CONCORD, N.C. -- Kevin Harvick is having a moment.
Harvick has won six times this season, including last week’s All-Star Race. In tonight’s Coca-Cola 600, Harvick to win three consecutive points races for the second time this season.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver, who starts last tonight after failing qualifying inspection three times, describes the impact of his hot streak on his life away from the track as “very strange.”
“I think when you look at everything that’s going on, every week feels like a normal week,” Harvick said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I understand that things are going exceptionally well here at the race track and every race track that we’ve been to so far, but there’s that way of getting grounded when you’re at home because, honestly, my kids could care less about what happens here. My son (Keelan) is more excited that I show up to his baseball game and stand on first base and tell him whether to run to second or not, and those type of things. He’s more concerned about me dropping him off in the car pool line.”
Last Saturday, Harvick took part in a one hour morning practice session for the All-Star Race. He then booked it to his son’s baseball game before driving back to the track for the drivers meeting and multiple appearances. After a one-hour nap, he watched the Monster Open and took part in the All-Star Race, where he won three of four stages.
“If your ass wouldn’t be tired by now, I don’t know who you are. But I’m beat,” Harvick said in his winner’s press conference.
Post-practice, pre-race first base coachin’ #pops #littleman pic.twitter.com/IjDozsToGg
— DeLana Harvick (@DeLanaHarvick) May 19, 2018
On Thursday, Harvick said his busy schedule allows him to “hide in my hole during the week.”
“I went to five meetings this week and participated in a lot of conversations about this sport,” Harvick. “I participated in a lot of conversations about the team and did interviews, but all of that happens in between when Keelan goes to school. It’s all scheduled around his baseball games. Those are all things that are first priorities, so that, to me, helps keep this in its position of number two. It helps keep me from realizing everything that’s actually happening.”
The 2014 Cup champion compared his mental compartmentalization to what he experienced in 2001, when he took the place of Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing after his death on the last lap of the Daytona 500.
Harvick did double duty and raced full-time in both Cup and the Xfinity Series.
After his Atlanta win earlier this season, Harvick called that period in his life “very confusing.”
“It’s different,” Harvick said Thursday. “But it’s kind of the same because it kind of guards you from being able to really pay attention to all the things that are happening and going on and the actual attention and things that are being given to the situation.”