Article

John Linville

Submitted by tannis, 2009

Hi everyone,I am new to this wonderful site. I have long held the Legends of our sport in the highest esteem and this site could NOT have come at a better time.One of the reasons I wanted to join the site isn’t because of the “names” in our sport. Sure there are many who have made a great living in racing, lots of wins, championships and such and they are honored here and everywhere. But the unique part of this site is the honoring of the “less then popular” known names on a National level.Names of drivers and grease monkeys and owners and sponsors who are the bricks and mortar of stock car racing. People who got in the sport and laid the ground work for FAMILY togetherness and FAN involvement.One such man was John Linville. He is the father of Kevin Harvick’s wife DeLana. DeLana owns and manages Kevin Harvick Incorporated. By her own words, she is a racing brat. Brought up in the pits of racetracks all over the south.Every year there is a Fan Club Gathering held at KHI headquarters and it is more like a FAMILY rather then Fan gathering. Kevin and DeLana and her mom Joyce Linville welcome all of us fans with open arms. Calling many of us by our first names.Joyce spends the whole evening amongst the crowd. She has a sense of humor that keeps you in stitches and will spend hours talking about the racing life with Mr. John and DeLana. Kevin has related many a story of some of the pranks he pulled on Mr. John.The NASCAR website has Mr. John’s racing stats from 1982 to 1992. No you won’t find any wins, championships or top 5’s. But if you read Darrell Waltrip’s poem when Mr. John passed away or if you saw Kevin’s Harvick’s emotional win in the Busch Series at Texas Motor Speedway right after Mr. John passed away, you might say WOW, he must have been something.Yes he was. His legacy to racing was family values, honesty, integrity and the fans.I hope that any fans of Mr. John Linville will join this site and help promote his induction into the Hall Of Fame.The sport has it’s big names and big money people but if it weren’t for the blood, sweat and sacrifices made by people like John Linville, the sport would just be another big money game with no heart.God Bless you guys.just a fantannis

Comments

Jeff Gilder ·
Tannis,It would be nice to set up a club here on RR “Remembering John Linville” to pay tribute to his racing contributions. Do you have access to any photos we could use?Jeff
tannis ·
Hi Jeff,I have contacted KHI and Josh said he would get back to me. He is going to talk to DeLana and Joyce. I am hoping that they will approve my request.Thank you Jeff for asking. I will let ya’ll know as soon as I hear.God Blesstannis
Mike Sykes ·
Welcome to RR tannis. you said that the stats show John from 82 to 92 I can vividly remember John racing in the early to mid 70s. So I guess that Nascar has missed some of his racing years. Thank you for your blog.
tannis ·
Hi Mike,Thank you for that update. I tried to go on racing-reference but the page wouldn’t load for me. That is usally where I get my information. So I had to go by what I could find on that site.I don’t like that site for this very reason. LOLTake care and thanks for posting.tannis
rocky ragusa ·
i remember john paul winning the fairground(raleigh,n.c) track championship and n.c. state championship for limited sportsman in 1970. he preety much dominated the class. i might have some pictures of him when he ran the busch gn. will check. how is his brother dickie?

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