Andrew Ravens · MotorBiscuit Sun, November 8, 2026 at 7:40 PM UTC · 2 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kevin Harvick says he never wanted to race again after his last NASCAR Cup start, until a talk with Chase Elliott at the Chili Bowl changed his outlook.
Harvick shared the story on The Dale Jr. Download . He said he felt worn out by the demands of being a Cup driver after his last race, at Phoenix in 2023.
Harvick said that once he was done with Cup racing, he told himself he never wanted to race again. "I'm tired of being critiqued; I'm tired of the pressure; I'm tired of the responsibility," he recalled thinking.
That changed after he talked with Elliott at the Chili Bowl Nationals, the indoor midget race in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Elliott is the 2020 Cup champion.
"One thing that really struck me a few years ago was Chase Elliott at the Chili Bowl," Harvick said. "… He's like, 'I felt like I needed to step outside of my comfort zone and not worry about my result.'"
Harvick said it took time for that idea to sink in. He had to accept that he might not run well.
"It just took me a little while to get myself to the point where I was like, 'All right, well, I might go to the racetrack this week and get lapped,' and I did," Harvick said.
That night gave him a moment of clarity. Harvick said he was frustrated at first, then thought back to what Elliott had told him.
He said that after the race, "I got out and I drank a beer and I thought about that conversation and I was like, 'You know what? I had a hell of a time.' Yeah, it'd be really cool to win some. We won some of those races and ran up front in some and got our a** kicked in some, but they are all pretty fun."
Harvick still runs select late model races. He said he and his team put in a real effort but do not go overboard, and that is when they have the most fun.
"I'm like, 'Hey, I'm here to have fun.' We'll put an effort towards it but probably not going to go overboard with the effort to really get extreme with it. We have the greatest time ever," he said.
Harvick has also pushed for shared super late model rules across series, part of his work at the grassroots level of motorsports .
Harvick won 60 Cup races and the 2014 championship. He will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January.
He is now an analyst for NASCAR on FOX alongside Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer, and he hosts the Happy Hour podcast. He recently named the drivers he thinks could win in anything .
Elliott closes his season Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Cup finale.
Source: Sports
