Kevin Harvick might have stepped away from the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023, but he’s far from done with racing. These days, his track time is split between calling races for FOX Sports and sharing the asphalt with his 12-year-old son, Keelan. It’s a father-son dynamic that’s as much about mentorship as it is about competition, with Harvick joking that his FOX gig is a breeze compared to the heart-pounding stress of watching Keelan race.
Every lap Keelan takes feels like a test of dad’s nerves, a far cry from the high-stakes calm of Harvick’s 23-year Cup career. The Harvick duo’s racing journey kicked into gear in 2021 when Keelan graduated from karting to Legends cars, following the same path as NASCAR stars like Chase Elliott and Joey Logano. Back then, Kevin was all in, hauling the trailer, tweaking setups, and dishing out advice between heats. They even raced together in events like Charlotte Motor Speedway’s summer shootouts, with Kevin in the Masters division and Keelan battling in Young Lions. On his Happy Hour podcast, Harvick shared how those moments let him “see the sport through a kid’s eyes again,” rekindling a joy he didn’t expect after stepping away from Cup racing.
By 2025, Keelan was making waves in Pro Late Models on the CARS Tour West, and Kevin couldn’t resist joining him on track. At Kern County Raceway in May, Keelan nabbed his first win in the division, with his dad racing in the same field. That victory wasn’t just a trophy, it was a full-circle moment for Kevin, who once pushed Keelan on a balance bike in the garage. Harvick called it “one of the proudest days” of his racing life, not for his own finish but for watching his son shine.
What sets their bond apart is Kevin’s approach to letting Keelan grow. Early on, Harvick admitted to micromanaging, tweaking Keelan’s car before he could even ask. But he learned to step back, letting Keelan figure out new lines, make mistakes, and argue setups, just like Kevin did as a teenage short-tracker in Bakersfield. That hands-off style paid off, making their wheel-to-wheel moments, like at Kern County, pure magic, built on a shared love of speed.
Now, another FOX broadcaster, Jamie McMurray, is taking a page from Harvick’s playbook, guiding his own son, Carter, through the racing ranks. On Harvick’s podcast, the two dads swapped stories about the highs and lows of raising young racers, revealing how McMurray’s following Harvick’s lead to build a legacy for Carter.
Harvick and McMurray talk parenthood
On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Harvick sat down with Jamie McMurray to dive into the wild ride of raising a racing kid. Harvick set the stage saying, “You, in your driving career, you go to TV. Your life is much more relaxed and now you’re involved in the most stressful thing you’re ever going to do in your life, and that’s racing with your son. Yeah, how’s that been? And for me it’s been fun because I still think back to those first conversations of when you went from ‘I watched you in go-karts’ and then you came to the legend team and our kids raced together and it was so fun to see the transition from hands-on Jamie to ‘all right, I got to let him learn, I need to back off,’ and that to me was fun because I went through the exact same thing.”
Harvick’s nod to his FOX life being “relaxed” rings true, calling races doesn’t carry the grind of his Cup days, but watching Keelan in Pro Late Models, like his Kern County win, is a whole new kind of pressure. He saw the same shift in McMurray, who went from wrenching on Carter’s kart to stepping back as Carter hit Legends cars in 2023, much like Kevin did when Keelan moved up from karting in 2021.
McMurray opened up about the struggle, saying “It is hard. I mean when I say I did everything, like I put the trailer on the truck, I loaded it, I cleaned it, I did everything and I loved it and it was so much fun. And then when we got to the legend cars I’m like, well now I’m kind of just in charge of the GoPro, right? Like that’s it. Six months in, I didn’t even get to touch the GoPro, and that’s hard for me. I don’t really help anymore.”
That’s the classic racing dad arc, McMurray was Carter’s mechanic, hauler driver, and crew chief in karting, just like Harvick was for Keelan. But Legends racing, like the Charlotte Summer Shootout, demands drivers take charge, and Carter taking over even the GoPro showed he was growing up fast, much like Keelan analyzing his own races in CARS Tour events.
McMurray got real about letting go, “When we go to the track, I don’t even go with you for some of these. I’ve watched him as a person grow more in three months this summer than the previous five years as a driver because all of a sudden I didn’t get to, because I would baby him and I didn’t even know I was babying him. I would change the visor when the sun started going down because I know if I don’t do this right now… instead of letting him learn those lessons I would just do it. I’m a prepper, I like everything to be in line. But the last three months, I don’t even look at video with him anymore and I’ve let him just ask me questions. He sent me some texts the last race they ran, ‘Do you think if I back my entry up…?’ and I was so proud.” he said.
Carter’s growth spurt, likely during the 2025 Summer Shootout, mirrors Keelan’s leap in maturity when he started tweaking his own Pro Late Model setups. Carter texting about “backing up his entry” showed he’s thinking like a racer, just like Keelan at Hickory. For McMurray, it’s proof that stepping back, like Harvick did, is building Carter into a driver who owns his craft.
Harvick’s take on Corey Heim’s future
While swapping dad stories, Harvick also dished on the NASCAR rumor mill, speculating about Truck Series star Corey Heim’s next move. “With Legacy (Motor Club) buying Haas (Factory Team), we don’t know if that’s true or not,” he said. “But rumors over the last couple of weeks with Legacy buying Haas is who’s the third driver there? If they are buying it, they’re going to need another driver for a Cup car.”
The buzz about Legacy potentially snagging Haas’ charter surfaced recently, tied to Legacy’s legal tussle with Rick Ware Racing over charters. With Legacy running two full-time Cup cars, adding a third via Haas could open a seat for Heim, who’s been lighting up the Truck Series in 2025. Harvick’s insight, paired with his and McMurray’s talk about guiding young drivers, shows how veterans are shaping the sport’s future, whether it’s Keelan, Carter, or Heim chasing a Cup Series shot.
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