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Kevin Harvick recalled a time in the 2010s when young NASCAR drivers with aspirations from the Truck Series and beyond had to make a decision. Compete for Chevrolet and Kevin Harvick Incorporated, or drive with Toyota and Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Both sides were not played. The drivers had to choose a direction. Fans in the stands took sides and were clearly divided.
“You had to choose a path,” Harvick said on the latest episode of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.” “Either you had to go to KBM and Toyota, or you had to go to KHI and Chevrolet… It just didn’t work that way.”
Harvick enjoyed that competition. In fact, he helped Busch breed his team and create the foundation for a decades-long rivalry. That claim brought out the best in both racers and ultimately brought them closer together. After Busch, 41, died suddenly last Thursday, Harvick remembers him and their relationship fondly as they reminisce with “Happy Hour” stories.
On the racetrack, Harvick and Busch were always enemies. However, the levels of distaste fluctuated. They were involved in what Harvick referred to as a “heavy war” stemming from a wreck during a 2005 race at Dover, Delaware.
But when Busch wanted to go down the route of starting his own race team, Harvick put aside his differences. Busch called Harvick and asked, “Can you tell me how you run your team?” Harvick “bridged the gap” and welcomed Busch into his race shop, sharing his budgets and giving him “everything he had.” In true antagonistic fashion, Harvick said, Busch “stole” some of his employees and hired them to his new team.
And thus, Kyle Busch Motorsports was born and a new rivalry blossomed.
Busch and Harvick pushed each other, making the other a better “driver, owner and teammate,” Harvick said.
“Probably the best thing that happened in my career,” Harvick said, “was that I had a competitor that wasn’t going to retire like Kyle did.”
In the end, they raced each other 933 times in NASCAR’s premier series. They learned to respect each other and even let their guard down.
“We sat on the two sides and competed, but you know, off the racetrack we had fun,” Harvick said. “We had a good time and good conversations. It took a long time to get to the point where we were cordial, but it definitely got to that point eventually.”
