The most pressure Kevin Harvick said he ever felt as a NASCAR driver was at Rockingham Speedway in February 2001, the week after Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed in a wreck on the last lap of the Daytona 500.
It was ‘the most people, the most pressure, the most everything that I ever had to experience,” Harvick said Thursday during the live edition of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” at Daytona International Speedway.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Earnhardt’s tragic death, after which Harvick replaced the NASCAR legend behind the wheel of the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and made his Cup Series debut. Honoring the anniversary, FOX Sports and NASCAR Studios will air the documentary “We’ve Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later” on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on FS1, following the 2026 Daytona 500 qualifying duels.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years, and, obviously, I lived that situation pretty closely, getting in the car the next week,” Harvick continued, speaking on stage with FOX Sports’ Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith.
“They called and said, ‘Hey, you need to come over.’ And that’s when I knew that something was not right,” Harvick continued. “So you’re sitting there waiting, trying to understand what’s going on. And then it’s all the questions, right? What’s going to happen with RCR? Who’s going to drive the car? How’s the sport going to go on?
“And 25 years later, the sport is still going on, but it’s just missing a big piece of what was so important to NASCAR racing with Dale. And he had such a massive influence on everything that happened: The image of who we were and such a strong leader of the sport. So it was a pretty crazy time to be able to adapt to what was going on, getting the car to drive.”
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Impacts of Earnhardt’s accident include increased safety for drivers and teams. NASCAR remains a dangerous sport, but Harvick praised the governing body is consistently searching for enhanced safety measures as a result.
“Our sport has evolved because of that accident. From a safety standpoint, NASCAR immediately started the safety aspect of trying to get ahead of things and keep up with things and do things in a better way. And we do that all the way up until today.
“They’re constantly looking at every wreck, every piece of equipment that the driver has on, the race tracks, the soft walls. You think about the impact that that one accident had on the safety of this sport, and it’ll never be matched. And NASCAR has done a great job of continuing that right to this moment.”
“We’ve Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later” will air on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 10 p.m. ET on FS1. The 2026 Daytona 500 is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
