Kevin Harvick becoming a member of FOX Sports broadcast sales space for Cup Series in 2024

Kevin Harvick does not simply have his retirement announcement out of the best way, he additionally has his post-retirement plan on the market for everybody to see.

Harvick will be a part of Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer within the FOX Sports broadcast sales space for NASCAR Cup Series races in 2024.

The 47-year-old Harvick, winner of 60 Cup races and the 2014 Cup title, has already labored greater than 25 Xfinity races and three truck races from the sales space. Harvick has proven the flexibility to dissect and clarify shortly the whys of what occurred on the race monitor. 

“I have done a lot a lot of things in the booth and knew that was somewhere that I wanted to be because I like talking about the sport,” Harvick stated. “I like to be able to tell stories and be a part of the broadcast and that’s something that I have enjoyed.

“I loved the preparation and every thing that goes into it to have the ability to inform a narrative.”

Harvick made it a priority to have all his plans set going into his final Cup season so he can focus on his final 38 races as a Cup driver. The California native has never known anything but the spotlight as he replaced Dale Earnhardt after Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500. Over the last 22 years, he has competed in 790 Cup races with 430 top-10 finishes.

“This is a wedding eight years within the making — since he first stepped into our NASCAR Xfinity Series sales space with extra presence and poise than most newcomers dream of,” said Brad Zager, FOX Sports executive producer and president of productions and operations. 

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver finished 15th in the standings last year with two victories. He was eliminated from the playoffs in the opening round.

His career has spanned a variety of playoff formats, four generations of Cup cars and included owning his own Xfinity and truck teams.

“There’s actually no one else who has stepped out of the automotive and into the sales space with the brand new automotive,” Harvick said. “There’s a whole lot of new issues occurring with this specific automotive which can be a lot completely different than the best way that the opposite automotive raced, the best way the opposite automotive felt.”

Harvick stated with all of his Kevin Harvick Inc.’s enterprise pursuits — amongst its portfolio it represents drivers (together with his son, Keelan) and different athletes, brokers sponsorships, is a companion in a short-track late mannequin collection — he felt he could not retire and never come to the race monitor. Keelan is 10 years outdated; daughter Piper is 5.

“I knew that there was no way that I was going to sit around and not do anything,” Harvick stated. “That was just impossible. … There’s just too many things that pointed to don’t leave the race track, you still have to stay involved. And for me this was a great way to be able to stay busy [and] do something that I enjoy.”

He additionally is aware of Bowyer nicely as a teammate with him at Richard Childress Racing and SHR. But Harvick stated he hopes to have the ability to let his guard down a bit bit round different drivers as a result of he’ll now not view them as opponents.

“Clint and I have been good friends through the years, but it’s always been balanced with that competitive mindset that each of us has to try to go out and do the best that you can,” Harvick stated.

“And that’s a much different mindset than we’ll be in going forward. … I’ve always been pretty guarded about the things that I say, who I’m friends with, and how close you get to people.”

Harvick has been identified to be opinionated, and he went scorched earth on NASCAR final 12 months over the security points and what he noticed as a gradual response.

“I would tell you that that relationship is as good as it’s ever been just because of everything that we’ve all gone through over the over the past over the past year,” Harvick stated.

“Being able to have that communication and those relationships and carry those forward to be able to help grow the sport and help have ideas and do it for the right reasons is something that I think it’s very important. The bad moments often times make relationships stronger than the easy, good moments because they force you to have conversations that you would otherwise not have.”

The choice to affix FOX, which at the moment airs the primary half of the NASCAR Cup Series season, probably will hold Harvick from doing something instantly with a race workforce regardless of having heard from groups on the lookout for his management (and potential funding). While he stated he’s open to talks with groups about potential management and consulting roles, he does not anticipate something materializing previous to 2024.

He stated his son’s racing has taken extra time than anticipated and he is aware of the tv work may also take a big period of time.

“The team participation piece of it would be something that would be down the road,” Harvick stated. “I good now need to totally perceive what I’ve on my plate.

“I do not need to get ready to the place I’ve dedicated to too many issues. … Really for the primary six months of 2024 till I step out of sales space on the on the final race dedication, I do not actually suppose that there is a lot else that I can placed on my plate.”

Harvick believes a commitment to broadcasting is a commitment to growing the sport. He will be in the Xfinity booth for four races and the truck booth for three races this year as well as make numerous appearances on NASCAR Race Hub. 

“I cherished John Madden simply due to the truth that once you have a look at him, he had such a huge effect on the game and will try this via the sales space however all the time carried via with these relationships that he had out of the sales space and with the folks within the league and attain a lot additional than simply sitting within the sales space,” Harvick stated.

“I care in regards to the sport.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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