FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American stock car auto racing driver and car owner competing in the NASCAR MONSTER Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, driving the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John's Ford Fusion. Harvick made his NASCAR Truck Series debut in 1995 at Mesa Marin Raceway, in his hometown of Bakersfield, CA. where he started and finished 27th in his family-owned #72. On October 23, 1999, Harvick made his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start in the Kmart 200 at the Rockingham Speedway in the #2 Invica Chevrolet. He would start 24th and finish 42nd due to engine failure. The race would be his only start in 1999. In 2000, Harvick would sign with Richard Childress Racing to drive the #2 AC Delco Chevrolet for his first full Xfinity Series season. Despite failing to qualify the second race of the season at Rockingham, Harvick would go on to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year with 3 wins, right Top 5 finishes and 16 Top 10'ss as well as garnering a third place points finish. For 2001, Childress planned to run Harvick in the #2 Chevy in the Xfinity Series full-time again, while developing him into the NASCAR Cup Series with up to seven races in the #30 AOL Chevy. He planned to race Harvick for a full schedule in 2002. Childress' plans changed when Dale Earnhardt was killed during the 2001 Daytona 500 and Childress tapped Harvick to be Earnhardt's replacement. For Harvick's first two races the car ran an inverted color scheme, the number changed from 3 to 29, and the pit crew wore generic uniforms. In the third race of the season, the car was painted white and red,

while Harvick wore a white-and-red uniform. His pit crew continued to wear the traditional GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms. On March 11, 2001 at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500, only three weeks after Earnhardt's death, Harvick won his first career NASCAR Cup victory in just his third start by narrowly edging Jeff Gordon at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He won the race 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. After the win, Harvick performed a tire-smoking burnout on the front stretch with three fingers held aloft outside the driver's window. Harvick began the 2002 season with a fine for a post race incident with Greg Biffle at Bristol Motor Speedway. Later, he was suspended for rough driving following a Truck race at Martinsville, Virginia. In 2007, his Cup team split primary sponsors, with Hershey's being joined by new primary sponsor Shell Oil Company and their Pennzoil

brand. On Sunday, February 18, 2007 in the season opening Daytona 500, Harvick claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in a restrictor plate race with a dramatic final lap pass over Mark Martin by .020 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish, the closest margin at the 500 since electronic scoring started in 1993. The race was on the sixth anniversary of the death of his predecessor at Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt. With the departure of Shell at the end of 2010 announced in the spring, the #29 team was searching for a new sponsor. In August, it was announced that, for 2011, the car's primary sponsor will be with Budweiser. The next three years would be good ones for Harvick and Richard Childress Racing. The duo posted nine wins; 23 top five finishes, and finished third in the points twice. But in 2014 Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas

Racing thinking he might do even better. And he did. In his first year with the new team Harvick would edge out Ryan Newman in the final race of the season to win the Cup Championship; while getting five wins. In 2015 Harvick finished second in the final race; but Kyle Busch won the race and the Championship. 2016 saw Harvick post four wins, but for the first time since the new Chase format had be implemented Harvick did not advance to the Championship race. He finished eighth in the points in 2016. Stewart-Hass Racing switched to Fords for the 2017 season. It was expected the team would see growing pains while adapting to the new chassis. He only posted one finish better than ninth through the first six races of the season. Then they seemed to catch their stride as they had seven finishes of ninth or better in the next nine races;

then he won on the road course of Sonoma. He advanced through all the round of the Chase to be alive for the Championship. Harvick would finish fourth in the race; and end up third in the points as Martin Truex won the race and claimed the Championship. 2018 saw Harvick return to SHR to again drive the #4 Ford. Kevin Harvick was the leader of the Stewart-Haas stable in 2018. All four team members won a race; but Harvick visited victory lane eight times. He started his season off strong winning the second, third and fourth races of the season. He also ran into a few issues in post race tech that cost him and his team some points and cash fines. He posted a whopping 23 Top 5 results and 29 Top 10's. It was an impressive season for Harvick as he found himself once again vying for the Championship when the series moved to the final race at Homestead. He led 58 laps during the race; but a late race yellow saw Joey Logano have a great short run car and pass Martin Truex

with 12 laps to go to grab the win. Harvick finished third. 2019 kicked off with Harvick claiming a win in one of the 150 Duel races leading up to the Daytona 500. He was involved in an accident during the race however and finished 26th. 2019 was also the season that Ford got a new body style and Stewart-Haas Racing struggled early trying to make the car be competitive. As dominant as Harvick had been in 2018; it looked like finishes in the top ten was about the best they could muster. He had no finish better than fourth through the seasons first 19 races. He broke through in race 20 as he grabbed the checkers at

New Hampshire edging Denny Hamlin for the win. He backed that win up with another three races later at Michigan; and then three more races he won one of the major events winning the Brickyard 400 at Indy. It seemed Harvick had turned the corner and was competitive as the Chase approached. He had finishes of second, seventh and third in the first round of the Chase; and added more good runs in the second round. He won at Texas in the third round, and that locked him into the final Championship race to run for the 2019 title. At Homestead he ran well early and led 41 laps. But as dark came over the track the Joe Gibbs cars flexed their muscle and Harvick didn't have an answer to be able to keep up. He ended up finishing fourth in the race and third in the Championship. He was back with SHR in 2020; looking for

that second Championship. Harvick and Denny Hamlin dominated the 2020 race season. Harvick claimed nine wins; while Hamlin got seven. Harvick grabbed his first win in the first race back after NASCAR had to stop for the coronavirus outbreak. He won again five weeks later at Atlanta and continued to pile up the wins in the regular season. With bonus points from nine wins; plus stage points; and an additional 15 points for being the regular season, it was thought Harvick would use those points to waltz into the Championship race at Phoenix. He kicked off the Chase winning the Southern 500 and added a win in the first round at Bristol. In the second round he struggled to managed to advance again. In round three Harvick finished second in the opening race; letting Joey Logano get the win. This squeezed down the field as Logano as a team with few bonus points; and not a favorite to advance out of Round Three. Harvick's car was off the pace at the

second race and ended up getting a lap down and was never able to make it up; where he finished 16th. Chase Elliott; also in the Chase; made a pit stop and on the next lap had a flat tire; he finished the race in 20th place and in a must win situation at the final race of the round. As they moved to Martinsville; Harvick looked to be in good shape as long as those drivers like Elliott who had to advance didn't. Much to Harvick's dismay; Elliott came with a dominant car and led almost half of the race and got the win. This knocked Harvick out of the Championship race at Phoenix. He finished seventh in that race and fifth in the season points. Harvick had a huge downturn in 2021. After winning nine races in 2020; Harvick went win-less in

2021. He is the lead driver for Stewart-Haas Racing; and the whole organization just never seemed to get it together to be competitive. Aric Almirola’s lone win for the organization was the bright spot for the entire year. Harvick ran one Truck series and three Xfinity series events. He ran Xfinity road course races to help improve his road course skills; and also run on the dirt at Bristol in the trucks. Harvick had 20 Top 5 finishes in 2020 as compared to only ten in 2021. He had about the same amount of Top 10’s; showing that he finished most of his races between sixth and tenth. He finished second at Kansas, and again also at Bristol. He made the Chase via points; but got eliminated after the second round. With the NextGen cars being introduced in 2022; everyone expected to see Harvick return to form and be a front

running again. But, Harvick's dismal finishes from 2021 continued into 2022. None of the Stewart-Haas cars seemed to be a good as the other race teams . Harvick managed a seventh at Fontana, followed by a 12th at Las Vegas and a sixth at Phoenix. Although they are top 10's it was a far cry from his nine win season of 2020. SHR did show a glimmer of hope at Phoenix as Harvick's team mate Chase Briscoe got the win. Harvick ran well at Richmond, coming home second. He spent most of the season finishing between fifth and 15th. Harvick broke through and won at Michigan, breaking a 65-race drought to become the 15th different winner in the season. Harvick

then scored his 60th career victory at Richmond a week later. When the play-offs started; at the Southern 500, Harvick finished 33rd after his car caught fire, which resulted in being relegated to 16th and last in the Playoff standings. The following week at Kansas, Harvick slammed the wall on lap 33 after Ross Chastain almost made contact with Bubba Wallace, resulting in Harvick's third consecutive DNF for the first time in his career. Harvick was eliminated in the Round of 16 after finishing 10th and being in a must-win situation at the Bristol night race. Harvick finished the season 15th in the points standings, his first points finish outside the top 10 since 2009. 2023 would be the final

season in the Cup series for Harvick. Everyone had hoped he could pull off a win in his final season; but that was not to be. He started off the season well with a 12th in the Daytona 500. That was followed by a fifth at Fontana; a ninth at Las Vegas and another fifth at Phoenix. A crash at Atlanta left him 33; but he bounced back with a 13th at COTA, a fifth at Richmond and a ninth at Bristol on the dirt. He had three weeks where he finished about 20th; but his best finish of the season came at Darlington where he was runner up to William Byron. Harvick was leading with just two laps to go when Byron was able to get by a break Harvick’s heart by stealing the win in the late stages. Harvick was able to point his way into the Chase for the Championship. Finishes of 19th, 11th and 29th

eliminated his at the end of the first round. He ended up 13th in season points. In his final appearance at the All Star race, Harvick's car used the #29 and a throwback paint scheme honoring his first career win at Atlanta in 2001. In the Spring of 2023, Fox Sports and Harvick announced that he would be joining the Fox NASCAR broadcast booth in 2024, joining Mike Joy and former RCR and SHR teammate Clint Bowyer starting in 2024. Harvick has not ruled out making a few starts in the Xfinity or Truck series in the future. For his career he has made 826 Cup

starts over 23 seasons. He has 60 wins including the crown jewels races of: Brickyard 400 (2003, 2019, 2020); Daytona 500 (2007); Coke 600 (2011, 2013); Southern 500 (2014, 2020); and was the Cup Champion in 2014. He has 251 Top 5 and 444 Top 10 finishes. In the Xfinity series he has made 349 starts and claimed 47 wins and 186 Top 5 finishes. He was the series champ in 2001 and 2006; impressive seeing as he also ran full time in the Cup series in those years. In the truck series to date he has made 124 starts and has 14 wins and 48 Top 5’s. Some info from Wikipedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

KEVIN MICHAEL HARVICK - 12/08/1976