This is a real-life fact that nobody understands till they discover their lives standing squarely in the midst of that very fact. Being the wisest individual within the room is not about being the neatest individual in that area. It is about being the one that has been in that room the longest. The one with essentially the most expertise. The proprietor of the most important scrapbook of recollections and moments, and the teachings realized from each. Sensible sufficient to understand all of it.

“I believe that is a pure life development, proper?” stated Kevin Harvick, who at 47 and now in his twenty third and ultimate season within the NASCAR Cup Sequence finds that he’s now, most of the time, that individual in most each room of racers he is standing in. He’s the procurer of fairly the gathering of experiences and the knowledge that comes with them. “You understand, life development is hopefully maturing as you undergo time. To have the ability to do issues in a greater approach and study from what you probably did earlier than. So, each second issues.”

This weekend will mark not merely a type of moments, however a real milestone in a profession full of them. Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway shall be his 800th begin at inventory automobile racing’s highest degree. In 75 years of NASCAR, solely 10 drivers have hit that mark, and solely 4 of them reached it at a youthful age than Harvick. If he finishes out the season having began each race, he’ll retire with 826 Cup begins, eighth all-time. His 1,272 begins throughout all three NASCAR nationwide sequence already ranks first. His 60 Cup Sequence wins rank tenth. His 62 second-place finishes rank sixth. His 258 top-five finishes rank … OK, you get the concept.

The whole record of Harvick’s all-time top-10 rankings would take up extra space than this story has been given. Apart from, you possibly can learn all of them on his NASCAR Corridor of Fame plaque when he’s little question voted in on his first 12 months of eligibility, now lower than three years away.

Proper now, he is too busy attempting to win a second Cup Sequence title to spend a lot time wanting within the rearview mirror. Greater than a 3rd of the best way into the 26-race “common season,” he sits third within the championship standings, solely 15 factors behind chief Christopher Bell. So sure, Harvick’s ultimate profession numbers have but to be decided, however when each weekend presents one other milestone or one other rung climbed on all of these all-time lists, avoiding the subject of profession summation is unattainable — particularly for the reason that preseason announcement of his intention to retire at season’s finish.

Editor’s Picks

2 Associated

“I believe truthfully after we obtained to 60 [career wins] that that type of put it in perspective,” Harvick confesses, talking of his Richmond victory Aug. 14, 2022. “Actually, for me, whenever you begin listening to your opponents speaking about it. I will always remember Cliff Daniels [crew chief at rival Hendrick Motorsports] strolling as much as me after I had my 750th consecutive begin [this Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway], the issues that he stated that day actually helped put it into perspective for me. As a result of whenever you acquire the respect of your opponents on the racetrack, but in addition the folks within the storage, that to me is admittedly the rewarding a part of the physique of labor.”

The earliest days of Harvick’s profession — heck, the primary decade of his profession — weren’t stuffed with such reward from friends. Nor was he one to ship cheer and good tidings within the route of others within the paddock, whether or not they be the competitors and even these with whom he labored. Simply have a look at that consecutive begins streak. It at the moment sits at 757, third all-time, and will he end out the season uninterrupted, it’ll finish at 784, a scant 13 races in need of Jeff Gordon’s all-time iron man streak. The one purpose he will not personal that report outright is as a result of he missed the eighth race of 2002, his second season, parked by NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway for a tantrum thrown in a Truck Sequence race the day earlier than.

That is how Harvick rolled again then. Offended. He feuded with veterans comparable to Bobby Hamilton. He famously leaped off the roof of a Busch Sequence automobile onto the pinnacle of Greg Biffle throughout postrace interviews at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Thrust right into a Cup journey sooner than deliberate, an into-the-deep-end expertise that may by no means be replicated, pushed into NASCAR’s most well-known journey due to the dying of Dale Earnhardt within the 2001 Daytona 500, Harvick impossibly received in solely his third Cup begin in The Intimidator’s Chevy, edging Gordon by .006 seconds at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Oh, and he additionally obtained married in the midst of these three races.

From there, the 20-something Californian raced with guard up and his fists clenched. In 13 seasons driving for Richard Childress Racing, he received 24 occasions, together with the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, but in addition endured three winless years and didn’t win a championship. His more and more heated in-race radio exchanges with Childress grew to become must-hear leisure for race followers looking for drama on a Sunday afternoon.

That is how one earns the decidedly and intentionally ironic nickname “Joyful.”

“We’re each individuals who don’t have any drawback talking our minds, even after we ought to hold these ideas to ourselves, particularly on the radio when everybody within the grandstands can hear us,” Childress just lately stated of these days, chuckling. “However that fireplace can be what you need in a race automobile driver. Generally that fireplace goes to burn some stuff down. And we did.”

“It was all the time simply, you understand, ‘He is mad. He is indignant,'” Harvick recalled this week when wanting again on his tumultuous tenure at RCR. “Once I was driving the 29 automobile and also you look again, I advised Richard this, I stated, ‘Man, I want I might have performed it this fashion. The way in which I do issues now, with maturity, expertise. You understand, issues may need been somewhat bit completely different.’ I’d deal with issues loads in a different way, how we did all of that. However, you understand, the whole lot simply results in the subsequent step.”

The following step was the second half of that profession and the subsequent part in his life as a person. He moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014 to hitch good friend and fellow anger-management pupil Tony Stewart and instantly received that long-elusive Cup Sequence championship. Harvick has added one other 37 wins. He has gotten out of NASCAR group possession, opting to develop his sports activities administration enterprise, and has shifted his focus towards being a father of two, with 10-year-old son Keelan now behind the wheel.

“It is actually been two completely different components of my profession,” Harvick replied when requested the unattainable query of figuring out the one most memorable second amongst his first 799 Cup Sequence begins. “The announcement that you’ll drive your first Cup race was larger than any second that you’re going to ever have in your profession. Then your first win was larger than any win that you simply’re ever going to have. So, all of these items that you simply needed to undergo and face, the remainder of it, that felt like a cakewalk to be sincere, since you by no means had one thing that was that huge once more.”

That is 12 months 10 at SHR, all the time behind the wheel of the identical automobile and, towards all identified NASCAR pure legal guidelines, all the time with the identical crew chief, Rodney Childers.

Racing in direction of his 800th Cup Sequence begin. pic.twitter.com/jRLheajTfw

— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) April 18, 2023

“All of it shifted in 2014 as a result of all people stated, ‘OK, now’s he going to have the ability to succeed at a brand new group and may he get together with folks?’ And right here we’re 10 years later, with the identical crew chief, identical group and a championship. You have a look at that Homestead win that received that championship, and that was an enormous second. The most important second within the second a part of my profession. It is of comparable significance, however probably not a comparable expertise, to that very first win.”

That skill to check experiences, moments and even eras, that’s the reward of knowledge. The well-earned byproduct of an unparalleled multidecade profession. In our youth, all of us fall into the identical entice that ensnared Harvick so a few years in the past: believing that we all know greater than we truly do. Solely by way of the hindsight of expertise does anybody actually perceive the worth of real perspective.

Say, the most recent Subsequent Gen race automobile.

The tide of reward for NASCAR’s 2022 one-size-fits-all machines formally started to show final summer time, when Harvick started talking up with issues about security. After his playoffs began with a Thirty third-place end on account of a fireplace in his Ford, he stated on dwell tv, “What a catastrophe for no purpose. We did not contact the wall. We did not contact a automobile and right here we’re within the pits with a burned-up automobile and we won’t end the race throughout the playoffs due to crappy-ass components.”

Simply this week, he responded to a tweet reporting that NASCAR groups believed components for 2024 wanted to be ordered now to move off provide chain points, posting “1000 HP spec. Order it …”

“Truthfully, the communication between the groups and NASCAR is nearly as good because it’s ever been. The issue is that the method of creating adjustments is simply as gradual because it’s ever been,” Harvick stated when requested about his name for extra horsepower. He additionally steered faster tire put on earlier than including, once more, the type of nuanced take that may solely learn by way of expertise.

He recalled 2007, when the sanctioning physique rolled out the so-called Automotive of Tomorrow. Like immediately’s Subsequent Gen machines, the CoT was largely a spec automobile. Those that had been round again then have talked about the CoT loads up to now 12 months. It is simply that there are fewer and fewer round now who had been additionally round then. Harvick, then on the peak of his Joyful days, is certainly one of them.

“It is the identical course of. It is no completely different. We already went by means of this. With the CoT and each time NASCAR has began altering guidelines,” he stated. “Within the very starting no one is aware of something in regards to the automobile, and as soon as all people figures out the automobile, issues change. The type of racing adjustments. It all the time does. It all the time will. So, yeah, I believe communication is there, however I believe the method is as gradual because it’s ever been, sadly, to have the ability to make adjustments due to how a lot purple tape there’s to leap by means of as a result of the groups aren’t accountable for the vehicles.”

Name him Joyful, name him The Nearer, name him previous man, no matter you need, Harvick’s opinions aren’t any much less pointed than they’ve ever been. His depth is identical now because it was 799 Cup begins in the past. As of late he merely yells much less. He retains his quantity knob someplace within the center as an alternative of breaking it off to be caught at 11. However now the child whom each veteran of the Cup Sequence storage used to both bash or keep away from altogether has develop into the veteran whom immediately’s youngsters search out for recommendation and a viewpoint that might solely come from a racer who began his profession in a world sponsored by cigarettes, racing towards males who’ve already been enshrined within the NASCAR Corridor of Fame.

You understand, knowledge.

“I believe at that exact time, beginning out, you actually do not even know what meaning, proper?” Harvick stated. “However I have been right here for therefore lengthy, by means of so many generations of vehicles with so many individuals, I believe placing that physique of labor collectively, that’s for me very rewarding. By the years, the ups and downs, we have all the time found out how one can get issues going once more and be capable to be aggressive and run upfront.

“I used to be only a child going to the racetrack having an excellent time, driving no matter I might race simply to get on the racetrack. Now, 800 Cup begins later, all these years later … that is one thing you will be pleased with.”