Kyle Larson, Rick Hendrick and the road to the Indianapolis 500 – NBC

The project for the sixth grade class in Bakersfield, California, was to jot down about profession targets. 

Even then, Kevin Harvick stood out.

The son of a firefighter, Harvick didn’t forecast driving siren-screaming vehicles to emergencies. As an alternative, he detailed how he would race wheel-screeching vehicles and attain the NASCAR Winston Cup Sequence by age 30.

Harvick made it when he was 25 years previous. 

MORE: 10 stellar moments in Kevin Harvick’s profession

Whereas his path appeared easy, it has been something however for the longer term NASCAR Corridor of Famer, who introduced Thursday that this season — his twenty third in Cup — will probably be his last yr. 

The 47-year-old has spent practically half his life racing in NASCAR’s premier collection, successful a championship and constructing a legacy, however nothing compares to his first Cup season.

Scheduled to compete in choose Cup races in 2001 whereas operating a full Busch Sequence schedule for automotive proprietor Richard Childress, these plans modified when Dale Earnhardt died in a last-lap crash within the Daytona 500.

Childress requested Harvick to drive for Earnhardt’s staff. 

“It will undoubtedly be the toughest factor that ever occurs in my life,” Harvick stated earlier than his Cup debut at North Carolina Speedway, the week after Earnhardt’s crash. 

That race passed off amid what was to be one of many happiest moments of Harvick’s life.

Harvick and spouse DeLana have been to be married in Las Vegas two days after the rain-delayed race. They thought of suspending it, however Childress advised them not to take action. He advised them that if ever there was a time for happiness, it was then.

Eleven days later, Harvick, in a white No. 29 automotive, nipped Jeff Gordon’s brightly coloured automotive by six-thousandths of a second to win at Atlanta in what stays the fifth-closest Cup end since digital scoring debuted in 1993.  

Harvick appeared on the best way to fast stardom, however his path veered. Whereas many needed him to be an Earnhardt clone, Harvick sought his personal identification. Battle ensued.

Harvick’s feistiness led to confrontations with drivers. An altercation with Chad Little within the Darlington storage after a Busch Sequence race in 2001 led to a $10,000 fantastic and probation. 

After being wrecked by Greg Biffle in a Busch race at Bristol in 2002, Harvick leapt onto the trunk of Biffle’s automotive after the race after which lunged at Biffle. 

Two races later, NASCAR parked Harvick for the Martinsville Cup race a day after he wrecked Coy Gibbs within the Truck race in retaliation for an earlier incident. Ordered to report back to the NASCAR hauler after the on-track incident, Harvick stopped his truck two ft from the rear of the hauler and left his truck there. 

In 2003 at Richmond, contact from Ricky Rudd despatched Harvick into the wall. After the race, Harvick parked his wrecked automotive subsequent to Rudd’s on pit street. Harvick yelled at Rudd earlier than strolling throughout the hood of Rudd’s automotive. Requested what Harvick stated to him, Rudd stated he didn’t hear as a result of “(Harvick’s) acquired that little yap-yap mouth.”

Harvick has been on the middle of different memorable quotes. After the lucky timing of a warning helped Jimmie Johnson win at Auto Membership Speedway in 2010, Harvick stated of Johnson’s staff: “They’ve a golden horseshoe caught up their ass.”

Later that season, Joey Logano, upset after contact from Harvick spun him late in a race at Pocono, advised reporters: “It’s in all probability not his fault. His spouse wears the fireplace swimsuit within the household.”

Different instances, Harvick has shined. He has usually achieved issues in another way. He signed to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing a yr earlier than his contract with Richard Childress Racing ended after the 2013 season. Regardless of predictions that Harvick would falter in a lame-duck season, he received 4 races and completed third in factors, tying for his finest factors consequence to that time.

He received the Cup title the next season at SHR. Partnered with crew chief Rodney Childers, they fashioned a staff that acquired higher with age. Twenty-nine of Harvick’s 60 Cup victories have come after he turned 40 — a time when driver careers usually sluggish as an alternative of speed up.

He nonetheless has the fireplace, as was evident in his confrontation on pit street with Chase Elliott at Bristol through the 2021 playoffs. Elliott was upset with Harvick for contact that minimize Elliott’s tire late. Harvick was upset with Elliott impeding him within the last laps, costing Harvick the win. The feud continued for a few weeks, resulting in Harvick punting Elliott on the Charlotte Roval.

Harvick additionally has proven indicators of development. He’s turn into extra centered on the path of the game. He’s served as a mentor for younger drivers. As driver angst grew about accidents final yr, Harvick spoke out about security issues final fall.

Now, he prepares for his last season as a driver. It’s a good distance again from when he would work together with his dad beneath a race automotive at age 3 and assist “repair” it. That meant sticking spark plugs into crevices solely to see these spark plugs bounce out from beneath the automotive as soon as it was on monitor.

Then once more, Harvick didn’t want these spark plugs. He offers the spark.