Harvick grew up a fan of IndyCar driver and fellow Bakersfield native Rick Mears and raced go-karts with Mears' son Clint. He received a go-kart as a kindergarten graduation gift and went on to earn seven national championships and two Grand National championships on the kart circuit. While at North High School he also competed on the wrestling team, qualifying for a CIF Central Section title in his weight class. He attended Bakersfield College intending to major in architecture before dropping out to pursue racing full-time.
Harvick began racing late models part-time in 1992 in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series. He made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in 1995 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, starting and finishing 27th in his family-owned No. 72. In 1997, he signed mid-season with Spears Motorsports to drive the No. 75. Running a full schedule in 1998, he won five races to claim the Winston West Series championship for Spears and received his first national exposure on ESPN2's coverage of the NASCAR Winter Heat Series at Tucson Raceway Park during the winter of 1997/1998.
In 1999, he drove the No. 98 Porter Cable Ford for Liberty Racing, finishing twelfth in points with six top-fives. On October 23, 1999, he made his first NASCAR Busch Series start in the Kmart 200 at Rockingham Speedway, finishing 42nd due to engine failure.
In 2000, Harvick signed with Richard Childress Racing to drive the No. 2 Chevrolet for his first full Busch Series season. He won the NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year award with three wins, eight top-fives, and sixteen top-tens, finishing third in points.
Childress had planned to run Harvick in the Busch Series full-time in 2001 while developing him into the Winston Cup Series with up to seven races in the No. 30 AOL Chevy. The death of Dale Earnhardt on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 changed those plans. Harvick began his first Cup race the following week — the Dura Lube 400 at Rockingham — filling the seat vacated by Earnhardt in the renumbered No. 29 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet.
On March 11, 2001, in the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway — only three weeks after Earnhardt's death and just his third Cup start — Harvick won his first career Winston Cup race, narrowly edging Jeff Gordon by six one-thousandths of a second (.006). He paid tribute to Earnhardt by driving backward on the track with three fingers held aloft. He also won a second Cup race that season at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Harvick ended the season with two victories, six top-fives, and sixteen top-tens, received the NASCAR Rookie of the Year Award, and finished ninth in points. He also won the Busch Series championship, becoming the first driver to win the Busch Series title while also driving full-time in the Winston Cup Series with a top-ten points finish.
Harvick opened the 2002 Daytona 500 from the outside pole alongside Jimmie Johnson but triggered an eighteen-car crash on lap 148. He was fined for a post-race incident with Greg Biffle at Bristol Motor Speedway and suspended for rough driving in a Truck race at Martinsville, where he announced on his radio that he had intentionally spun out Coy Gibbs. He was banned from the next day's Cup race, fined $35,000, and placed on probation. Harvick rebounded to score his first career Winston Cup pole position in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and won his third Cup race at Chicagoland. He finished 21st in the points standings. He became the 2002 IROC Champion, winning at California Speedway, and won a Truck race at Phoenix in his own No. 6 truck.
In 2003, Harvick teamed with crew chief Todd Berrier and won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, finishing fifth in points — within 252 points of champion Matt Kenseth. In the Busch Series that year, Harvick and teammate Johnny Sauter combined for three wins (all three by Harvick) in the No. 21, giving Richard Childress Racing the NASCAR Busch Series owners' championship.
The 2004 Cup season was Harvick's first winless year. At the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 28, Harvick radioed that his right arm had gone numb after lap 323 and was replaced by Kyle Petty. Late poor results dropped him from eighth to fifteenth in points, missing the inaugural Chase for the Cup. In the Busch Series, he partnered with rookie Clint Bowyer in the No. 21.
In 2005, Harvick's only Cup win came at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, despite starting toward the rear and without crew chief Berrier, who was serving a four-week suspension. He swept the Bristol weekend — also winning the Sharpie Professional 250 Busch race — giving him a record fourth Busch Series win at the track.
In 2006, Harvick ran both NASCAR top series full-time for Richard Childress Racing. He clinched the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series championship on October 13 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Dollar General 300, the earliest clinch in Busch Series history, with four races remaining and a record 824-point final margin. In the Nextel Cup, Harvick and teammate Jeff Burton earned the first Chase berths for Richard Childress Racing. Harvick finished fourth in the final Cup standings to eventual champion Jimmie Johnson.
Harvick opened the 2007 Sprint Cup season with a dramatic final-lap pass to win the Daytona 500, beating Mark Martin by .020 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish — the closest margin at the 500 since electronic scoring began in 1993. He became only the fourth NASCAR driver to sweep both the Nationwide and Cup races in the opening Daytona weekend. The win also made him the sixth of eight drivers to have won both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. His only other win that season came in the Sprint All-Star Race; he finished tenth in points.
In the Nationwide Series in 2007, Harvick won the Orbitz 300 at Daytona — his first win in a restrictor-plate race — and the inaugural race at Montreal (the NAPA Auto Parts 200) after leader Robby Gordon was black-flagged for intentionally causing a crash involving rookie Marcos Ambrose.
Harvick went winless in 2008 but finished fourth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings, going the entire season without a DNF for the second straight year. In 2009, he won the Budweiser Shootout with a last-lap pass on Jamie McMurray and finished second in the Daytona 500 when the race was declared official early due to rain. He went winless in Cup for the season and missed the Chase for the first time since 2005, finishing nineteenth in the standings. During the season, Harvick asked for a release from his Richard Childress Racing contract to join Stewart–Haas Racing for 2010.
Harvick won the Budweiser Shootout again in 2010, passing in the penultimate lap. He won the Aaron's 499 at Talladega after three green-white-checkered situations, setting a new NASCAR record with 88 lead changes. He won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 3 and the Carfax 400 at Michigan on August 15, locking into the Chase. Harvick finished the regular season first in points. Despite an average Chase finish of 5.8 — best in the 2010 Chase and third-best all-time — he finished third overall, 41 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson.
In 2011, Harvick won at Auto Club Speedway, Martinsville, the Coca-Cola 600 (after Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of fuel on lap 402), and at Richmond. A feud with Kyle Busch developed after Harvick intentionally wrecked Busch at the 2010 Ford 400 at Homestead; a post-race incident at Darlington in May 2011 led NASCAR to put both on probation and fine them $25,000 each. Harvick finished third in Cup points and clinched the 2011 Truck Series Owner's Championship in his final season as a team owner. At the end of 2011, Harvick shut down Kevin Harvick Incorporated, citing the impossible economics of operating a non-Cup-affiliated team given cost disparities, and sold KHI to Richard Childress.
In 2012, Harvick's only Cup win came at Phoenix; he finished eighth in points. In 2013, his final season at Richard Childress Racing, he won four races (Richmond spring, Coca-Cola 600, Hollywood Casino 400, and Phoenix fall), finishing third in points.
Harvick's move to Stewart–Haas Racing was confirmed on January 22, 2013, to take effect for the 2014 season, driving the No. 4 Chevrolet. His first win for the team came at Phoenix, where he led 224 of 312 laps and held off Dale Earnhardt Jr.. A bizarre five-race stretch followed in which he finished 36th or worse four times due to mechanical failures, despite consistently having one of the fastest cars. Harvick won the Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington by overtaking Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap.
In the Chase — using an elimination format — Harvick won the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, swept both 2014 Phoenix races, and then at Homestead–Miami Speedway pitted for four tires after a late caution, restarted outside the top ten, and held off fellow championship contender Ryan Newman to win the Ford EcoBoost 400 and the Sprint Cup Championship by one position over Newman. It was his first and only Cup Series championship.
In 2015, Harvick finished second in the Daytona 500 and won at Las Vegas and Phoenix (his fourth straight at that track and a record seventh overall at Phoenix). He came second in the championship to Kyle Busch. In 2016, he won at Phoenix (beating Carl Edwards by 0.10 seconds, the closest finish in the track's history) and Bristol, finishing outside the top eight in the Chase. In 2017, Stewart–Haas Racing switched from Chevrolet to Ford. Harvick won the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma for his second-ever road course win, swept the weekend with the preceding K&N Pro Series West race, and won at Texas — his first career win there — to reach the Championship 4 at Homestead. He finished fourth in the race and third in the standings.
In 2018, Harvick won a career-high eight races, including back-to-back wins at Atlanta and Las Vegas, and at Atlanta celebrated similarly to his 2001 victory there. His 100th career win across NASCAR's national series came at Las Vegas. Despite reaching the Championship 4 at Homestead, an ill-timed caution cost him the race win; he finished third in points. In 2019, Harvick won at New Hampshire, Michigan, and Indianapolis, reaching the Championship 4 for the fifth time in six years, finishing third in the standings for the third consecutive season.
Harvick's 2020 season opened with a fifth-place finish at the Daytona 500 and was paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After racing resumed on May 17, he scored his 50th career Cup win at The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington. Seven wins that season included the Pocono Organics 325 (his first at Pocono), a sweep of the Michigan doubleheader — the first driver to win Cup races on back-to-back days since Richard Petty in 1971 — and a second Southern 500. He clinched the regular-season championship following his seventh win at Dover. Despite these achievements, Harvick was eliminated in the Round of 8 at Martinsville, finishing fifth in the standings.
Harvick went winless in 2021 for the first time since 2009, managing to make the playoffs through consistency but being eliminated in the Round of 12. A feud with Chase Elliott developed, including physical contact at the Bristol Night Race and the Charlotte Roval. In 2022, Harvick won at Michigan to end a 65-race drought and then scored his 60th and final career Cup win at Richmond the following week. He was eliminated in the Round of 16 and finished 15th in the standings, his first finish outside the top 10 since 2009.
On January 12, 2023, Harvick announced he would retire at the end of the 2023 season. He stayed consistent enough through the year to make the playoffs on his final season but was eliminated at the conclusion of the Round of 16. At Talladega, Harvick finished second to Ryan Blaney but was later disqualified after post-race inspection found a violation involving the car's windshield fasteners. He finished his Cup Series career with a seventh-place finish at Phoenix and 13th in the points standings.
Harvick owned Kevin Harvick Incorporated (KHI), which fielded Xfinity Series cars from 2004 to 2011 and Truck Series cars from 2001 to 2011. On January 9, 2023, a consortium including KHI, DEJ Management, Jeff Burton Autosports, Inc., and Trackhouse Racing Team purchased the CARS Tour. The No. 29 late model is driven part-time in the CARS Tour by Harvick himself, alongside the No. 62 driven full-time by his son Keelan Harvick. In May 2025, Keelan won his first CARS Tour West race at Kern Raceway.
Harvick began working as a rotating analyst for Xfinity Series races with NASCAR on Fox starting in 2015, the first of the four-driver rotating group (alongside Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, and Danica Patrick) to commentate. He joined Fox's Cup Series broadcast booth full-time in 2024, working alongside Mike Joy and former teammate Clint Bowyer. In February 2026, Fox Sports announced Harvick would serve as host alongside Will Buxton on an additional motorsports-focused podcast series named after the former TV network Speed.
Harvick married DeLana (Linville) Harvick on February 28, 2001, in Las Vegas, Nevada, shortly after his Cup Series debut. They had met the previous year at Michigan International Speedway, where she was working in public relations for driver Randy LaJoie. DeLana co-owns and works with KHI Management LLC. The couple have a son, Keelan (born July 8, 2012), and a daughter, Piper (born December 28, 2017). Harvick is an avid fan of the Philadelphia Flyers and stated during the 2011 ESPN broadcast that he was a fan of the New York Yankees. On August 10, 2011, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels.
In 2023, Kern County Raceway Park was renamed Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway in his honor.
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