‘Not everyone can be the next Dale Earnhardt Jr.’ Kevin Harvick opens up about the dark side of youth racing that “destroy” families
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Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Credits: NBC sports)
Kevin Harvick is one of his generation’s greatest-ever stock car racers. He is one of the most successful drivers to pilot a car in the elite division. The veteran is also one of the most outspoken individuals in the sport and his opinions regarding racing is widely respected by fans.
The SHR driver has one of the sharpest minds in the sport and owns one of the prominent talent management firms in stock racing. He grew up racing in the grassroots series of NASCAR and is now guiding his son Keelan on the same path.
But unlike many families who fund their children’s racing ventures hoping for a better future, Harvick understands that not everyone will make it tit the top how hard you try. In the latest episode of Fox broadcaster Greg Olsen’s Youth Inc. podcast, he opened up about families being destroyed by youth racing ventures.
He said he always tells parents to prioritize not destroying family while trying to do everything for their kid’s success. Harvick said, “I tell other parents all the time, you have to be able to do what you can do within your means to not destroy your family,”.
The SHR driver pointed out that he has seen many families spending everything they have on the wrong thing while thinking there are doing the necessary. He said, “Because I’ve seen this happen time and time again where people spend everything that they have, thinking that they’re doing the right thing and they don’t do it properly,”.
Harvick pointed out that families have been destroyed because the parents dreamed of seeing their kid as the next Dale Jr. He said, “And then they destroy their whole life because of the fact that they think that their next kid is going to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. and that’s just not the case for everybody,”.
Kevin Harvick’s advice to families going big on youth racing
His first advice for such parents is to race in the vision you can afford. He said, “I always tell people to try to be successful at the division you can afford. And when you can do that, try to figure out how to go to the next division because you can race at — every local short track has a Friday, Saturday night races,”.
He urges them to think about the price tag that comes with the racing options. Harvick said, “If you’re good there, there’s some sort of regional touring division that you can run — whether it’s on dirt or asphalt all over the country. There are local, regional, national, and international. It’s literally whatever you choose. There’s a price tag that comes with it all,”.
The next piece of advice is to surround the driver with the right people to find success. “In the end, you can still get there by having success. It’s just a matter of being around the right people and being in the right places,”.
His final advice is to prioritize the team’s race outings as per budget as showing up on every race won’t do much good. Harvick said. “If you can’t afford to go do them all, go do the ones you can afford to do right. That’s more important than just showing up at every one of them,”.
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Justin P Joy
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