Page 54 - 2019_NPPG_digital copy

KEVIN HARVICK

Birth Date: December 8, 1975 Hometown: Bakersfield, CA
Team: No. 4 Ford Mustang / Stewart-Haas Racing

Push Kevin Harvick, and he will push back even harder.
2018 featured drivers Few, if any, in the garage area are more willing to prove his critics wrong.
Tell him he can’t win and expect to find him in Victory Lane.

The same goes for his Stewart-Haas Racing team and their new fleet of
Ford Mustangs.

So, when he lost his automatic berth in the Championship 4 last
November when his winning car from Texas was found with an illegal rear
spoiler, Harvick did what he does best. He shrugged off the pressure and
beat the odds. Again. FOLLOW ONLINE

“I feel like we race with a chip on our shoulder every week,” Harvick said.

He also races to win. Eight victories tied Kyle Busch for the most in the @KEVINHARVICK /KEVINHARVICK
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series last year. His 23 top-five finishes
and 29 top-10s, along with a fifth-place finish at Phoenix, were enough to
get Harvick to the final round on points of the NASCAR Playoffs. kevinharvick.com

While he finished third at Homestead – and in the final point standings owner Tony Stewart has three Cup series championships himself,
– Harvick again found the resolve to race through the controversy and including one at SHR.
distractions.
“Really the biggest thing that Tony brings is just a ton of experience,”
“For me, there’s always some incentive in proving people that you can do Harvick said. “Obviously, a familiar face to the NASCAR officials, and
something that isn’t what they think you should do,” he said after finishing he’s been with Stewart-Haas for a long time and worked with all those
in the top-three in the championship standings for the fifth time in the guys and worked with everybody in the shop. For the most part on the
last six years. “You can look at my whole career. You shouldn’t win. You radio, he is just dead calm all weekend and just pretty laid back with
couldn’t win. Then you did. everything, and everybody just did their jobs.”
“It’s just the mentality of the race team. It’s always push the limits. When As an organization, SHR has 51 combined victories and two
they back you against the wall, make it better than it was before. You championships since Stewart and Gene Haas created the team
keep yourself in the game. Sometimes you know situations you get that in 2009. And with 34 of those victories, Harvick has been the
adrenaline going.” cornerstone of the team’s success, qualifying for the playoffs in each
of the past five seasons.
A lot of that toughness was learned as a high school wrestler in
Bakersfield, Calif. Kyle Busch is the only driver with more wins in the past six years, but
his lead is just 27-26.
“Still go back to the best four years of my life were spent in the wrestling
room, learning about yourself, the things that you do,” Harvick said. “And Harvick was thrust into the limelight when he was the first driver picked to
growing up in Bakersfield, it was a racing town.” replace Dale Earnhardt following his death in 2001. With just one season
in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as experience, he still managed to finish
The racer from Bakersfield, Calif., started quickly by winning three of the ninth in the Cup Series points despite missing one race.
first four race at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix. He came back in May to
win consecutive races at Dover and Kansas. He finishes with victories at He had 10 top-five championship finishes since.
Loudon, Michigan and, of course, at Texas that created some controversy
for the final two racing weekends. Rodney Childers has been Harvick’s crew chief since the two made
the move to SHR – Childers from the defunct Michael Waltrip Racing
Of course, the reason Harvick doesn’t crack under pressure is the fact he and Harvick from Richard Childress Racing.
has the genuine talent – 45 career wins – and the considerable resources
of Stewart-Haas Racing. That’s a one-two punch that makes his No. 4 Childers calls his driver “laser-focused” and says, “his tool is the race
Busch Beer/Jimmy John’s Ford difficult to beat. Add that to the fact co- car. If we don’t give him good tools to work with, he’s not going to do
a good job.”

54 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2019 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE