FORT WORTH, Texas–Kevin Harvick, a nine-time NASCAR winner at Texas Motor Speedway, was officially inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame on Friday to start the NASCAR weekend.
Harvick, 49, joins an illustrious list of the biggest names and most successful drivers at the Fort Worth, Texas 1.5-mile oval. Harvick earned three consecutive Cup victories (2017-19), five Xfinity wins and a single Truck checkered from 2011.
Friday’s Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Luncheon presented by WÜRTH included a panel discussion with PRN’s Brad Gillie and local FOX 4 sports anchor Mike Doocy as emcee for the event held inside the Speedway Club Ballroom.
For Harvick, it was a high and humble moment for him.
“Anytime that you can go to a racetrack and be a part of being honored for something that you did there to be successful is always a lot of fun, and this race track has just been high on the success list for me personally,” Harvick shared after the ceremony. “Above and beyond all that, the Smith family and the whole SMI (Speedway Motorsports Incorporated) group and everything that they’ve done for racing and in my career and Marcus and I are great friends. So to be able to have this honor is quite an honor.”
As a NASCAR Cup Series champion from 2014, a Daytona 500 winner in 2007, three Brickyard 400 wins and other highly notable victories across his decorated resume, few match his overall success at Texas Motor Speedway in his over 20 year career behind the wheel.
“When you look back at those race tracks that are successful and–I’m I was terrible at just noticing, I knew where our good tracks were–but I never really paid attention to how many times you wanted a race track and we didn’t win as many Cup races here as we should have, but we definitely won our fair share, probably more than we should have on the Xfinity side,” he reflected. “It’s always great to be able to go back somewhere and bring those thoughts and memories back up. As a driver, you would go to these places and you knew going in, ‘Hey, this is a weekend that you need to capitalize on,’ and we were able to do that here at Texas so many times. It took a long time to get to Victory Lane on the Cup side, but in the end it was a good run all the way through the years, and we were able to do it a few years in a row too.”
He recalled the tough battles on track and hardest parts of preparing for race weekends in north Texas. When it came down to it, he used the word ‘commitment’ for the main ingredient of success.
“It’s just fast,” he described. “I mean, this is a race track that is just full commitment. They have knocked the banking down some and in Turns 1 and 2. It’s still super fast and more technical than it used to be, but this was always a place (about) how much commitment you had and how much throttle you could hold down as a driver, so I always enjoyed that side of things.”
Hall of Fame Harvick. 🏆👌@KevinHarvick | @SCCTXpic.twitter.com/fbc2hC34hl
— Texas Motor Speedway (@TXMotorSpeedway) May 2, 2025
Eddie Gossage, long-time initial president of Texas Motor Speedway, worked at the track from the ground up. Harvick shared some memories of Gossage and his leadership, prior to his retirement in 2021 and his passing a few years later.
“I think he’d be really proud (of this achievement),” Harvick said of Gossage. “Eddie and I always had a great relationship through the years and always I’ve done everything from Fandango to serve Slurpees on the on the back straightaway. There was always something going on and I got that phone call a lot to be able to participate in those things, and always wanted to. It’s a massive market when you look at the things that happen in this part of the country, (and) in Texas in general. This is a place we need to be and it was an important event. All the way through my racing career to be able to have success here and entertain a lot of sponsors and people. That’s what he did as well was entertained and I was always happy to be a part of that because I guess he thought I was somewhat entertaining.”
But now for Harvick, it’s a new page, a new chapter, for his motorsports career. From driver to owner and now broadcaster with Fox Sports, he couldn’t have even envisioned where he is now.
“No, no, not at all. Look, when I started, I was just happy to drive,” he chuckled. “When I came here the very first time, I was actually just a mechanic on the Spears truck and to be able to go through that whole cycle of events to go from mechanic to driver to owner to Cup driver, whatever. I mean, we’ve been down every path from the NASCAR side and to be able to experience that is something that I’ve been pretty fortunate to be a part of and fortunate to be successful at all of them. So to be able to have done that was never something that I would have thought about. I think that the TV piece is just kind of icing on the cake because of the fact that I still get to be here every week, still get to be around all the events and people.
“So to be able to participate in all those things and not have the pressure of the driving piece of it has been pretty fun for me to come back and enjoy stuff like this and also enjoy the events.”
And now, his most recent event here has become a permanent staple in the state of Texas.
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