By Bob Pockrass | Wednesday, January 25, 2012 10:36 PM EST
WELCOME, N.C. – Kevin Harvick revealed Wednesday one of the main reasons he and wife, DeLana, decided to sell their Kevin Harvick Inc. race teams. They wanted to start a family.
And as is their nature, they’re on their way to reaching that goal as Kevin announced that DeLana is due in mid-July, ironically during one of the two off weeks in the season.
DeLana Harvick had often described KHI as her family, but Kevin said they realized they wanted more.
“You go through different phases of your life,” the Richard Childress Racing driver said during the Sprint Media Tour stop at the RCR headquarters. “You sit down and do your estate planning and it’s just you and her. There’s nobody to carry on the things that we sat there and built.
“How important are a bunch of race cars 15 years down the road? Not very. It kind of helped put a lot of things in perspective.”
The main condition of having a baby would be for the Harvicks not to operate a race team.
“There were a lot of factors that went into the KHI decision, but when your wife tells you she is not starting a family unless you get out of the race team business, that is a pretty big factor in things that are going on,” Harvick said.
The Harvicks operated KHI for 10 years, winning two truck series championships with Ron Hornaday. The organization also won 10 Nationwide races and 43 truck events.
Richard Childress Racing absorbed the KHI Nationwide Series teams and the trucks were absorbed by Eddie Sharp Racing. RCR wanted to resurrect its Nationwide program for Austin Dillon, grandson of the Cup team owner.
“Really it was kind of like it was all meant to be,” Harvick said. “Austin coming up in the Nationwide car, us wanting to do the family aspect of life and Eddie Sharp starting his team. It just all lined up perfectly. The baby is actually due on the off week in July. It looks like you wrote it down on a piece of paper.”
Kevin indicated that his wife won’t be wearing a fire suit at the races as she normally does.
“I don’t think you will see her in a fire suit,” Harvick said. “We are having a debate about walking up the steps on the pit box. I am voting for the captain’s chair behind the pit box under the awning.”
Harvick seemed genuinely emotional about this life moment.
“It’s going to be great,” he said. “I’ve been so excited; you get a little bit emotional about stuff like that. I’m really excited; DeLana and I are happy to finally let the cat of the bag and I am looking forward to the new experiences that it leads to in life.”
And he wouldn’t rule out there being race cars back at KHI, where the main shop floor is now a full-length basketball court.
“We did a good job running the race teams,” Harvick said. “We were competitive. As you move down the road and I’m done driving, I think you can always fire that back up again.”
Would he fire it up for his child if he or she grows up wanting to race?
“I am really hoping [my kid] wants to like play golf or something ... and not race,” Harvick said.
For full story from SceneDaily.com: http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Life_after_KHI_DeLana_Harvick_expecting_baby_in_July.html