Children born into families with racing backgrounds often inherit more than just a love of speed. They pick up raw talent, too. NASCAR’s most storied names, the Earnhardts, the Pettys, and the Elliotts, offer proof. And along the way, they also create childhood memories that make you smile. Dale Earnhardt Jr., for example, once rigged a car antenna and duct tape to swindle $80 in quarters from his parents’ locked change jar at age 12, a caper he later recalled with a grin and a stern lecture from Mom and Dad.
Kevin Harvick, who last competed full time in the Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2023, shares two children with his wife DeLana: son Keelan and daughter Piper Grace. Earlier this month, Harvick celebrated a milestone on social media. “Looks like we’ve got another racer in the family! Piper got her first seat pour today with big bro @KeelanHarvick supervising!” He posted alongside photos of Piper’s inaugural seat fitting in a kart chassis.
Harvick even squared off wheel-to-wheel against Keelan in a Pro Late Model feature at his own Kern Raceway last season, where his son Keelan won the race, topping the likes of Shane Van Gisbergen and his dad, Kevin. Now Piper appears determined to follow in those tire tracks. But nobody expected a first-day-out rookie to send a pack of experienced kart drivers spinning into the grass.
Piper Harvick’s bold statement
As Kevin explained on his Harvick Happy Hour X post, “There’s a pack of Briggs that are all grouped up drafting. And her kart… goes pretty fast down the straightaway because she’s so light.” At a recent session at Bakersfield’s Kart Track, one of California’s more competitive Briggs & Stratton junior circuits, seven-year-old Piper strapped into an upgraded kart built for the “big kids” sessions.
Nobody passes Piper Harvick … not even in practice.@KevinHarvick | @DeLanaHarvick pic.twitter.com/Ax0nYCv9sN
— HarvickHappyHour (@HarvickHappyPod) June 25, 2025
When fellow juniors attempted to slip under her on the inside, Piper simply refused to yield. “She runs them all the way to the grass,” Kevin recounted. Those drivers wound up steering through dirt instead of pavement, stomping their way back to the pits, visibly fuming and shaking their fists, an image that highlighted how a lighter kart and a fearless approach can wreak havoc on an otherwise orderly pack.
The real punchline came when Harvick himself reminded Piper that this was practice. She shrugged off his correction and declared, “There’s nobody passing me. I am here to win.” That unfiltered competitiveness, from a child who only days earlier was fitting into her first seat, had her entire field flipping in disbelief, and it left Kevin both amused and proud of his pint-sized fireball.
Big brother Keelan, who’d overseen his sister’s fitment session, then stepped in with rookie coaching, reminding Piper about clean passing lines and race etiquette. Their banter underscored a simple truth. The Harvicks race as a family, where every member pushes the next to exceed their limits. But this is not just limited to family, though.
Kevin Harvick’s advice to a 22-year-old star, Carson Hocevar
While Piper’s karting exploits were all in good fun, Kevin Harvick recently took a more serious tone, defending a young Cup driver under media scrutiny. Turning to 22-year-old Carson Hocevar, Harvick leveraged lessons from his own early career to caution the next generation. “He has this unbelievable skill, that he’s extremely talented inside of that race car. It’s going to be the things outside of the race car that, if he doesn’t get those things under control, they’ll continue to haunt him,” Harvick said on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast.
Hocevar’s aggressive style has produced headlines, from Truck Series skirmishes to a notorious Pocono mind game on pit road, not to mention his remark on Mexico City. But his 17 Cup starts in 2025 have yielded him two top-5 finishes. Harvick’s message was clear. Raw speed wins races, but maturity and media savvy make careers. It’s advice born from experience.
Harvick himself raced hot-headed as a rookie before learning that success demands both skill and restraint. As Piper flips karts left and right, Kevin Harvick watches on with the same protective pride he offered Hocevar, knowing that whether you’re seven or twenty-two, the hardest lessons lie off track as much as on it.
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