Author: Jared Turner
Date: Nov. 19, 2014
Kevin Harvick will always hold fond memories of the raucous post-race celebration he enjoyed with team members after winning the Sprint Cup championship and season's final race Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
He'll also undoubtedly look back fondly on this week's whirlwind media tour that has taken him to several well-known stops around New York City, among other places.
But there was a brief time of quiet solitude he shared with his 2-year-old son, Keelan, late Sunday night that he will cherish even more.
"Some of the coolest moments probably came on that particular night when my son, after we got done with the car, he didn't really care about anything that was going on, but it was just watching him run up and down the racetrack and sitting up against the wall with him and really throwing rocks down to the bottom, because that was really what he cared about at that particular point was throwing the rocks and rubber to the bottom of the racetrack," Harvick said Wednesday during a national teleconference with reporters.
"Just those little moments like that, and through the week he got his first fishing pole, so that was pretty cool to be able to share some of those moments."
Speaking on Wednesday, Harvick also praised his wife of nearly 14 years, DeLana, who wept openly while sitting on Harvick's pit box moments after watching her husband capture the championship that had eluded him in his first 13 seasons as a Sprint Cup Series driver.
"She grew up in a racing family and knows how hard this sport is and knows the sacrifices that we make personally and that her family had made growing up to get race cars to the racetrack," Harvick said of his wife, whose father was the late Nationwide Series driver John Paul Linville.
"So she's been an incredible part of this for me personally, just for the fact that she knows, and we've been around each other so much that she knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to not bother me with, and the guys and gals back at the office know that in the situation that we were in that we've been a part of before, never actually won, obviously, but whether it be on the Cup level or the Nationwide or truck level, they know that a lot of that stuff goes to her first, and she kind of filters it to me as she knows what I do and don't want to deal with in those competitive situations. It's been an incredible amount of pressure on her."
In addition to being her husband's No. 1 supporter and long-time business partner, DeLana has been especially busy in recent weeks as the couple has been making preparations to move into a new home, replacing their Oak Ridge, N.C., home that was burned in a house fire almost a year ago.
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No one was injured in the blaze, which didn't destroy the entire house but caused thousands of dollars in damage.
"She's also been moving our houses as we've gone through this whole process over the year and actually moved in Monday and Tuesday, so she's been a huge, huge part of this," Harvick said of his wife. "I think over the last couple weeks, everybody can see how much pressure was on her, and the pressure is almost worse when you're sitting up there and have no control over it.
"I've been in that position as a team owner before, and there's nothing worse than sitting on that pit box not really knowing what's going on."
Unlike last Thanksgiving, when the Harvicks weren't able to spend the holiday at home, they'll have a place to call home this year. And for Kevin, that's as important as any championship.
"Our main focus throughout the year was to make sure that we had everything situated," Harvick said. "That was the main focus in front of everything else that we were doing on the weekends was to make sure that we had everything as in order as possible so that leading into the holidays, Keelan could have a firm foundation and home to celebrate the holidays in and make it as memorable as possible for him.
"That's really been the main life focus that DeLana and I have been working on throughout the year."
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