When Kevin Harvick retired, there was a hole in the hearts of most NASCAR fans. The man who gave us so many moments was just going out of the sport. Think the 2001 Atlanta race when Richard Childress named him as the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s successor, or the 2007 Daytona 500 finish when he beat Mark Martin by just 0.02s.
Little did they know he was only passing the torch to the next generation. Keelan Harvick, Kevin’s son, started his racing journey at 7, and when he excelled at the Trackhouse Motorplex in Mooresville, fans knew he was going to go big.
Cut to 2025, and he has already made it to one of the biggest racetracks — North Wilkesboro Speedway — to race against drivers like Spencer Davis and Josh Berry, but he didn’t let that faze him. Keelan laid down a 17.741-second qualifying lap, one that bagged him a fourth-place start after Kayden Honeycutt took pole position.
And it wasn’t in vain. Despite starting fourth, Keelan made steady progress throughout the race. Perhaps his biggest achievement was not just finishing on the podium, but beating out Josh Berry, a Cup Series driver, who finished fourth!
While being interviewed after the race, Keelan admitted the race was a learning step. “It was definitely a very good step and confidence booster for our team because I haven’t been doing a very good job this year so far but yeah, that was definitely a very good race for us.”
In a post-race interview, Keelan was asked about his invigorating performance, without even getting a scratch on the race car at one of the biggest racetracks in his Pro Late Model career. “Yes sir, it was definitely a very good step and confidence booster for our team because I haven’t been doing a very good job this year so far but yeah, that was definitely a very good race for us,” Keelan said, “I raced go-karts as a kid and it helped me because it was a momentum style racetrack but yeah, it was definitely really fun to race at this track and get to race where the Cup guys race.”
But it would not have been possible without the efforts of his father in mentoring the young kid to win. Some last-minute advice definitely helped Keelan in knowing the track better and achieving the result he wanted, especially learning from someone who has already raced on it before, and who can be a better person for the job than Kevin Harvick himself. “He [Kevin Harvick] took me on a track walk this morning… and he just explained it to me, like how he ran a late model stock car and it really helped me a lot,” said Keelan.
Keelan did not just have one mentor; all the Cup Series veterans were there for him throughout to guide him well. Josh Berry and Spencer Davis, who have been racing for years, helped Keelan with their own expertise. “It’s very cool, they’re very good mentors and learners, for me just to see how they drive the car and its very fun and I learnt a lot.”
It’s a big jump for Keelan. Just a little while ago, his father was being cautious about his progress. “Having him in a full-bodied car at this point was a little bit quicker than we probably anticipated, but I’ve never wanted him to stay in one spot, so we’ve just chased his progression. He was more than ready to move on, so we moved him on and kind of recalibrated the plan, and we’ll do that at the end of every year. He’s done a great job, and he’s definitely learning along the way. As long as we’re learning, it’s a success.”
And with Keelan succeeding, let’s take a look at what two legends are doing to keep grassroots racing alive.
Kevin Harvick and Dale Jr. On Keeping Grassroots Racing Alive
As the NASCAR franchise continues to grow, the veterans are not ready to let go of their origins at the grassroots level. It is as much about racing as it is about celebrating and remembering the heritage of these events. The CARS Tour was one such way for drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Justin Marks to unite and bring back the enthusiasm for the original dirt racing culture.
In the 2020s, there came a need to revive the lost enthusiasm of the culture, bringing back the glory of the sport. In the recent Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast with Dale Earnhardt Jr., the latter revealed, “Jack was a fellow that owned the tour for a while and was thinking about bringing in partners or selling the tour. He wanted it to kind of live on. He was thinking about getting out or scaling back his involvement. And actually, at the race at North Wilkesboro, when we brought Wilkesboro back in 2022 and had an event there with the CARS Tour and the Modifieds, we started conversations about how to keep the tour going, who should buy it, who should invest in it, who could do it. And I was like, well, I’ll be a partner. I wasn’t ready to run a series. I’ve never done that before in my life.”
Since then, the duo has been working on its revival at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. Although bringing in Justin Marks and Jeff Burton was not a part of the original plan, the events just worked out in their favor. Now, under their leadership, the CARS Tour is vibrantly bringing back that lost enthusiasm, and the new generation is willing to be a part of remaking history.
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