Sep 9, 11:01 AM EDT
Harvick to shutter Trucks Series team
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
Latest News
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Kevin Harvick Inc. plans to close its Trucks Series program and looks to sell its 70,000-square-foot shop in North Carolina.
Team owner Kevin Harvick had announced this week he was moving his Nationwide Series teams over to Richard Childress Racing. The two cars will run out of the RCR shop beginning next season.
He confirmed Friday he'll shutter the rest of KHI's racing program and the company will focus in the future on Harvick's personal business and brand. Harvick listed a variety of reasons for his decision, pinning most of it on business decisions and his desire to win a Sprint Cup championship.
KHI fielded its first truck in 2002 and won 39 races and two championships in 343 entries. The first Nationwide car was fielded in 2004, and KHI won 10 races in 347 entries.
2011 The Associated Press.
The story below is from today's Richmond paper, also... a day late and dollar short:
By: Paul Woody
Published: September 09, 2011
The name of the company is Kevin Harvick Inc., but anyone who has spent time at a race track or interacted with KHI, knows Kevin Harvick is not the sole manger of the business.
DeLana Harvick, Kevin's wife, is an equal partner in the decisions and in everything that involves the business.
For 10 years, almost the entire time they have been married, the Harvicks have operated KHI.
Kevin, 35, focuses on the competition side.
DeLana takes care of the marketing and public relations.
But even that breakdown does not adequately describe how the Harvicks run their business, which includes three trucks in the NASCAR Camping series and two cars in the Nationwide series.
"We're both very interested in what happens on the other's side of the wall," DeLana said.
"We both have opinions on what happens on the other's side of the wall.
"We have disagreements. We respect each other's opinion enough in our areas of expertise, but we always offer our opinions. And, we always offer the 'I told you so' when one is right and the other wrong."
The Harvicks aren't often wrong. Their three trucks are fourth, fifth and 12th in the standings.
Elliott Sadler is the primary Nationwide driver for KHI and is second in the standings. Kevin has made 11 starts in KHI's second Nationwide car and has five top-five finishes and six top 10s.
The Harvicks have a unique arrangement.
"It's a good thing," Kevin said. "She knows how much time and effort goes into everything. She understands when you have to go test, when you have an appearance.
"It's not all about what you wear on Sunday to show off. She knows we're here to do our jobs and sometimes that requires a lot of time and effort. She understands how that works, and it helps."
The Harvicks' business will take a different form in 2012. On Wednesday, they announced a merger of their Nationwide operation with Richard Childress Racing. Harvick drives for Childress on the Sprint Cup circuit.
DeLana, 38, did not get involved in racing because she fell in love with a driver 10 years ago. Her racing roots run deeper than many of the drivers on any of the NASCAR circuits.
Her father John Paul Linville drove on the Nationwide circuit until 1995.
"I went to my first race when I was three weeks old," she said. "I had no brothers or sisters. It was just my dad and me at the track. I didn't do the regular, normal girl scouts or brownies. I was at the race track.
"For a while, I had thoughts that I was going to teach high school English. As I got a little bit away from the racetrack, I realized I missed it. This is home to me."
Initially, she wanted that home to be in a car on the track, not in the office, managing cars and trucks that race around the tracks.
"I really wanted to drive, but my dad was a very old-school southern kind of guy, and girls just didn't do that," DeLana said. "He would let me be a part of everything else. He would teach me how to work on cars.
"But I never got the opportunity to drive until I was in my mid-20s. And with kids starting when they were four and five years old, I was way behind the curve."
Still, she finished 11th in a 100-lap feature.
Her hope for racing career coincided with her courtship by Kevin. His career was starting to thrive, and DeLana once again put her thoughts of driving aside.
DeLana is fiercely competitive, refuses to settle for anything or any effort that is less than the best, on and off the track, and such an attitude does not always win friends.
She understands. It does not influence any of her decisions, no matter who might agree or take offense.
"A lot of people are right. I can be your biggest, most loyal supporter, or your biggest foe," she said. "It just depends on how you want to go, on how you want to be."
Criticism occasionally is directed toward DeLana for her role in a male-dominated sport.
"A lot of time, stereotypes are a lot of bull," she said. "I'm confident in what I know and believe. I'm confident in the decisions I make. They're not always popular, and that's OK. I understand that.
"Anybody who is confident in what they do understands what I'm saying. I'm not arrogant about what I do, but I'm confident about what I do. I realize I can't please everybody. But if I please myself, and Kevin and I are on the same page, then I don't have anyone else to prove anything to."
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updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
