September 9, 2012
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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Kevin Harvick is happy.
I’m not talking just about his nickname “Happy”, but he is a genuinely happy man these days.
Friday night he virtually ran away with the victory in the Nationwide Race at Richmond International Raceway. A win alone would usually be enough to bring a smile to any drivers face. In Harvick’s case, it wasn’t just the win, but a picture shown to him in Victory Lane that made his smile just a little bit bigger.
“He looks thrilled,” he chuckled when shown a picture of his two-month old son, Keelan, asleep on the floor during the race. For the first time, Harvick spoke live with his wife and son from Victory Lane, and his grin couldn’t have been bigger.
Keelan Harvick made his first appearance at a race track last weekend in Atlanta, and his second this weekend in Richmond. He wasn’t there in person on Friday, but a live “Facetime” chat immediately after the race was pretty close -- and probably a little better for Keelan, who likely wouldn’t have been too excited by the spraying beer and Gatorade.
A photo tweeted by Kevin’s wife, DeLana, immediately after the win of a grinning Keelan was brought up during his post-race interview in the media center.
“That usually means he has gas,” Harvick quipped with a chuckle. “It’s been a couple of months and it’s been a lot of fun. I feel like it has made myself and DeLana closer than we ever have been because we constantly have to share whatever it is, whether it is the feeding or the diaper or he’s in a bad mood or she’s in a bad mood or I’m in a bad mood -- whatever the case may be you have these constant conversations -- I feel like that part has become stronger than we’ve ever been.”
As he talks, Harvick smiles broadly -- a big change from many of the interviews I have participated in with the driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet over the years. This is a man who suddenly seems to understand that while racing has been his entire life, and that a lot of times that racing has led to anger and even outright hostility -- now there is a small little boy who can take the most frustrating of days and make it all better with a gassy smile.
“Even when it’s a bad day, you go home and he’s happy about having gas -- he doesn’t care what you do on the race track -- he doesn’t know, it doesn’t matter,” he says, getting a chuckle from the gathered members of the media. “There’s nothing like holding him in your arms -- that part is something I have never experienced in my life. I think it’s made me better at the race track, to be around and to put things in perspective. You still have that fire and that grit when you are in the car -- but I think Keelan (and not owning Kevin Harvick Incorporated) have really let me let go of circumstances like what happened last week in Atlanta.”
Last week in Atlanta, where Harvick was dominating late in the race and an errant water bottle (and some debris high in the turn) led to a caution flag that many feel cost the No. 29 team a trip to Victory lane. Even up until earlier this season, a loss like that might have left Harvick grumpy and in a foul mood for days if not weeks.
“For me, when I woke up Sunday morning, I was over it. It sucked that we lost -- but there are just so many things that are better in my life this year than last year.”
Harvick’s boss and team owner, Richard Childress, nodded and added “It will only get better for Kevin and DeLana. When you go home and have a bad day, you go home and see that smiling face, it changes everything. “
After hearing all of this unusual “warmth and fuzziness” from the man who asked me quite sarcastically after I asked a question when his engine blew up at the 2011 Daytona 500 “You haven’t been doing this long have you?” I asked if this meant he was a “kinder and gentler Kevin Harvick.”
“I don’t know about gentler,” he said with that mischievous twinkle in his eye. “I still want to punch Kyle Busch in the mouth.”
Follow Kim on Twitter: @ksrgatorfn
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