LOUDON, N.H. — Kevin Harvick on Monday will compete for the final time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a venue that’s technically considered a short track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The racing on the 1.058-mile configuration is as unique as it is reminiscent of NASCAR Home Tracks all around the country.
Starting in 2024, though, Harvick’s motorsports focus will turn squarely to these types of venues.
Through his marketing agency (KHI Management) and his late-model race teams, Harvick will aim to support short-track racing as a whole through his elevation of the discipline’s talent and personality upon his retirement from Cup racing at the end of the season.
Harvick, of course, is part of the new CARS Late Model Stock Tour ownership group consisting of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton and Justin Marks. He said the endeavor has taught him just how impactful his support can be to short-track competitors and, in turn, stock-car racing as a whole.
“We have a lot of great racers across the country racing at these short tracks,” Harvick said Saturday. “Our focus [with] the CARS Tour is just promoting races. If some of the guys and girls have fun tweets or posts on Instagram, you see Dale and myself reposting stuff and just trying to give them a platform to be able to have a shot.”
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From the point he takes off his helmet after the Cup season finale at Phoenix Raceway in November, Harvick’s support of short-track racing will only grow.
The 47-year-old specifically mentioned the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, Wisconsin’s Slinger Nationals and the All American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as events his late model teams plan to enter. The complete schedule will depend on driver availability.
And for Harvick, those drivers are the key.
Harvick himself competed in one of his late models at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May. But he said he might not run at all in 2024. He would consider that a positive development.
“The race teams primarily are going to be used for the management company drivers and the things that they want to do,” Harvick said. “The teams are really kind of an extension of what we’ll do from the management side to give them an opportunity to get in good cars and be safe … and to be able to put Cup guys in there when they want to come race.”
Harvick noted Josh Berry, the driver who will take over Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 Ford Mustang starting in 2024, as an example of the type of competitor he hopes to support. Berry won the 2020 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship driving for JR Motorsports.
Now he’s a star at the sport’s highest level.
“The most important thing is using our platform to expose who those short track drivers are. Josh Berry’s been a huge part of that. And being able to recognize that there are a lot of really good short-track racers.
“And Josh, being able to go in the 4 car — and it’s not a paid-for situation — gives a lot of those guys a lot of hope that in can be done. It can be a part of just doing the right thing.”