Meeting Kevin Harvick

This one pains me a little to write because I’ve actually had the chance to meet Kevin Harvick twice and yet I have no evidence to prove it. Considering that he’s my favorite driver of all time, this makes me especially sad.

In 2007 I had plans to attend the open house event at Roush Racing, where I would have met several of their drivers. The day before I found out that Harvick had his own session scheduled at Auto Zone in Jackson, Michigan. There were his Busch sponsor at the time. I happily headed there instead, clutching a very large pit road sign that I bought a few months before at RCR.

Kevin was late by about 30 minutes and they made us all stand outside the shop where we waited for him. When he finally arrived, they sent people inside in small groups of 3-4 people at a time. You couldn’t even see him until you got inside the store. Basically getting a look at Harvick was harder than getting a look at Elvis…and he’s been dead for over 30 years.

When we got to the door, we were told that no one could get a picture with him, no one. No one that is except for the store workers and sponsors who made us wait in the lobby for an extra 20 minutes so they could get pictures with him. I finally got up to the table where I proceeded to nearly whack him with my sign. My hands were shaking so bad that I couldn’t even focus. I started talking in my high speed way and told him that I loved him since I started watching NASCAR. He thanked me and smiled, probably thinking I was insane.

This driver appearance was even worse for me because one of the workers told several of us that Kevin was scheduled to sign 400 autographs and as long as they still had tickets left, we could go through the line again. I bought an Auto Zone hat specifically because of this. We made our way back to the man and were told that Kevin was running out of time and he wasn’t allowed to pass out any more tickets.

The signing was for 2 hours or 400 autographs, whichever came first. I left and sat down the street talking on my phone to a friend. I was still there when they brought Harvick by in his special car. He was 30 minutes late and left 30 minutes early. Give us a break Kevin! Some people stood out there for 6 hours and he did that?

In June of 2008 I had the chance to meet Kevin again at the Eldora Prelude to a Dream event. He was signing autographs at the KHI hauler and I darted through the line quick like a bunny so I could buy one of his new hats. I was with my then (kind of) boyfriend who held my place in line.

It didn’t hit me until I got to the front of the line that I was completely decked out in Kyle Busch gear, including a hat and shirt. I apologized for the clothes, to which my guy started making fun of me and Kevin joined in! They got quite a laugh out of me trying to explain. I asked him for a photo and since there were only a few people left in line, he agreed.

I left with a great big smile on my face. Unfortunately before I could get that picture, my guy managed to land a new girl and deleted all his pictures from the event. I’ll probably never get that picture with Kevin, but I hold out hope!