Author: Bob Pockrass
Date: Dec. 5, 2014
LAS VEGAS —Often beside Kevin Harvick as he celebrates his 2014 Sprint Cup title is his 2-year-old son Keelan.
It not only is a family moment to have his son with him. It’s a reason he says he won the Sprint Cup championship and will be honored Friday night at the awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Harvick, who earned his first Cup championship in 14 years as a full-time driver, credits his son “100 percent” for his title.
How does having a kid with his wife, DeLana, result in winning the title?
Harvick explains:
“It started in an evaluation of our lives,” Harvick said Thursday. “That evaluation of our lives, my job falls into that. DeLana and I, since we knew we were going to have Keelan, have always talked about what it’s going to take to be great parents.
“One of those things in that category is what is it going to take to make you happiest at work? We knew that I wasn’t over-the-top excited about everything that I was dealing with at that particular time.”
To increase his happiness, the Harvicks sold their race team after the 2011 season, merging it into Richard Childress Racing. Harvick then decided in October 2012 to leave RCR to join his friend Tony Stewart’s Stewart-Haas Racing starting in 2014.
“We just started evaluating and talking about what I needed to do,” Harvick said. “In the end, we thought I needed to make a change and get something that rejuvenated me to get up in the morning and go to the shop and go to work and really take the time to be as good as I can.
“Having Keelan was really something that helped get that whole circle of life more balanced.”
It also helps having a more relaxed race team, he said.
“It is a business, but it’s also one of those things that somewhat is something Gene (Haas) does for fun,” Harvick said. “And we have just an enormous amount of resources to draw from, whether it be the financial stability that Gene has and the commitment he has made to the team or Tony and (his) winning three championships.
“Those were a couple of the reasons that were big keys for me going to Stewart-Haas Racing. … (There's) definitely a lot of racers in the building that just love the sport and love to be a part of it. It has a little less of that business feel to it. It’s more of an old-school racing feel to it, and for me, I think that fits well.”
From the outside, SHR appears at times to be a little more disorganized but less political than other teams.
“Every race team you could say has some form of disorganization just because there are so many moving parts to it because it evolves so much,” Harvick said. “I wouldn’t call it disorganized. I would just say definitely a more relaxed atmosphere than most places.”
Harvick and his wife, DeLana, will be on stage at the Cup banquet. Keelan won’t be with them. They hope he just gets dressed in his tuxedo and lasts through the pre-banquet photos.
“I’m just excited to take it all in and whether it be walking down the red carpet with my wife and son or sitting up on stage and being able to probably get roasted by (host) Jay Mohr and take some abuse on that side of it, I just want to make sure to take as much in as you can,” Harvick said.
“It might be the first or might be the last. So you might as well enjoy it and celebrate as much as you can.”
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