March 4, 2023 | By Lee Spencer

Harvick believes loyalty will be the key to Kyle Busch's bond with Childress

LAS VEGAS—When it became clear that Kyle Busch would not be returning to Joe Gibbs Racing, Kevin Harvick advocated fiercely for hiring the two-time champion. 

Having battled against the 37-year-old racer over the last two decades, Harvick was confident a driver of Busch’s caliber could change the dynamic of an organization, particularly an organization such as Stewart-Haas Racing with its young stable of drivers. 

Ultimately, Busch ended up at Harvick’s former team, Richard Childress Racing. Despite RCR’s inconsistency since Harvick’s departure, he's not surprised that Busch found success so quickly in the No. 8 Chevrolet.

“No, not at all,” Harvick said following Busch’s win at Auto Club Speedway last Sunday. “A focused Kyle Busch—and there’s very few people that can take a Kyle Busch in this particular point of his career, with everything that has gone on in the past and has gone on, and deal with it, but Richard is one of those people.”

Harvick has witnessed R.C.’s track record first hand. Before Harvick was thrust into the No. 29 Chevy after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, Childress had become one of the most successful team owners in the NASCAR garage. 

He was savvy enough to let Dale Earnhardt go when RCR was to green and raw to showcase the 31-year-old racer’s talent when he arrived halfway through the 1981 season. By the time Earnhardt returned three years later, the pair contended for wins and eventually won six championships together. 

To say Harvick was brash in his formative years with RCR is an understatement. Throughout his tenure, Childress was able to harness drivers such as Harvick, Robby Gordon and Clint Bowyer and get results. 

Since SHR recruited Harvick in 2014, RCR has lacked an elite talent--until now with Kyle Busch. 

“I think he’s had that experience with several different drivers,” Harvick said of Childress. “The thing that people don’t realize is that Richard can corral that and make it successful. Kyle wants it to be successful because he wants to show everybody up. And that’s dangerous for everybody (laughs) for Kyle to be in that mood.

“We’ve seen Richard with myself, Dale Earnhardt, Robby Gordon—so many of those personalities. But Richard and Kyle together, on the same page, is dangerous, because Richard will give you enough rope to be able to go do the things that you want to go do outside of the race car—and support it—as he did with KHI (Kevin Harvick Inc.), and help you as long as you’re loyal and helping him.”

Certainly, any sense of loyalty Busch developed with JGR vanished when the team failed to put the effort into resigning him following a tenure over 15 seasons where the drivers amassed two Cup titles and 55 wins. Just the opportunity for a fresh start with fast cars should go a long way to building a bond between the championship owner and driver.

“When you look at the loyalty that Richard has to people and sponsors, that’s what keeps his race team going,” Harvick said. “So, as they go along and Kyle falls into that loyalty category and starts earning more and more of that with Richard, it could continue to be more dangerous because Kyle is in that category of wanting to show everybody—and that’s not good if the cars are that fast.”