● Back on Jan. 12, Kevin Harvick announced that 2023 would be his final year in the NASCAR Cup Series. The driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing will retire after the checkered flag waves at the season finale Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway. When that day comes, Harvick will have had a 23-year run in the Cup Series – one of the longest tenures in recent memory. That kind of history makes for some interesting anecdotes, especially when you consider that Harvick has been racing in at least one of NASCAR’s top-three national series for 28 years. As the Bakersfield, California, native returns to his home track this weekend – Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California – here are three nuggets that highlight his NASCAR tenure: ● Harvick raced against former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville. Their first race together was April 21, 1996 at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR Truck Series. ● Harvick has raced against three generations of Gillilands, beginning with patriarch Butch Gilliland (they first raced together on April 21, 1996 in the Truck Series at Phoenix), and then Butch’s son David Gilliland (in both Xfinity and Cup Series races from 2004-2018) and finally David’s son Todd Gilliland, who was a Cup Series rookie last year and remains in the series. ● Another noteworthy driver Harvick has competed against is Hershel McGriff, who was recently inducted into the 2023 NASCAR Hall of Fame. McGriff is known for his unsurpassed longevity in the sport. His first race was the 1950 Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway when he was a 22-year-old competing in NASCAR’s sophomore season. His final race was the 2018 Port of Tucson Twin 100s where, as a 90-year-old, McGriff drove in the first of two 100-lap NASCAR West Series races at Tucson (Ariz.) Speedway. Harvick and McGriff competed against each other in the NASCAR Winston West Series from 1996 through 1998. ● Harvick will make some history of his own Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. When he takes the green flag for the Pala Casino 400, Harvick will make his 750th consecutive NASCAR Cup Series start, becoming just the third driver in series history to reach the milestone, joining Jeff Gordon (797 consecutive starts) and Ricky Rudd (788 consecutive starts). The last time Harvick was not in a Cup Series race was April 2, 2002 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, a span of 7,623 days between race dates. ● Auto Club Speedway serves as a homecoming for Harvick. The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion is from Bakersfield, roughly three hours northwest of Fontana. Harvick joins three other Californians competing at Auto Club Speedway – A.J. Allmendinger from Los Gatos, Kyle Larson from Elk Grove, and Tyler Reddick from Corning. In the 26-year history of the track, only four Californians have won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Fontana – Vallejo’s Jeff Gordon, El Cajon’s Jimmie Johnson, Larson and Harvick – but they’ve won 12 of the 32 races held. ● Harvick’s lone NASCAR Cup Series victory at Fontana came on March 27, 2011 when he beat Johnson by .144 of a second. Harvick led only one lap, but it was the only one that mattered. He took the lead from Johnson on the final lap to score his 15th career Cup Series win. Harvick has won 45 races since. His 60 career Cup Series victories puts him in a tie with Kyle Busch for ninth on the series’ all-time win list. ● Harvick and Kurt Busch lead the NASCAR Cup Series in starts at Auto Club Speedway with 28 starts apiece – a streak that spans four decades (1997-2022). Next best in this category is Kurt’s younger brother, Kyle Busch, who has 23 career starts at Fontana. ● Harvick’s NASCAR Cup Series stat line at Fontana includes a win, seven top-five finishes, 14 top-10 finishes and 238 laps led. His average finish across his 28 career starts is 14.9, thanks in large part to completing 98.7 percent of the laps available (6,274 of 6,356 laps). ● Harvick has been competing at Auto Club Speedway ever since 1997 – the track’s debut season. His first start at the 2-mile oval came on Oct. 18, 2017 in The No Fear Challenge NASCAR Truck Series race driving the No. 75 entry for Wayne and Connie Spears of Agua Dulce, California. Harvick started 28th and finished 20th, completing 99 of 100 laps. Harvick has made a total of four Truck Series starts at Fontana, with his best result coming in his most recent Truck Series start there – eighth on Feb. 23, 2007. ● Harvick also competed at Auto Club Speedway with Wayne and Connie Spears in the NASCAR Winston West Series. He made two Winston West starts for the family-owned team at Fontana in 1998, and it was in his first start on May 2 that Harvick piqued the interest of NASCAR team owner Richard Childress. Harvick started second and finished second, leading 32 laps in between. Ken Schrader took the win by 1.314 seconds, but Childress took note of the then 22-year-old Harvick. In Harvick’s Winston West return to Fontana on July 18, he one-upped his performance from two months prior. He started from the pole and ended with the win, taking the checkered flag by 1.15 seconds over Austin Cameron. He led 52 of the race’s 100 laps. Those victories were part of a five-win campaign that led Harvick to the 1998 Winston West championship and, ultimately, a 14-year career with Richard Childress Racing, with the team signing Harvick to race in the Xfinity Series in 2000. ● The NASCAR Xfinity Series represents another successful element of Harvick’s career at Auto Club Speedway. In 20 starts at the track, Harvick has finished among the top-10 17 times. He has 12 top-fives, highlighted by a win in his second-to-last Xfinity Series start at Fontana. Harvick took the checkered flag on March 21, 2015 with an impressive 3.317-second margin over second-place Brendan Gaughan. ● Kevin Harvick competed in the IROC Series for three seasons (2002-2004). The International Race of Champions (IROC) pitted drivers from a variety of racing disciplines against each other in identically-prepared stock cars in an annual four-race series where driver talent ruled. Harvick’s first and only IROC win came in just his second start – April 27, 2002 at Fontana. With a season-long average finish of 4.8 buoyed by that win, Harvick took the IROC title. | 
