Kevin Harvick has been around in the NASCAR scene for a very long time. The 2014 Cup Series champion enjoyed a 23-year career at the top level of stock car racing. During that tenure, he has raced for Richard Childress Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, winning the title with the latter.

Admittedly, he was not as successful with RCR, but he did enjoy plenty of memorable moments in his stint. Richard Childress Racing is a pretty iconic team, because that was the team that the late great Dale Earnhardt drove for. In essence, it was a status symbol to drive for the team that helped guide Dale Earnhardt to glory.

Harvick managed to score a grand total of 23 wins for RCR, with his remaining 37 coming for Stewart-Haas Racing. Speaking of Richard Childress Racing, he confessed that one of his most memorable wins was at Indianapolis. At the time, it was his fourth career win and his first in the Brickyard 400.

Kevin Harvick spoke about what was so special about it

Frankly, being the winner of that 2003 race wasn’t the only reason behind the memorability. According to Harvick, it was the post-race celebration that really stuck out for him. Granted, the Brickyard 400 is not as prestigious as the Indianapolis 500, but the fans did not care. They treated it like NASCAR’s version of the Indy 500 and gave Harvick his laurels.

In Episode 43 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” as Kevin Harvick teamed up with co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith, he talked about his obsession with the Indy race and his tradition there. He mentioned, “The coolest part about winning that first Brickyard 400 in ’03. At that point, there were 300,000 people around the race track, and they treated it like the Indy 500. You would ride in the back of the pace car or one of the show cars.”

Further sharing the details of that day, the former RCR driver said, “I rode with DeLana, myself, crew chief and owner. So it was myself, my wife, Richard and crew chief. We rode around, and all the Indy fans, they’re trained in this tradition. They hadn’t left and it was one of the coolest things that we were able to do because of all the people that were still there.”

The best part was that he got to share the moment with his family and his team. Furthermore, even though the race was kind of technically over, not a single fan was willing to leave the premises. Instead, they were fully intent on celebrating alongside Harvick and his team and family.

How did Richard Childress make the moment even more special?

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Let it not be said that Richard Childress does not have a heart. The NASCAR team owner is capable of making beautiful gestures, and Kevin Harvick got a taste of it. First and foremost, the #29 driver thoroughly enjoyed being treated like royalty at Indianapolis. As a result, he truly savored the moment before the post-race procedures kicked off.

Afterwards, several years later, when Kevin Harvick would announce his retirement, Childress acted. The veteran team owner actually gifted the car to Harvick.

What made things even better was that, as Harvick mentioned, “Another cool thing is, Richard actually kept the car like it was. Kept the tire that I did the burnout with, going to Victory Lane. Which was still probably one of the best burnouts ever. Richard kept the car and actually gave it to me as a retirement gift.”

In essence, that race-winning car was the #4 driver’s retirement gift, one that he would have been very touched by.