Kevin Harvick “A Wasted Talent?”

I was reading through the replies to an article posted on Twitter about the biggest wasted talents in NASCAR history and came across this post which got me thinking just how do these stats line up?

With that said we’re gonna be breaking Harvick’s career down into 3 eras. The “RCR era” will span from 2001-2013. The “SHR Peak Era” will be 2014-2020. Then finally the “Post Peak Era” years will include 2021-2023. To accurately show exactly how Harvick stacked up on track compared to his teammates. (Note:Teammates will only be counted if they made at least 5 starts in a given year)

“RCR Era” (2001-2013)



We all know the tale by now, a young Kevin Harvick was thrust into the spotlight to fill the shoes of an icon in Dale Earnhardt after his tragic passing in 2001, Harvick started red hot winning in just his 3rd ever start. This propelled him to the top of the sport and led to both fruitful and turmoil-filled 13 seasons at RCR. Let’s see how those 13 years stack up vs. his teammates by the numbers:

Harvick 2001-2013:

23 Wins
99 Top 5’s
219 Top 10s
Avg Finish: 14.27
Lead Lap Finishes: 336
21 DNFs
(None in 2003, 2007, 2008)


Teammates 2001-2013 (Jeff Green, Mike Skinner, Robby Gordon, Steve Park, Dave Blaney, Jeff Burton, Johnny Sauter, Clint Bowyer, Casey Mears, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon):

13 Wins
96 Top 5’s
267 Top 10’s
Avg. Finish: 19.47
Lead Lap Finishes: 573 (RCR operated as a two and 3 car operation during Harvicks tenure so an exact average per car wouldn’t be accurate)
71 DNFs
(Clint had zero DNFs in two seasons(07,08)
Casey Mears had zero DNFs in 2009)


So as you can see Harvick was the face of RCR for over a decade. This establishes the baseline of expectations that many of his fans had when he announced that he was leaving RCR after 13 seasons and taking his talents to the rather young Stewart Haas racing. With that said let’s move on to the SHR era.

“SHR Peak Era” 2014-2020



This is where Harvick enjoyed the best years of his career. Including a championship in 2014 and 30-plus wins in a great partnership with crew chief Rodney Childers. This is regarded as when Harvick finally unlocked the potential he showed at RCR. Where Harvick made the transition from “underrated/underappreciated” into the Hall of Famer we all see him as today. So let’s see how peak Harvick compares to his teammates over this 7 season run.

Harvick 2014-2020:
35 Wins
126 Top 5s
180 Top 10s
Avg Finish: 9.8
Lead Lap Finishes: 208
17 DNFs
(none in 2020)


Teammates 2014-2020 (Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Cole Custer)

11 Wins
88 Top 5s
239 Top 10’s
Avg Finish: 17.42
Lead Lap Finishes:456 (average of 156 per each of the 3 other cars in operation since SHR has been a 4-car team from 2014 onward)
91 DNFs
(Kurt had no DNFs in 2015)



So again was far and away better than almost everyone except for Kurt Busch (who accounts for 6 wins, 37 Top 5’s, and 90 Top 10s over this span) so it’s safe to say that not much has changed other than the name on the door (and in time the badge on the car) when you’re outpacing you’re teammates 3:1 in wins and were 143% better than all your teammates combined in getting in the top 5 over the same span and matched 75 percent of the top 10s of his 8 teammates over those 7 years. This begs to question what he could’ve been if he had this level of support throughout his entire career? We’ll come back to this but let’s finish up with the post peak era next.

“Post Peak Era” 2021-Present



This is the era where SHR unfortunately fell back from the very top of the sport including even the 4 team which had managed to stay up near the top even as the other team’s struggled. Harvick hit age 45 in 2021 and went winless for the first time since 2009. How bad was the falloff tho? Let’s find out how he stacks up vs. his teammates over the last 3 seasons.

Harvick 2021-2023:

2 wins
25 top 5s
55 top tens
Avg Finish: 13.3
Lead Lap finishes: 89
10 DNFs

Teammates 2021-2023 (Custer, Briscoe, Almirola, Preece)

2 wins
16 top 5s
43 top 10s
Avg Finish: 19.48
Lead Lap Finishes: 191 (average of 63 per each of the 3 other cars in the operation)
38 DNFs

So for the first time, we see Harvick tied in wins by his teammates, he still outpaced them in every other category. Truly showing that even in his twilight seasons that “The Closer” was as good as ever. To finish this off and to give you something wild to see I’m gonna give you Harvick’s combined stats career versus his teammate’s stats just to show what a difference maker Harvick has always been

Harvick (career):
60 wins
251 top 5s
444 top 10s
Avg Finish: 12.8
633 Lead Lap Finishes
48 DNFs


Harvick’s teammates (2001- 2023):

26 wins
200 top 5’s
549 top 10’s
Avg Finish: 18.79
1,210 Lead Lap Finishes
118 DNFs

So after seeing the raw statistics where do we land? Is Kevin Harvick a “wasted talent” I could see an argument for it. He was almost challenged as the top driver no matter where he drove over his career. A few guys came close but none truly were on Harvicks level. We’ll obviously never know but the fact he put up these kinds of stats in arguably less competitive equipment against the likes of of Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, among other great hall of fame level talent. This presents a very strong case that we would have Harvick in the same conversations as Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the greatest of all time had he gotten a ride in a Hendrick, Gibbs, or even Penske ride. Regardless Harvick remains one of the best drivers of the last 25 years and had a heck of a ride from start to end.

Photo Credit: Jared C Tilton/ Getty Images