Best friends sometimes do the craziest things, and Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart shared a doozy. Somehow, some way, Harvick was talked into waxing Stewart’s back during their driving careers.
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While Harvick may have otherwise balked at pulling the hair off Stewart’s back, both drivers had a great incentive. They did it to raise money for charity, settling a bet made in 2007 when Stewart agreed to let Harvick wax his back if the latter could raise at least $100,000.
A little over a year later, the bet was finally paid off as more than $125,000 was raised toward the Victory Junction Gang Camp for children with serious illnesses.
On March 16, 2008, long before they became teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing, even before Stewart became part of SHR, there were two laps left in the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway when Harvick plowed into Stewart’s car, ending his hopes for a win or even a runner-up finish. Stewart would eventually finish 14th.
When the incident happened, Stewart yelled over his team radio, “What the f*** did he do that for?” A voice replied, which Stewart misheard, thinking it was his spotter, Mark Robertson, when it actually was Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, who replied, “F***ing jerk, that’s why he did it.”
Robertson was ultimately absolved of being involved in the radio shenanigans. Long story short, tempers calmed and Stewart tried to make a mea culpa to Harvick by living up to the bet he made the previous season: if Harvick could help Stewart raise $100,000, Stewart would allow Harvick to wax his back.
In other words, inflict pain by pulling every shred of hair off Stewart’s back. And for the record, Stewart used to be a very hairy dude on both his chest and back.
It was time to pay up the bet, and Stewart and Harvick did just that
The very next day, on Stewart’s SiriusXM NASCAR Radio show, Harvick got to work and essentially left Stewart’s back bald. That Harvick had a big laugh while doing the dirty deed was not a surprise.
After the deforesting was completed, Stewart was asked whether the incident hurt more than his hard wreck into the Las Vegas Motor Speedway wall a few weeks earlier, to which Stewart replied, “Yeah, it does, actually. It just isn’t lasting as long.”
Frontstretch.com even noted the top 10 things overheard during the waxing of Stewart’s back.
