HAMPTON, Ga — As each 2023 NASCAR Cup Series race concludes, the swan song reaches a higher crescendo, and for Kevin Harvick, the same tune could be sung for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET, USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
With the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing driver set to retire at the end of the season, such an occasion hits home in more ways than one at the recently revamped superspeedway. After all, Harvick’s first win at the track — and ever — came in 2001 in only his third Cup Series start after the then-25-year-old took over for Dale Earnhardt following the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver’s death just weeks prior in the Daytona 500.
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That Atlanta win, infamously, came in the No. 29, and more than 22 years later, Harvick’s final Atlanta sendoff will see that very same No. 29 machine take to the track to pace the field, piloted by none other than Richard Childress, himself.
“I actually haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve been talking to Richard about it and saw they sent me some videos of it this morning and sent me a video of it parked in the garage, so I couldn’t be more excited about seeing it, you know, seeing it lead the field to the green,” Harvick, 47, said Saturday at the track. “I know how excited Richard is. I’m excited as well, but Richard’s been super excited to drive it, so that makes me happy, too.”
The No. 29-styled sendoff hasn’t been the first time the number has found its way back to the track this season. Harvick paid homage to the number personally during the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 21, when he drove a stylized Next Gen-style rendition of the scheme to an 18th-place finish.
However, the usage of the number this time around brings another historical wrinkle, with the car being the very same one used all those years ago and driven by the same owner Harvick called boss for 13 years.
Such a throwback showing Sunday evening will additionally re-emphasize the resilience Harvick displayed in not only taking over for a driver beloved by millions but in getting comfortable with Earnhardt’s setups, even if Harvick was relatively comfortable due to prior experience with the RCR program.
“I had been driving for almost a year, so I did all of it except for Daytona and Indy, so those were the two that Dale would go to, so all of the development stuff and everything that we did,” Harvick said. “I did all of that, so those guys, we were pretty accustomed to driving what he had in the car, what we had come up with, what they implemented and just kind of made all that work.
“I had already been in the cars and kind of known the little nuances of things to do differently and likes and don’t likes and things like that, so obviously they had a pretty good setup, so I would go around this place pretty good. A lot of that stuff was, at that particular point, pretty seamless just because I had been in the car so much.”
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Harvick will start the Sunday night race in sixth as one of eight Fords inside the top 10. With three career wins, nine top-fives and 16 top-10 finishes at the track in 35 total starts heading into Sunday, his reputation at the track can speak for itself. However, for Harvick, what happens before the race with the No. 29 will evoke as much emotion as the race itself will.
It only makes sense that a sendoff throwing it back to where it all started will definitely hit home.
“Well, obviously, this has been a place for me that has a lot of history here, so to run the last race is definitely a little bit bittersweet,” Harvick said. “But, you know, I think for me, I’ve been prepared for all of this as I’ve gone into this, so seeing the 29 car, the original 29 car, lead the field to the green with Richard driving it and seeing the Hunt Brothers sign there in the middle of 1 and 2, it kind of adds a little bit to it, but mentally, I’ve been prepared for it.”