Kevin Harvick notices special traits from son | Sports News

Keelan Harvick made historical past early Sunday morning by turning into the youngest ever driver to win the Snowflake 125.

Harvick, the son of former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, took the checkered flag at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida to develop into youngest winner within the historical past of the Pro Late Model race at 13 years, 4 months, and 29 days outdated. The record-setting efficiency got here earlier than two NASCAR stars suffered Snowball Derby agony later on Sunday.

After beginning in fifteenth place, Harvick charged to take the lead with 50 laps to go, fell back into fourth after a restart, then reclaimed the lead from Tristan McKee and reigning Snowball Derby winner Kaden Honeycutt into the early hours of Sunday morning. 

“It’s pretty awesome. For me, I look at things a little bit differently. When you look at the progression of him going through traffic, the distance that he kept between cars when he was trying to set somebody up to pass him, all those things are the types of things I liked about tonight,” Kevin stated of his son’s efficiency.

“I loved the fact that he won against a great field of cars, that’s what we try to do, we try to go run the competitive races, because you learn more.”

Originally scheduled to start at 6 pm on Saturday evening, rain showers delayed the beginning time till 1:41 am on Sunday morning, with Harvick crossing the end line at 3:24 am.

Keelan embodied comparable traits his father, who gained a Cup Series title, Daytona 500 win, and recorded 60 profession victories, used to develop into one of probably the most embellished NASCAR drivers of the twenty first century. 

Since retiring on the finish of the 2023 season, Harvick has maintained a distinguished position in his son’s racing profession whereas remembering being Keelan’s father comes above all.

“He’s never going to have to deal with me as he moves up the ranks to talk on the radio and talk to the crew chief,” Kevin stated.

“We’re father and son, so the coaching piece of it is much better coached through the coach. Me in there on him all the time is not going to work. We’ve had a lot more success with that through the karting, through the Legend cars, and finding the right people and the right team to make sure the car is right so we can focus on the driver.”

“It’s a constant evaluation behind the scenes of making sure that you have the right people and you have the right races.” 

“I guess I’m somewhat of a gatekeeper of how things get set up and then watch and make sure that the details of how we would expect things to go are happening.”