year he finished fourth after a late crash.
The No. 77 car was a separate project. Burney Lamar drove it in 2006 with Dollar General as sponsor, and he led the Rookie of the Year standings until summer. Harvick then removed him, because the sponsor wanted Cup drivers, and hired Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Winston Cup champion, for the rest of the season. Labonte later gave the number 77 its first victory, at Talladega on 28 April 2007. Kertus Davis was released after failing to crack the top 30 in five starts that year.
The results kept coming. In 2006 Stewart won at Daytona again, with Burney Lamar second in the No. 77. The team finished tenth in the standings that year. In 2008 Harvick, Cale Gale and Ron Hornaday Jr. split the car and scored fifteen finishes of eighth or better between them.
| Season | Car and sponsor | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | No. 33 Busch, Harvick purchase | Debut at Chicagoland, 42nd |
| 2005 | No. 33 Busch, Tony Stewart | Stewart won the first team race at Daytona |
| 2009 | No. 33, Rheem and Copart | Harvick won at Bristol in own equipment |
| 2010 | No. 33, Harvick | Three wins at Vegas, Nashville and Richmond |
| 2011 | No. 33, Rheem and Menards | Fourth in owners points, winless |
In 2011 the No. 33 team carried dual sponsorship from Rheem and Menards, with Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon and Paul Menard splitting the driving. Scott Speed was set to run the May Iowa race, but a commitment to the Indianapolis 500 kept him out, so he drove at Montreal instead. Max Papis drove at Road America, and David Mayhew made his series debut at the fall Iowa race. The team finished fourth in owners' points but did not win.
Did the team win a championship?
Yes, in the Truck Series. The No. 2 truck won five races in 2010, three of them by Harvick, and finished fifth in the owners' standings. In 2011 the team captured seven wins, with Clint Bowyer taking Phoenix and Kansas, and Harvick winning three in a row at Pocono, Michigan and Bristol.
Ron Hornaday Jr. also drove for the team in 2011, winning at Kentucky and Las Vegas. Harvick then won at Texas to take the owners' championship. The team's truck programme had been built around a number of drivers, with Hornaday the most successful of them.
How did the Truck Series programme start?
KHI's first truck was built in 2001. It was the No. 6, which Harvick started in 2002 modelled after RCR and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. The company was first called Kevin Harvick Motorsports and later renamed KHI. Rick Carelli drove the truck to fifth at Daytona, then fourth at Darlington.
The same season Harvick spun Coy Gibbs at Martinsville. NASCAR parked the team for the rest of the event, and Harvick was suspended from the Cup race the next morning and fined $25,000. The truck series also took a 25-point penalty. Harvick won the team's first truck race at Phoenix that autumn, and the No. 6 was folded into the No. 33 the following year.
The No. 33 truck debuted in 2001 as the No. 6 with Twizzlers, PayDay and Sonic Drive-In sponsorship. Harvick started fourth and finished second at Richmond in the first race, and he picked up his first career Truck win at Phoenix. He won again at Phoenix in 2003.
Matt Crafton drove for the team in 2004 with GM Goodwrench as its first primary sponsor, posting six top-five finishes and fifth in points. Ron Hornaday Jr. then took over. In 2005 KHI switched numbers with Roush Fenway Racing to become the No. 33, and Hornaday won at Mansfield before finishing seventh in points.
Hornaday's years with the team were the most successful. He won four races and the 2007 Truck Series championship, six races in 2008, and a fourth title in 2009. In 2010 the No. 33 went through a slump when a tobacco-related sponsor pulled out mid-season, but Hornaday still won at IRP and Martinsville.
Nelson Piquet Jr. ran the No. 8 truck full-time in 2011 and finished runner-up for Rookie of the Year behind Joey Coulter. The truck was bought by Eddie Sharp Racing for 2012.
Why did KHI close after 2011?
In September 2011 it was announced that KHI would cease to exist after that season, with its teams and equipment absorbed or bought by other organisations. RCR restarted its Nationwide Series programme by merging it with KHI, taking over the No. 2 team of Elliott Sadler, which finished second in points, and the No. 33 flagship that Harvick would continue to drive under the RCR banner.
Harvick said the sale would let him focus on winning a Cup championship. For the Xfinity programme specifically he said the similarity between Xfinity and Cup cars, which shared a chassis and similar bodies, made the costs too great for a team without a Cup affiliation to function.
The truck programme went mainly to Eddie Sharp Racing, which took the No. 8 and No. 33 trucks. Cale Gale and the sponsor Rheem moved with the No. 33 to ESR and won the 2012 season finale at Homestead. Ron Hornaday Jr. joined Joe Denette Motorsports, today NTS Motorsports, which got equipment and backing from KHI for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
What is Kevin Harvick, Inc. today?
Kevin Harvick Incorporated now operates as a sports marketing and management firm. Its roster includes MMA fighters, Jeff Burton and a set of racing names: its clients include Harrison Burton and Ty Dillon, along with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Shane van Gisbergen. In October 2024 the company agreed a tie-up with Rackley W.A.R. covering the Truck Series and Super Late Model programmes.
The company returned to the track through the CARS Tour. On 9 January 2023 a consortium of KHI, DEJ Management, Jeff Burton Autosports and Trackhouse Racing bought the series. KHI then ran a full-time entry in 2024, with Brent Crews in the No. 29 car sponsored by Mobil 1. For 2025 Harvick drove the No. 29 part-time, which reduced the car to a part-time entry.
How did the No. 62 car race in the CARS Tour?
It was announced in March 2023 that Harvick would run select CARS Tour races from North Wilkesboro Speedway in the No. 62 car, reviving the KHI name in racing. Josh Berry drove the car at Hickory in November that year, and it returned in 2024 with Berry, William Sawalich, Layne Riggs and Landen Lewis. They also ran some Super Late Model events, with Berry, Sawalich, Lewis and Preece behind the wheel.
For 2025 the No. 62 became a full-time car for Keelan Harvick, the son of the owner, which kept the family name on the entry list.
What is the legacy of Kevin Harvick, Inc.?
KHI's legacy is a multi-series team that connected a Cup driver with development drivers and sponsors across the Nationwide and Truck series. Its 2010 Truck Series success and the 2011 owners' title showed how a small outfit could win against larger teams. Ron Hornaday Jr., a two-time champion when he arrived, added the 2007 and 2009 Truck Series titles during his time with the team.
The team's exit to RCR and its later rebirth as a management company and CARS Tour entrant show how the Harvick name has moved from team ownership to a broader business in motorsports.
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