On December 8, 1975, Kevin Harvick was born in Bakersfield, CA.  His early years were spent somewhat like Dale Earnhardt's was, helping his dad out on his race cars.  Only difference between the two, Kevin graduated from high school.  In 1980, he was running go-carts and winning championships left and right.  In 1992, he entered the Featherlite Southwest Series - a touring division of NASCAR - while finishing high school.  He ran the full schedule in 1995 and won Rookie of the Year honors.  He moved up to the Winston West series - another touring division - in 1998 and won five races to go along with winnng the series championship.

Kevin's career in NASCAR started with a couple seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series where he met up with Richard Childress, who was starting his own Busch Series team and wanted Kevin to be the driver for one of the teams.  When the 2000 Busch season started at Daytona, the blue-and-white #2 ACDelco Chevy Monte Carlo pulled out of the garage with rookie Kevin Harvick as the driver.  He finished 5^th in season-opening race.  However when the series went to Rockinghamthe next week, he failed to make the race (due to the fact it was a new team and didn't have any points from last year).  From there now, it was an incredible rookie year where he won 3 races (tied a rookie record), 2 poles, finished 3^rd in the final point standings (tied another rookie record) and set 2 rookie records: Most Points Overall (4,113) and Most Money Won ($995,274) while claiming the Rookie of the Year Award.

The 2001 season was the most impressive season for a driver in NASCAR history.  The original plan was for Harvick to compete for the Busch Series title, while making 5-7 Winston Cup races in the #30 American Online Chevy for RCR in preperation for his move to the Cup Series next season and be teammates with Earnhard and ex-driver Mike Skinner.  All that changed after the lasp lap of the Daytona 500.  After the race, owner Richard Childress asked Kevin if he would assume the driving duties of the GM Goodwrench Service Plus Monte Carlo in the Winston Cup Series.  Kevin agreed, but with one stipulation, that the color of the car be changed as well as the number.  The result was the car was changed to white & red and the number was changed from the famous #3 to #29.  Not only did Richard & Kevin decide to run the rest of the Cup season, but also continue running for the Busch Series title as well.  The end result would be 69 total races and 6 of them where both series were in different states on the same weekend making Kevin the 1^st driver in the history of NASCAR to run for both the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year Title and the Busch Series Championship.
 In Kevin's 1^st start at Rockingham, he finished 14^th, got his 1^st career top-10 the following week at Las Vegas by finishing 8^th and in his 3^rd career start at Atlanta on March 11^th, he became the quickest driver to earn his 1^st career Winston Cup Series win by beating beating 4-time Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon.  He would go on to win another race (the inaugural race at Chicagoland Speedway), finish with 6 top-5's and 16 top-10's, finishing 9^thin the Winston Cup driver points and taking the Rookie of the Year honors. While in the Busch Series, he won 5 races, 4 poles, 20 top-5's and 24 top-10's to claim the 2001 Busch Series Championship which made Harvick the 1^st driver in NASCAR's Modern-Era to win both Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors and the Busch Grand National Championship in the same year.

The 2002 season started off with a bang...literally.  The 29 Goodwrench crew qualified on the outside of the front row for the Daytona 500 (Kevin's 1^st in the big dance) with a brand new paint scheme (silver and black), was a pre-season pick to win the Winston Cup Championship and was hopeing not to check the sophomore jinx, but the bang came at the end of the race.  With about 50 laps to go, Kevin made contact with Jeff Gordon which sent Kevin backing into the Turn 1 wall and collecting 17 other cars.  The rest of the 1^st part of the season was mirrored in disappointment, with only one top-5 and two top-10...which lead to Richard Childress to swap Kevin's team with Robby Gordon's team and Kevin became the 1^st driver in NASCAR history to be "parked" for the spring Winston Cup race at Matinsville for an incident that happen in a Crasftmen Truck race at the same track.  The changed helped out both teams, resulting in Kevin getting his 1^st career Winston Cup pole at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona...where he finished 11^th.  Kevin defended his Chicagoland title (his only win of the season) and finished with 5 top-5's and 8 top-10's, and a 21^stplace in the final point standings.  The one bright spot in the season was he won his 1^st career IROC (International Race of Champions) race at California and won the IROC Championship, becoming the 1^st rookie to win the title since 1992.  Also, he won his 1^stth career start.

Congradulations to Kevin and the whole 29 GM Goodwrench crew for finishing 5^th in the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship.  The season started off good with a 4^th place run in the Daytona 500, but the team had a hard time trying to figure out the new body style for the Monte Carlo.  Their only good finish was a runner-up performance to Dale Jr at Talladega in April.  By the time the series went to Sears Point, the team had it figured out.  They finished a respectable 3^rd and the following week won the outside pole for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona.  When the month of August rolled around, it was like "lightning-in-a-bottle" for the Goodwrench crew.  The team won the pole for the Brickyard 400 and then became the 1^st in the 10 year history of the 400 to win the race from the pole position.  Now with Winston leaving this year and NEXTEL coming in as the new series sponsor, maybe Kevin, Richard, Tod, and the whole 29 crew and carry the momentum and become the 1^st ever NEXTEL Cup Champion.

Pictures of Kevin in Action

2001 Coca-Cola 600 from Lowe's Motor Speedway

2001 Brickyard 400 from Indinapolis

2003 MBNA Armed Forces Family 400 from Dover International Raceway

 

 

 

 

 

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All pictures are copyrighted ©by Jeff Rowe