KEVIN HARVICK Career Statistics

Kevin Harvick Season Statistics

Kevin Harvick Track Statistics

(Click the track name to see Kevin Harvick's race results at that track.)

Kevin Harvick Track Type Statistics

Kevin Harvick Bio

Kevin Harvick was born on December 8, 1975. He is a native of Bakersfield, California.

Kevin Harvick currently competes in the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch series for Richard Childress Racing, driving the #29 Shell/Pennzoil/Reese's Chevrolet in Cup racing full-time and the #21 Chevrolet part-time in the Busch Series.

Harvick is the owner of the #33 Allstates Employer Services Chevrolet Silverado in the Craftsman Truck Series, and the #33 Old Spice / The Outdoor Channel and #77 Dollar General Chevrolet in the Busch Series. He is known for replacing the late Dale Earnhardt after Earnhardt was killed in Daytona in 2001, and for his aggressive driving style.

Harvick started racing in karting after is Parents Mike and JoNell purchased him a Go-Kart as a kindergarten Graduation gift. For ten years until around 1992, Harvick was highly successful. He raced in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series part-time in 1992 and until 1995, while completing high school. He became a full-time driver in 1995, and became 'Rookie of the Year' in that series that year.

He then moved up to the NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series in 1997, and in 1998 became champion of that series while driving for Spears Motorsports. He received his first national exposure during the winter of 1997/1998 on ESPN2's coverage of the NASCAR Winter Heat series at Tucson Raceway Park.

Harvick made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in 1995 at Mesa Marin Raceway, in his hometown of Bakersfield, where he started and finished 27th in his family-owned #72. He drove four races in the 72 the next season, his best finish an 11th at Mesa Marin.

In 1997, he signed to drive the 75 for Spears mid-season, posting two eighth-place finishes. He ran the full schedule the next season, posting three top-fives and finishing seventeenth in points. In 1999 he drove for Liberty Racing, finishing 12th in points.

In 2000 he joined the NASCAR Busch Series, driving for Richard Childress and winning three times and the Rookie of the Year award.

For 2001, Childress planned to develop Harvick into Cup with up to seven races in an America Online sponsored third car, number 30, during the 2001 season with plans to run a full schedule in 2002. Those plans changed when Dale Earnhardt was killed during the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Childress tabbed Harvick as Earnhardt's replacement. Earnhardt had reportedly told Childress if he didn't move Harvick to the Cup series, he (Earnhardt) would steal him for his own DEI team. The fact that Earnhardt thought this highly of Harvick seemed to be a factor in Childress's decision.

For the first two races afterwards, the cars ran a reverse white and black scheme (what was black became white, and what was white became black), and the pit crew wore generic uniforms, but starting with the third race, they were painted white and red, and Harvick had a white and red uniform, while the pit crew kept the traditional GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms, and the number changed from 3 to 29.

On March 11, 2001, Harvick won in his third Nextel Cup event by narrowly edging Jeff Gordon at Atlanta Motor Speedway by only six one-thousandths of a second (.006), proving to be one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history since the introduction of electronic scoring in 1993. Harvick would score his second Nextel Cup victory on July 15 of thatseason at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. At the end of the season, he had 2 victories, 6 top fives and 16 top tens. He also went on to score Rookie of the Year honors while securing a 9th place finish in the 2001 points standings, as well as winning the Busch Series championship. Kevin became the first driver to win the Busch Series Champion while also driving full-time in the Winston Cup Series and finishing in the top 10.

Harvick began 2002 with a fine for a post race incident with Greg Biffle at Bristol Motor Speedway and would later be suspended for rough driving following a Craftsman Truck race at Martinsville, Virginia. Harvick scored his first Nextel Cup pole position at the Daytona International Speedway and scored his third Nextel Cup victory at the Chicagoland Speedway. He finished 21st in the 2002 points standings with 1 victory, 5 top fives and 8 top tens. Kevin won the 2002 IROC Champion in his first try in the series, winning at the California Speedway.

In 2003, Harvick teamed with crew chief Todd Berrier and won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in August. The year jumped Harvick and his team from 21st in the final 2002 points standings to 5th, coming within 252 points of Matt Kenseth.

After going winless in 2004, Harvick won the 2005 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway despite starting towards the rear of the field. Harvick won without the assistance of crew chief Todd Berrier, who was serving a four-week suspension for a rules violation.

In 2006, he continued driving the #29 car for Childress in the Nextel Cup Series. With General Motors' financial situation, GM Goodwrench cut back sponsorship, and was joined as primary sponsor for one-third of the schedule by Hershey's, with various brands (primarily Reese's) on the car. On April 15, Harvick won his first Busch Series race of the 2006 season. He followed this with a weekend sweep of the Busch Series and Nextel Cup races at Phoenix.He won the Nextel Cup race at Watkins Glen International, and swept the weekend at Richmond International Raceway. After the 2006 running of the Sylvania 300 on September 17th, 2006, he became the NEXTEL Cup points leader for the first time in his career after winning his 9th career race.

The team will split primary sponsors again in 2007, with Hershey's and GM Goodwrench being joined by new primary sponsor Royal Dutch Shell.

Source: Wikipedia GNU