“Being able to win my first race and win for my team in our third start together, you know. It was pretty emotional.” Kevin Harvick recalled looking back on those chaotic early days. It was March 11, 2001, and Kevin Harvick’s crossing the finish line at Atlanta Motor Speedway, tires screaming, heart pounding. He’d just won his first NASCAR Cup Series race, a mere three weeks into his rookie season.
Harvick’s career was a battleground of grit and glory. He’d stepped into Richard Childress Racing (RCR) under a shadow, thrown into the deep end after a seismic shift. Richard Childress, the man behind RCR, had dodged talk of Harvick’s later departure.
But in 2001, it was about survival. “I was going to quit till I thought of that. And so I knew we had to keep things going for our company, and you were the right person at the right time,” Childress admitted to Harvick. For Harvick and Childress, that race in Atlanta wasn’t just a win. It was the start of a story that cuts deeper than anyone knew.
Here’s where it gets personal, straight from Harvick’s own words to his co-host Mamba Smith on his Happy Harvick podcast: “Well, the driver part is pretty easy. I went to RCR to race with the biggie, with Dale Senior, and that was the final piece of the puzzle that made my decision to go to RCR. I had a few different things that were happening at that point, and ultimately I wanted to be on the same team as Dale Earnhardt. So I went to RCR, and everybody knows the story and the way that that worked out. I never actually got to race against Dale, so to me that was one of the pieces of the puzzle that I never got to have play out.” That’s the heartbreak. Harvick joined RCR to battle Earnhardt, not to replace him after that fateful Daytona crash. Fate rewrote the script.
All this is tied to the legend of Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s tragic passing away back in 2001. On February 18, 2001, the Intimidator crashed on the final lap of the Daytona 500, a brutal end that stunned NASCAR. His final interview, as Country Rebel noted, carried an eerie chill, almost like he sensed the danger. That Atlanta win weeks later wasn’t just a race for Harvick; it was a lifeline for a sport gutted by loss.
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA 1000Bulbs.com 500, Oct 13, 2019 Talladega, AL, USA Car owner Richard Childress drives the car of former driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. prior to the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports, 13.10.2019 12:55:23, 13511160, Dale Earnhardt Sr, NASCAR, Richard Childress, Talladega Superspeedway, 500 PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xMarvinxGentryx 13511160
Dale Earnhardt Sr. was everything to NASCAR—big, bold, unforgettable. Kevin Harvick met him first in St. Louis, testing Dale’s car. “He was pi—-” Harvick said, “didn’t even know we were in it, and we were fast.” Then at Phoenix, Dale got swamped with retirement talk because Harvick was out there driving it. “I got to mess with him a little,” Harvick admitted, grinning at the memory of Dale wondering who this kid was. It was just the start of something real, but it didn’t last.
“I don’t know for me… my number one moment… It’s a tie between everyone high-fiving Dale Sr. on pit lane in 1998 or in 2001 when Kevin Harvick won in Atlanta” said Jimmie Johnson, calling it “the greatest” moment of Harvick’s legacy. Childress, too, confessed that he was indebted to Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for keeping NASCAR’s pulse going after the tragedy.
Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR Cup Series career spanned 826 starts, with 60 wins, 251 top-five finishes, and 444 top-10 finishes. He’d nabbed 31 poles and clinched the 2014 championship, cementing his name among the greats. Senior’s stats are just as staggering: 676 starts, 76 wins, 281 top-fives, and 428 top-10s.
He racked up 22 poles and won seven championships which was tied for the most ever. Harvick’s wins put him ninth all-time, while Earnhardt sits eighth, but both carved out legacies that tower over the sport. At RCR, Earnhardt spent nearly two decades, winning six of those titles and making the team a powerhouse.
Still, Dale’s words hit hard: “Don’t change a damn thing.” That stuck with Harvick, heavy and true.
The memorable moments that sealed the RCR deal for Harvick
Then came that night—the one with the Jack Daniel’s bottle—when Richard Childress called Harvick in after the 2001 Daytona crash that took Dale Earnhardt Sr. “I’ll never forget walking in,” Harvick said, voice low. He’d been in Childress’ office before, but this was different. Richard was slumped behind his desk, eyes sunken, “looked like he hadn’t slept in three days,” and honestly, he probably hadn’t.
Kevin Hamlin sat there too, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in hand, pouring it into a cup, sipping through what was clearly more than a few rounds. The air was thick, nobody saying much, just the weight of it all pressing down. Childress finally spoke, asking Harvick to drive, to keep RCR alive. That silence stretched, tense and raw, until Harvick nodded—yes. When he won at Atlanta weeks later, that track became his, no question. RCR? That became his team, his fight, right then and there.
In 2023, his last season, he brought back the No. 29 car for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, a nod to where it started. He never raced Earnhardt, but he raced for him. And there were still some lighter moments, he was able to live with his icon. Harvick once walked into Earnhardt’s hauler and found him “standing in the briefs,” just underwear and gloves, a quirky, human side to the legend.
Earnhardt’s priceless gift was a shotgun, handed over with a gruff, “You two idiots will shoot your toes off,” a memory Harvick shared with a laugh. That’s a story and a bond that’ll never fade.
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