Kevin Harvick Biography
Kevin Harvick is an American stock car racing driver and commentator working for FOX Sports as a NASCAR analyst alongside Mike Joy and former teammate Clint Bowyer. He joined the FOX Sports team in 2024, after previously working as a stock car racing driver.
Kevin Harvick Career
After receiving a go-kart as a kindergarten graduation gift from his parents, he started racing karts at a young age. Growing up, Harvick was a big admirer of fellow Bakersfield native and IndyCar driver Rick Mears, with whom he had raced go-karts with Mears’ son Clint. In the go-kart racing circuit, he was quite successful, winning two Grand National titles in addition to seven National titles. In 1992, Harvick started racing late models in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series on a part-time basis while still a high school student. He wrestled for North High School’s wrestling team during the racing offseason, placing first in his weight class his senior year and earning a CIF Central Section championship. In addition, Harvick played soccer, football, basketball, and baseball.
He planned to major in architecture at Bakersfield College after graduating, but he eventually left to focus on his full-time racing career. Before retiring, Harvick worked as a guest analyst for FOX NASCAR during several races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and NASCAR RACE HUB. He made his debut in the season-opening race at Daytona in 2015 as the first of five active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series chosen by FOX Sports to serve as guest driver analysts during the network’s first year of Xfinity Series race coverage.
Following a stint as a FOX Sports booth regular, Harvick eventually secured a yearly position as the play-by-play commentator for FOX NASCAR’s “Drivers Only” Xfinity Series race telecast. This position ran from 2017 until 2023 when he concluded his tenure. Alongside play-by-play commentator Adam Alexander, Harvick covered nearly 30 NASCAR Xfinity Series races and multiple Truck Series races for FOX NASCAR from 2015 to 2023. He worked in the FS1 booth for three Truck Series and four Xfinity races in 2023. The 2014 NASCAR champion achieved 31 pole positions, 60 NASCAR Cup Series victories, and 251 top-five and 444 top-10 finishes while driving.
Only three drivers have won both a Cup and an Xfinity Series championship, including him. His 47 series victories, 186 top-five, and 261 top-10 finishes helped him win the championships in 2001 and 2006. Harvick placed in the top five in the point standings thirteen times and in the top ten a total of seventeen times in 23 Cup Series seasons. In addition, he has 14 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins. The 2007 Daytona 500 winner is one of only four drivers to have won all four of NASCAR’s premier events: the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. She has also advanced to the Championship 4 five times, including a run of three straight years (2017–2019).
She currently ranks ninth on the all-time Cup Series win list with sixty wins. When Harvick drove for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) from 2014 until his retirement, the team experienced the pinnacle of his success. During his time there, he won a championship in his debut season, came in second place the following year (2015), trailing the winner by just one point, finished in third place in 2017–2018, 2019–2020, and won a regular-season championship in 2020. Along with three wins, 23 top-five, and 28 top-10 finishes in 2015, Harvick made history by becoming the first driver since four-time champion Jeff Gordon in 1995 and 1996 to lead more than 2,000 laps in consecutive seasons.
Even though he didn’t win a championship, 2020 was possibly his best year ever. At that time, 44-year-old Harvick had a series-high nine victories, including his historic 50th NASCAR Cup Series triumph at Darlington Raceway. After that, he won the regular-season championship before placing fifth in the playoffs. Even though he was most successful at SHR, Harvick gained notoriety at Richard Childress Racing after taking over for the late Dale Earnhardt, who passed away on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Following his third-place finish in the Xfinity Series championship with three wins and his rookie-of-the-year honors in 2000, Harvick was scheduled to compete full-time in the Xfinity Series with a few Cup Series starts in the No. 30 RCR entry.
Childress renumbered the No. 3 entry to No. 29 in the days that followed the tragedy, and Harvick was named to drive in Earnhardt’s place starting with the second race of the year at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. Being the first driver in history to compete full-time in two series at the same time, Harvick would continue to compete full-time in the Xfinity Series. In one of the most memorable races in NASCAR history, Harvick won his first Cup race of his career at Atlanta Motor Speedway after defeating Jeff Gordon by 006 seconds in a thrilling and emotional finish. This was only his third Cup Series start. More significantly, a team and fan base reeling from grief found solace in the victory, which initiated the process of healing.
In 2001, Harvick won the race at Chicagoland Speedway for the second time and went on to win Rookie of the Year while finishing ninth in the point standings. In addition, he won the Xfinity Series championship with five victories, making history as the first driver to win both the Xfinity Series and Cup Series Rookie of the Year titles in the same season. Because of his impressive rookie campaign, Harvick was invited to the 2022 International Race of Champions (IROC). There, he won at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and finished in the top ten four times, earning the championship in the esteemed four-race series that attracts top drivers from a variety of disciplines.
During his tenure at RCR, he went on to win several races and championships, including the 2007 Daytona 500 by a mere.02 of a second over Mark Martin and the 2007 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte. He made history in 2003 when he won the Brickyard 400 from pole position. Early in his racing career, Harvick started the Truck Series for the first time at Mesa Marin in 1995 with his family-owned No. 72 entry, winning rookie-of-the-year honors and finishing 11th in points. Before taking over the No. 75 Spears Motorsports entry for the second half of the 1997 season, he drove his family’s Truck Series entry in 1996.
While running a full-time NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule, Harvick also participated full-time in the 1998 Truck Series, winning five races and taking home the series championship. Before switching to full-bodied stock cars in 1992, he gained experience in racing go-karts, winning his first one as a kindergarten graduate. He went on to win seven national and two grand national championships in these vehicles. Later on, Harvick raced Late Models at local tracks. At Mesa Marin Speedway, which is located in his hometown of Bakersfield, California, he won the Late Model championship in 1993.
Alongside Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr., Harvick won the owners’ championships in the Truck Series in 2007, 2008, and 2011 while serving as owner of Kevin Harvick, Inc. from 2002 to 2011. In 2002, Harvick won his first Truck Series race in Phoenix while running a modified schedule. It was also his first race using his own machinery, and it also marked the beginning of Kevin Harvick, Inc. The CARS Tour was acquired by Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and Justin Marks, who will co-own the top asphalt late-model series in the Southeast starting in 2023. The announcement was made in January 2023. A fervent advocate of late-model racing, Harvick’s main goal was to guarantee the CARS Tour and short-track asphalt racing’s growth and success for many years to come.
In 2012, Harvick founded KHI Management, LLC, a full-service sports and celebrity marketing firm that provides a range of marketing and consulting services to corporate sponsors in addition to representing some of the most prominent and successful figures in the sports, broadcasting, and music industries. In order to promote initiatives that improve children’s lives nationwide, Harvick and his wife DeLana established the Kevin Harvick Foundation in 2010.
Since then, the group has provided funding for several youth development parks. Each park, which is housed in an underprivileged neighborhood, has an outdoor synthetic field where people can play baseball, soccer, flag football, and lacrosse. In 2015, Harvick received recognition in his hometown of Bakersfield when Mayor Harvey Hall declared March 18, 2015, as “Kevin Harvick Day.” In addition, he won an ESPY for “Best Driver” and made an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Kevin Harvick Salary
Harvick earns an annual salary of about $47,000-$120,000.
Kevin Harvick Net Worth
Harvick has an estimated net worth of about $1 Million – $7 Million which he has earned through his career as a racing driver and commentator.
Kevin Harvick Age
Harvick was born on December 8, 1975, in Bakersfield, California, United States. He is 48 years old as of 2023 and he celebrates his birthday on the 8th of December every year.
Kevin Harvick Height and Weight
Harvick stands at a height of 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 meters) and weighs 79 kg (175 lbs).
Kevin Harvick Family
Harvick was born in 1975 in Bakersfield, California, to parents Mike and JoNell (Walker) Harvick, and has a younger sister, Amber.
Kevin Harvick Wife and Children
Shortly after making his Cup Series debut, on February 28, 2001, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Harvick married DeLana (Linville) Harvick. She was doing public relations for fellow driver Randy LaJoie at Michigan International Speedway when they first met the year before. DeLana had previously assisted Jeff Gordon in a similar role and had even experimented with race-driving herself. In addition to co-owning and managing KHI Management LLC and regularly making appearances on Harvick’s pit box during Cup races, DeLana is an active participant in Harvick’s career. With their son Keelan, born July 8, 2012, and daughter Piper Harvick, born December 28, 2017, the couple resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. Keelan is a competitive kart racer. Keelan raced in the NASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series alongside his father in April 2021.
Kevin Harvick FOX Sports
While working for FOX Sports Harvick co-anchors alongside:
Kevin Harvick Social Media Platform
Harvick is very active on his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages. He has 1M followers on Twitter 400k followers on Instagram, and 639.5k followers on Facebook.