From Bakersfield go-karts and a 2001 Cup debut that followed Dale Earnhardt's death, to the 2014 title and a commentary role on Fox.
Kevin Harvick is a semi-retired NASCAR driver from Bakersfield who won 60 Cup races and the 2014 Cup championship, along with the 2007 Daytona 500. After retiring from full-time racing in 2023 he became a Fox commentator, and he still works on the broadcast booth today.
Kevin Michael Harvick is a semi-retired American stock car driver who competed full time in the Cup Series from 2001 to 2023. He won the Cup championship in 2014 and the Daytona 500 in 2007, and he now works as a commentator for NASCAR on Fox.
Who is Kevin Harvick?
Kevin Harvick is a Bakersfield-born driver who won 60 Cup races, the 2014 Cup championship and the 2007 Daytona 500. He also has 121 combined national series wins, third all-time behind Richard Petty and Kyle Busch, and nine Cup wins at Phoenix Raceway, the most in its history.
Harvick was born on 8 December 1975 in Bakersfield, California, to Mike and JoNell Harvick. He married DeLana Linville on 28 February 2001 in Las Vegas, and the couple have two children, Keelan and Piper.
The media gave him two nicknames. He is called The Closer for his late-race passes, which often came from far back in the field, and Happy Harvick, an ironic label that reflected his occasional temper outbursts. His pit sign was a smiley face that played on the second name.
Sixty Cup wins, a 2014 title and a Phoenix record that no other driver has matched.
How did his racing career start?
Harvick began in go-karts after his parents gave him a kart as a kindergarten graduation gift. He won seven national go-kart championships and two Grand National titles, then started running late models part-time in 1992 on a regional circuit in the Southwest.
At North High School he wrestled, and in his senior year he earned a place at the CIF Central Section meet in his weight class. He also played baseball, basketball, football and soccer. He then enrolled at Bakersfield College to study architecture, but he dropped out to race full time.
His Truck Series debut came in 1995 at Mesa Marin Raceway in his home town, a 27th-place run in the family-owned No. 72. He ran four races in that truck the following season, with 11th at Mesa Marin as his best finish. In 1997 he drove for Spears Motorsports in the No. 75, and in 1998 he won five races on the way to the Winston West Series title.
The 1999 season saw him run the No. 98 car for Liberty Racing, and he finished twelfth in points. He made his first NASCAR Busch Series start on 23 October 1999 at Rockingham. In 2000 he signed with Richard Childress Racing and earned the Busch Series rookie title after three wins.
How did he reach the Cup Series so quickly?
Richard Childress Racing had planned to develop Harvick gradually, but Dale Earnhardt's death at the 2001 Daytona 500 changed that. Harvick took over the No. 29 Chevrolet, and on 11 March 2001 he won at Atlanta after only his third Cup start.
He won by just .006 seconds over Jeff Gordon. Afterwards he drove a Polish victory lap backward, with three fingers raised out of the driver's window as a tribute to Earnhardt. The Atlanta win set a record for the earliest career start to win in the Modern Era at the time, a mark later beaten by Jamie McMurray and Trevor Bayne, and then by Shane van Gisbergen, who did it in 2023.
His first Cup season ended with two wins, six top-fives and 16 top-tens. He earned Cup Rookie of the Year honours and finished ninth in points, and he also won the Busch Series championship while running a full Cup schedule.
What happened in his years with Richard Childress Racing?
Harvick drove for Richard Childress Racing from his 2001 debut until the end of 2013. Highlights included his first Cup pole at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in 2002, the 2003 Brickyard 400 win with crew chief Todd Berrier, and the 2007 Daytona 500.
The 2002 season was difficult. He triggered an eighteen-car crash on lap 148 of the Daytona 500, which left him 36th. Later he was fined $35,000 and placed on probation after a Truck Series race at Martinsville, where he had announced on the radio that he intentionally spun Coy Gibbs.
In 2003 Harvick and Berrier won the Brickyard 400, and the team climbed to fifth in the standings, within 252 points of Matt Kenseth. RCR also won the Busch Series owners' championship that year, with Harvick and Johnny Sauter sharing the No. 21 Hershey's car.
The 2004 season was Harvick's first winless Cup year. During the Bristol race that August his right arm went numb, and Kyle Petty replaced him in the car. He finished 14th in points and third in the Most Popular Driver voting.
In 2005 he won the Food City 500 at Bristol after starting near the back of the field, and he completed a weekend sweep with the Sharpie Professional 250 Busch race. That was his fourth Busch Series win at the track, a figure that tied the record.
In 2006 he ran full Cup and Busch schedules, won nine Busch races and clinched the Busch title on 13 October with four races still to run, the earliest clinch in that series. His Cup Chase run ended fourth in the standings behind Jimmie Johnson.
In 2007 he won the Daytona 500 on a green-white-checkered finish, beating Mark Martin by .020 seconds. It was the closest margin at the race since electronic scoring began in 1993, and it made him one of only a few drivers to sweep the Nationwide and Cup races at Daytona in the same weekend.
In 2008 he went winless again, though he finished fourth in the Chase standings. In 2009 he won the Budweiser Shootout on a last-lap pass, then suffered an engine failure at Auto Club Speedway, his first DNF in 82 starts. It was his first missed Chase since 2005.
The 2010 season was a bounce-back. He led the most laps at the Daytona 500, yet finished seventh, and he won the Aaron's 499 at Las Vegas, where the 88th lead change set a NASCAR record. He also won at Daytona and Michigan, took the regular-season title and finished third overall, 41 points behind Jimmie Johnson.
Later that year he earned his first Truck Series pole, qualifying his own No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado first at Gateway International Raceway, which put him on a short list of drivers with both a pole and a win in every one of NASCAR's three top series.
How did he win the 2014 Cup title?
Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing for 2014, driving the No. 4 Chevrolet, and he won the Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He beat Ryan Newman by one position in the final standings after a season that included wins at Phoenix, Darlington and Charlotte.
The season opened badly. He failed post-race inspection after finishing second in his Budweiser Duel, which meant he started the Daytona 500 on a provisional and finished 13th. The next week at Phoenix he led 224 of 312 laps to win, a result that snapped his tie with Jimmie Johnson for the most Phoenix wins.
A run of five races then went badly, with a hub failure at Las Vegas, a cut oil line at Bristol, a blown tyre at Auto Club and an engine failure at Texas. He recovered at Darlington, where he got past Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the closing lap for the Southern 500 win. At Charlotte he won the Bank of America 500, his third win of the season.
At Homestead he pitted with four tyres late in the race, rebounded from outside the top ten, and took the lead from Denny Hamlin before holding off Ryan Newman to win the title.
Career milestones at a glance
| Season | Team | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Richard Childress Racing | Cup debut replacing Earnhardt; first win at Atlanta on 11 March |
| 2003 | Richard Childress Racing | Brickyard 400 win with Todd Berrier |
| 2007 | Richard Childress Racing | Daytona 500 win by .020 seconds |
| 2013 | Richard Childress Racing | Four wins, including the Coca-Cola 600; final season with the team |
| 2014 | Stewart-Haas Racing | Cup champion at Homestead-Miami |
| 2017 | Stewart-Haas Racing | Switch to Ford; win at Texas, then third in the standings |
| 2018 | Stewart-Haas Racing | Career-high eight wins |
| 2022 | Stewart-Haas Racing | 60th and final Cup win at Richmond |
| 2023 | Stewart-Haas Racing | Final full-time Cup season, 13th in points |
How did his final full-time seasons go?
Harvick won no races in 2021, his first winless season since 2009, but he reached the Round of 12 before a brake failure at the Charlotte Roval ended his run. In 2022 he won at Michigan and at Richmond, his final career win. He retired at the end of 2023, finishing 13th in points.
The 2021 season opened with three consecutive top-ten finishes. At Bristol's night race he tangled with Chase Elliott, and at the Charlotte Roval he bumped Elliott into the wall before his brakes failed and sent him head-on into the first-turn wall.
In 2022 he won at Michigan after a 65-race drought and then took the Richmond win a week later. At the Southern 500 his car caught fire, and he finished 33rd, which left him last in the playoff standings.
Harvick announced his retirement on 12 January 2023. He started that season with a 12th-place finish at the Daytona 500, reached the playoffs, and ended his full-time Cup career with a seventh at Phoenix.
How did his broadcasting career develop?
Harvick began as an occasional Fox commentator in 2015, calling Xfinity races while still racing full time. Fox announced in February 2023 that he would join its NASCAR booth in 2024 alongside Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer, and he now calls Truck Series Drivers Only broadcasts.
In January 2015 Harvick became one of four rotating analysts for Xfinity races, alongside Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Danica Patrick. He first worked at Daytona, then at Las Vegas and Dover, and he also called a Truck Series race at Talladega.
In February 2024 he began hosting Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, a podcast-style series produced by Fox Sports and co-hosted by Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith. In February 2026 Fox announced that he would also host a motorsports podcast named after the former Speed network, alongside Will Buxton.
Business, foundation and family
Harvick owns Kevin Harvick Incorporated, and his wife DeLana co-owns and works with KHI Management LLC. Harvick still races the team's No. 29 late model part-time in the CARS Tour, while the No. 62 car is driven full time by their son Keelan.
In April 2021 Keelan raced alongside his father in an eNASCAR esports invitational. In May 2025 Keelan took his first CARS Tour West victory at Kern Raceway, a track that was renamed Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway in 2023 after new owners took over.
The Kevin Harvick Foundation was established in 2010 by Harvick and DeLana to support programmes for children across the United States. Among its programmes is a scholarship fund at California State University, Bakersfield, which bears Harvick's name.
