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Thursday, August 2
Harvick will appreciate Indy
ESPN.com news services
INDIANAPOLIS -- It is not often a new driver arrives with the unmistakable look of a legend in the making.
Jeff Gordon had it when he arrived on the NASCAR circuit, Tony Stewart flashed it when he won three races as a rookie in 1999 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth showed that quality as rookies last season.
But none of those drivers were following a legend, a man so famous the mere mention of his name transcended the sport of stock car racing as an American icon.
|  | | Kevin Harvick had been slated to run seven races for RCR this season. |
Kevin Harvick's rookie season has been one of determination and triumph. He was scheduled to begin his initial campaign in Winston Cup next year, but when Dale Earnhardt was killed in the last turn of the last lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, Harvick's life changed forever.
He took over the ride Earnhardt made famous at Richard Childress Racing and has achieved success in a way that would have made Earnhardt proud.
When Harvick won his first Winston Cup race in March at Atlanta, it was in Earnhardt's memory. When he won again on July 15 at Chicago, the victory was for him.
Harvick, 25, has established himself as one of the best rookie drivers in Winston Cup history and his two wins leave him one shy of the record Stewart set in 1999.
Harvick may be a rookie, but he drove at Chicago like a veteran. In fact, he dominated the race like Earnhardt used to.
"I don't mind everything being in memory of Dale because everything we do this year is in memory of him," Harvick said. "Dale Earnhardt is the reason we are racing in both series and we want to do the best we can for him. That was our goal, to go out and win as many races as we could. Right now, he would be pretty proud of us running up front and paying attention.
"If somebody had told me I'd have two Winston Cup wins by now, I would have told them I thought they were crazy. Next weekend will be our one-year anniversary for winning our first Busch race. That's a credit to Kevin Hamlin and the organization, teaching me how to race under control."
Considering Harvick already has won twice while continuing to drive a full Busch schedule, imagine how good he will be when he matures.
"When we hired him, I said Kevin Harvick is the real deal," team owner Richard Childress said. "We have had some really strong runs. If you see his performance today and yesterday, that answers a lot of questions. Watching his talent through the years, I saw a few things in him that I liked. I knew he had the ability. It was a gut feeling that you knew he would produce. He is very mature for his age and to be put in a difficult situation, he has been able to handle it unbelievable.
"I've been in this sport for over 30 years and I've seen the greats come along. I think he has everything it's going to take to be one of the greats, plus be on the stage at New York one day as the NASCAR Winston Cup champion."
When Childress hired Earnhardt in 1984, beginning a union that lasted until the driver was killed, he knew he had a special driver. He has the same feeling with Harvick.
"Each one has special moments and special times, and it takes some time to think about it to answer these questions," Childress said. "I still remember walking to the press box in Talladega in 1984 when we won our first race with Dale. Today, we walked here, but it wasn't as far. They are two great drivers."
Welcome to Indy
This weekend, Harvick will compete at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400. He hopes to become the latest member of the "Bakersfield Connection" to try to achieve glory at the speedway nicknamed The Brickyard.
When Harvick was growing up in Bakersfield, Calif., he had a dream of following his hero and racing at the world's greatest track. He will realize that dream Sunday, although reality will be a bit different than what he envisioned as a 10-year-old.
"Being from Bakersfield, California, I was a Rick Mears fan," Harvick said, referring to the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner. "Indianapolis was where I wanted to race when I was 10 years old. We raced go-karts with Clint and Casey Mears and my dad worked on the stock cars when Rick and Roger Mears came to Bakersfield and raced the stock cars. I've been around them for a long time and Rick is the one I watched race when I was younger.
"Rick's accomplishments were pretty big, especially coming from Bakersfield at that time. Open-wheel was the direction that I wanted to go when I was racing go-karts. My father being in stock car racing and building stock cars, that's not the direction he had in mind. When I turned 16, I didn't have an open-wheel car, I had a stock car. That's what I drove when I turned 16. He would never let me drive an open-wheel car. He was scared I was going to get hurt."
Instead of competing in the Indianapolis 500, Harvick will drive in his first Brickyard 400 at the 2½-mile oval.
|  | | Kevin Harvick drives a white No. 29 Chevrolet, but the way he drives it reminds many of the late Dale Earnhardt. |
Harvick is the latest driver to follow the path from Bakersfield to Indianapolis. Rick Mears arrived at Indy in 1978 and by the time his career was over after the 1992 season, he had visited Victory Lane in the Indianapolis 500 four times. A.J. Foyt and Al Unser are the only other drivers to win the prestigious race that many times.
Rick's older brother, Roger, started in two Indianapolis 500s and was an acclaimed off-road racer. Rick and Roger formed "The Mears Gang" and dominated desert racing for years.
Back in Bakersfield, Rick's son, Clint, and Roger's boy, Casey, actively were involved in organized go-kart racing. At the time, the hot shot was Harvick, who started driving go-karts competitively when he was 5 years old.
"Kevin was always racing a class or two ahead of me because he is older than I am," said Casey Mears, who began the season in the Indy Racing League but was unable to make the starting lineup for the 85th Indy 500. "My cousin, Clint, raced against him in go-karts. It was 100cc, local and some national races we ran as well out here in Bakersfield and Fresno, California.
"There were two or three guys who were real standouts and he was definitely one of them. Him and my cousin went back and forth quite a bit, actually. He was my cousin's main competition in go-karts. He was always someone to watch, that's for sure. He was always quick and noticeably talented. People knew if he got the right opportunities, he would go somewhere."
Usually, Harvick went straight to Victory Lane after battling Casey Mears on the hot, dusty tracks of California.
"He was the guy to watch," Casey Mears said. "I remember the guy that ran my go-kart team came out and grabbed me one time and said, 'Here, watch this kid,' because he could get around the go-kart track fast or faster than anyone else. He was definitely someone you watched and he was definitely someone that all the other go-kart drivers were out to beat because he was one of the fast guys. He was the guy to beat."
Roger Mears is good friends with Harvick's father, Mike, and remembers the talent the driver displayed at such an early age.
"I watched that kid come up and I really credit his father for so much of his development," said Roger, who works as shop foreman for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' Winston Cup team. "His dad was so dedicated to this kid as far as racing goes. His dad even worked with me on one of my stock cars. His dad is a fireman and all of his days off, he would work with his son.
"I credit a lot of the boy's success to his dad because he really, really worked hard with him. I couldn't be happier for him to see a kid like that and his dad, two people so dedicated to the sport, to come out of Bakersfield like that is a cool deal."
Kevin Harvick dreamed of continuing in open-wheel cars after his go-kart success. Dad, however, had a different idea. And dad prevailed.
"Things changed when I turned 16 and got in the stock car," the younger Harvick said. "Obviously, I had a different understanding of what was going on in the stock car world. I knew where my dad was coming from. When I was 15 or 16, I think I realized what was going on in the stock car world, and that was the direction I needed to go then.
"But as a little boy, I wanted to an Indy car driver. When I became old enough to understand that my dad worked on stock cars and NASCAR was becoming pretty huge, that was the direction we needed to go. At that point, there wasn't a NASCAR race at Indy yet. I don't think when I wanted to race Indy cars I understood the complete heritage of racing at Indianapolis. When I was old enough to understand everything, I didn't think of racing at Indy anymore."
Harvick dominated in the late model division at Mesa-Marin Raceway and was the track champion in 1993. It was obvious he was ready to step up to another division. He joined the Featherlite Southwest Series in 1995 and won Rookie of the Year honors. Then Harvick moved up to the Winston West Series and became champion in 1998.
After spending 1999 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, he was hired by Childress to drive in the Busch Series. Last year, he set Busch rookie records for points (4,113) and earnings ($995,274). He also tied rookie records held by Steve Park for wins (3) and highest finishing position (third) on his way to Rookie of the Year honors.
"It's kind of mind-boggling," Harvick said. "It happened quick, it happened the right way and I was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time. ... Sometimes, you have to sit back, take a deep breath and realize it could be a lot worse."
Harvick's rise to the top was only beginning. He was set to compete in seven Winston Cup races this year for Childress, where he would team with Earnhardt and Mike Skinner.
Respect for Earnhardt
That all changed in the final turn of the final lap of the Daytona 500, where Earnhardt was killed after crashing into the fourth turn wall. Childress moved Harvick into Earnhardt's car, which was changed from the familiar black No. 3 to a white No. 29. Harvick may be the driver who succeeded Earnhardt, but he knows there is no way he can replace the seven-time champion.
"Dale Earnhardt was the best race car driver there will ever be in NASCAR and nobody will ever replace him," Harvick said. "I would hope you don't expect me to replace him because nobody ever will. Dale's death affected me in a big way, but this is a strong organization. It drew us a lot closer than we already were. Dale Earnhardt was someone I watched since I was 5 years old. He was a hero to me."
It was what Harvick did in his third race for the team that is one of the greatest stories in Winston Cup history.
Harvick scored his first win in only his third start. He won with two daring three-wide moves, the first on lap 320 when he went to the inside of leaders Dale Jarrett and Jerry Nadeau and the second on lap 321, when he dove to the inside to take the lead at the start-finish line.
The numbers all added up for Harvick. The only thing that did not come in threes for Harvick is his car number. Harvick's victory is the earliest in a career in the modern era, surpassing Mark Donohue's triumph in his fifth race in 1973. It came in dramatic fashion as Harvick edged Gordon in a side-by-side battle decided by about four inches. The margin of victory was 0.006 seconds.
"About halfway down the back straightaway, I asked, 'Who won?'" Harvick said. "I didn't expect to win in my third time out. I'm still sitting here, wondering if I should jump up or down or jump off a building. It's a pretty cool feeling to have.
"I took an extra lap afterwards to get the emotional part out of the way, then to pull into Victory Lane and see all those guys that have put their arms out and supported me through the hardest situation of their life and of my life. Without the support of all those people, it couldn't have happened. The experience we have on this race team has Kevin Harvick up here now."
When Harvick drove to victory in March at Atlanta, it brought jubilation to another old racer from Bakersfield.
"I was just elated," Roger Mears said. "I was so happy for him and again, I was so happy for his dad. I called his dad and asked, 'How are you feeling?' He said, 'I've been crying for the last day and a half.'"
The original plan was for Harvick to learn from Earnhardt and Skinner before becoming their teammate in 2002. Now Harvick is going to try to run the entire Busch and Winston Cup schedules in what many consider a Herculean effort. In fact, Harvick will pull double-duty in Indianapolis by racing Saturday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park, then competing in the Brickyard 400 the following afternoon.
"I'm 25, so I'm used to staying up late," Harvick said. "IRP is a tough track to pass on, but since it has been repaved, I think it is better. I've never really had a problem passing there. It's always been one of my more favorite tracks to race on for the fact it is different, it is unique and you run against the wall and have to do the slide job to get past somebody."
Harvick is going to be cramming more this season than a college student trying to get into law school. In addition to driving two different cars each weekend, he will be working with two different crew chiefs. Harvick drives with Todd Barrier on the Busch circuit and Kevin Hamlin in Winston Cup.
On the track, Harvick has not let the rigors wear him down. It's what happens off the track that sometimes becomes difficult.
"That's been pretty organized so far," he said. "Even though we are going to be at Indy on the same day at IRP and IMS, it is probably the second-hardest one we will have to do because the schedules are so close. If it rains, it is going to be raining at both places, but it will be a wear-down weekend, for sure.
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Dale Earnhardt was the best race car driver there will ever be in NASCAR and nobody will ever replace him. I would hope you don't expect me to replace him because nobody ever will. ... Dale Earnhardt was someone I watched since I was 5 years old. He was a hero to me. ” |
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— Kevin Harvick |
"The most difficult weekend was Kentucky and Pocono. There were a lot of airplane and helicopter rides and the weather was bad. That was tough. We use Tommy Teague's airplane and rent some helicopters. It makes you feel like you're a big deal sometimes, getting flown around like that. It sure is a big change of pace from five years ago. Things are a lot different, even from last year. ... It might wear us out, but at the end of the year, if we pull it all off and accomplish everything we set out to do, I think it will all pay off for all of us."
The team owner believes he has made the right choice and has a driver capable of becoming one of the sport's biggest stars.
"Kevin Harvick is an exceptional young man," Childress said. "He's been able to handle the pressure and the success. He's been able to do both. He loves racing and if you love what you are doing, you can accomplish great things."
When it comes to great things, Harvick is looking forward to what he considers one of the great experiences of his career -- driving in his first race at Indianapolis.
"Aside from racing at Daytona, even racing at Daytona, I don't think there is anywhere any bigger than Indy," he said. "For the years and years of the Indianapolis 500 and the history of the race track, going into it for the first time and driving around it will be an experience I won't forget and one I'm looking forward to."
When Harvick pulls his Chevrolet onto the course for his first laps at Indianapolis, he probably will get the same feelings a few of his Bakersfield predecessors experienced.
"Just the experience of being able to run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be a feeling he won't ever forget," Roger Mears said. "I don't care who you are or where you came from. You want to go there and feel like it is just another race track to keep your head on straight. But I don't care how hard you try, once you get there and get to see all of the history and learn what that place is all about, you can get caught up in the awe of it all. And I think he will. I'm sure he will get there and realize that."
"I know he will be able to appreciate what the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is all about." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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