LOUDON, N.H. – The celebration on Sunday for Kevin Harvick was about getting his first Monster Energy Cup Series victory of the season in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
But in the midst of the festivity the talk to turned away from the big leagues of NASCAR competing Sunday in Loudon to the grassroots of the sport in short track racing.
Harvick, a Bakersfield, Calif. native who climbed the ranks to the top of NASCAR through short track racing on the West Coast, has been one of the torchbearers for grassroots racing promotion over the past several years at the top levels of NASCAR.
Through his connection to Monster Energy Cup Series rookie and former Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece of Berlin, Harvick’s company – KHI Management – became a contingency sponsor for the SK Modified division at Stafford Speedway in 2018. The relationship with Stafford has continued this season.
“The Stafford connection for us has been really good,” Harvick said. “[Preece] obviously started that on Twitter, and those guys at Stafford did a great job of kind of bantering back and forth. But honestly they’re some of the best promoters in the country and do a great job for their competitors and give their competitors a great place to race.”
In 2018 Harvick’s company offered a weekly $125 bonus to the leader of lap 13 of the SK Modified feature at Stafford and the 13thplace finisher of each event. The bonus was created in honor of the late Ted Christopher, the track’s all-time winningest driver who drove the No. 13 SK Modified at the historic half-mile. This year Harvick doubled the award to two $250 bonuses for each event in 2019.
“That’s been way more impactful than anything I think we’ve ever done, just because it’s a weekly help, and it’s not a lot of money, but it’s a big impact on the competitors,” Harvick said. “Just showing them that you care makes a difference and makes them feel involved.
Harvick said his eyes got opened to the depth of short track racing in New England after he won the Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Me. in 2008.
“In this part of the country, I think a lot of people overlook it for racing in general just because of how much racing and how many racing enthusiasts there are, racing fans there are in this part of the country,” Harvick said. “The Oxford 250 really opened my eyes to that, and a lot of those fans have followed us here and come back every year and show their support and still talk about us going up there.”
Harvick applauded NASCAR for their efforts in using their big three national divisions to bring added promotion to short tracks, bringing added focus throughout the season to showcasing where top level drivers come from. Through NBC they’ve put a big push on recently of their #mytrackmyroots promotion.
“I think the momentum over the last few years has been really good since we kind of voiced our opinions, and I think when you see NASCAR and NBC and the campaign that they have going on right now and you see the guys in the garage going to the short tracks.”
I agree, however you need to take your influence and explain to them that cutting the Mod race short was WRONG
Thank you Kevin and Dalena Harvick. KHI stepping up up like this shows he didn’t forget where he came from. Even though he’s not from the East Coast he understands how important to keep the short tracks going. Hopefully one day we gained another short track back that sounded temporary rebuilding process. The last lap New Hampshire what’s the best lap. Danny said he could have wrecked them but old friends taking care of each other . And thanks Shawn for having this website for us to share our feelings and comments.
Thanks to Kevin Harvick, and KHI. Your TC13 bonus goes a long way. Although the leader at lap 13 is usually claimed by a frontrunner the bonus for finishing 13th goes a long way to help the lesser teams along. Maybe someday we can get Kevin to compete in an SK match race with Ryan Preece, or Ronnie Williams. That would be cool