CONCORD, N.C. — Arriving at the NASCAR Production Facility on Saturday for CARS Tour Media Day was surreal for the Harvick family in many regards.

Kevin Harvick fulfilled multiple roles across a busy afternoon as a series owner, driver and father. He took part in the familiar photo, video and social content associated with Media Day, all while he and his wife DeLana kept a caring, watchful eye on their 12-year-old son Keelan.

Media responsibilities are going to become more frequent for Keelan, who is set to embark on a busy first year piloting Pro Late Models. The third-generation driver will share the seat with his dad in cars prepared through an alliance between Kevin Harvick Inc. and Rackley W.A.R.

With so much going on in advance of the upcoming season, Keelan is doing everything he can to trust the copious resources around him. This includes adhering to his dad’s advice on what qualities are needed to transition into stock cars.

“[My dad] is really big on being smooth and trying to be consistent,” Keelan said. “That’s really helped me through my career. I would love to win a lot, but this is brand new competition, and it’s going to be really hard to adapt.

“If I can consistently get top-five or top-10 finishes, that would be a really good takeaway for me.”

Kevin’s constant influence has been a crucial component in Keelan’s development separating himself from other drivers in his age group.

Before he became a familiar name in Legends competition, Keelan was busy developing his craft in go-karting events not only in the United States, but in Europe. The accolades quickly accumulated for Keelan; he had multiple victories and championships to his name by the end of 2022.

Having honed his skills in Europe’s rigid racing culture, Keelan’s competitive nature translated into success on the Legends platform. After putting together several strong races in 2023, he emerged as a perennial contender in the Young Lions division this past year against many other future NASCAR stars.

As a whole in 2024, Keelan accumulated 27 victories across 49 starts to go along with top-three finishes in the Cook Out Summer Shootout, INEX Nashville Spring Series and INEX Winter Nationals standings. That efficiency enabled him to secure the 2024 INEX Young Lions Asphalt National Championship.

There are times when Kevin finds himself in disbelief over Keelan’s standing at this point in his career. Seeing Keelan stand in his car as a baby prior to Daytona 500 does not seem that long ago for Kevin, and now his son is only a few years away from being a full-time NASCAR driver.

To prepare Keelan for a stock car, Kevin entered him in his first Limited Late Model event at South Carolina’s Florence Motor Speedway in November. Keelan drove a clean, methodical race against many established veterans and finished a quiet-but-solid eighth.

Kevin was impressed with how Keelan conducted himself at Florence, a facility known for its abrasive nature on tires and equipment. In hindsight, Kevin wishes he had encouraged Keelan to be less conservative behind the wheel.

“The biggest problem he had was us,” Kevin said. “We should have just let him go out there and not tell him what to do. I don’t think we all expected him to do as well as he did. He was very aware of his surroundings, communication and the things he did with the car.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the first outing.”

Knowing Florence would be his first real test before an expanded stock-car schedule, Keelan approached the event intending to ascertain as much as possible. While he hoped for a slightly better finish, Keelan believes he has a blueprint on how to put together more similar showings in 2025.

“There was definitely a lot of stuff I could take away [from Florence],” Keelan said. “I learned that I need to be better at tire-saving and more aggressive later as the race goes. This would not be possible without all the KHI guys, and I have to thank them again.”

Now that he has an idea of what to expect in a stock car, Keelan is eager to see what he can do at different tracks across the country. His slate of events includes a return to Florence in a Limited Late Model for the track’s Icebreaker in February, along with a plethora of Pro Late Model races on both the East and West Coast.

Participating in a national series like the CARS Tour required Keelan to handle media obligations before his first stock-car race of 2025. The afternoon gave Keelan time to familiarize himself with the production side of the sport and interact with other drivers, some of whom will be his direct competition.

For the most part, Keelan enjoyed his time at the NASCAR Production Facility, though there was one aspect of the festivities he singled out as his least favorite.

“Me and my dad did a game where you roll the Oreo down a table, and you could get mayonnaise, lemon, lime, milk, blue cheese or hot sauce,” Keelan said. “I got blue cheese. It was not good.”

Aside from tasting unorthodox Oreo flavors, Kevin believed everything went perfectly for Keelan during his first CARS Tour Media Day. The importance of having Keelan build a healthy, courteous relationship with media has been a point of emphasis for Kevin and DeLana, the latter of whom has a background in public relations.

“We’ve had a lot of photoshoots that [Keelan] has been a part of,” Kevin said. “You want [him] to be in a position where he understands this is part of the process and part of what being a professional race car driver is. This didn’t come naturally for me, but you need to learn and understand it.

“In order to be a pro and be good at [what you do], you need to have a good reputation and understand what this is for.”

Kevin is confident Keelan has everything needed both on and off the track to keep thriving as he takes the next step in his development, especially now that Rackley W.A.R. is aligned with KHI in Supers and Pro Late Models.

Despite this, Kevin knows there is only so much he can do as a mentor and father. While sharing a car with Keelan has plenty of benefits when it comes to setups and terminology, Kevin understands the best way for his son to learn is to experience the positives and negatives of the sport first-hand.

Kevin sees the Pro Late Model discipline as the perfect avenue for Keelan to further acclimate himself to stock cars. The competitive nature of Pro Late Models will make it difficult for Keelan to win in his first year, but Kevin looks forward to seeing his son gradually make progress with every passing week.

“I haven’t even thought about [Keelan winning races],” Kevin said. “We’re expecting some pretty steep learning curves, so we’ll see if we get to that point [this year]. Anytime you get to see your kids accomplish something is pretty gratifying as a parent. As we’ve gone through the ranks, it’s been pretty fun to watch him pick up things in chunks.

“[That first win] will be a lot of fun. I hope I’m there when it happens.”

For Keelan, the races he is particularly looking forward to are the ones where he will be in the same field as his dad. Although those occasions are likely not going to be frequent, Keelan knows he can benefit by following his dad on track and how he navigates through traffic, though Keelan also wants to have bragging rights over his father.

There will be challenges for him to endure this year, but Keelan looks forward to the day where his patience and determination pays off with that first stock-car victory.

“I’m going to be very excited [if I win],” Keelan said. “I’m probably going to hit the griddy. [If I beat my dad], the celebration is going to be a lot bigger than hitting the griddy.”

CARS Tour Media Day was the first chapter in what is expected to be a long season for Keelan, where he looks to further showcase how he is becoming a successful driver just like his father was for more than two decades.