Today, Denny Hamlin keeps Kevin Harvick in pretty high regard, both as a person and as a racecar driver. But that wasn’t always the case. There was indeed a time when Hamlin and Harvick didn’t see eye-to-eye. In an interview with USA Today in 2013, Hamlin was asked about the one driver in the garage who he used to clash with, but didn’t anymore, to which his answer was Harvick. “I’d say probably three years ago, we’d clash on the track. Not as much off the track, but we definitely weren’t on speaking terms by any means,” he described as he revealed how his relationship with Harvick turned around.
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“But ever since that feud in the Chase of ’10, we turned the corner. Now he’s had a child and I’ve had a child and I consider him a good friend. He’s a guy I talk to on text messaging and we always talk to each other at driver intros.”
This phase of Hamlin and Harvick not being on talking terms was, of course, a long time ago. Hamlin’s admission of their relationship getting better was also over a decade ago.
It’s an important detail because in the last few years, particularly in the last season, Hamlin has spoken pretty highly of Harvick time and time again.
Denny Hamlin had nothing but words of gold for Kevin Harvick in 2023
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Season was the last year we got to see Kevin Harvick riding full-time. Naturally, in his last season, his fellow drivers paid their tributes, recalled their favorite memories, and described what the Closer meant for them and the whole sport.
But perhaps no description of Harvick and what he means for NASCAR was greater than that from Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver deemed Harvick “the most respected driver” in the garage.
“Many years when we lost Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and that whole group, during that four-year span, really Kevin has been the leader amongst the drivers I feel like from that point,” he said.
In another interview towards the end of the 2023 season, Hamlin claimed Harvick had a similar kind of personality to NASCAR such as Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, whose true importance and weight is only felt after they’re gone.
