In the arena of motorsports, a driver just needs to take care of the driving aspect of each race. However, for the owner of the racing series, the responsibilities are far greater. On that very note, Kevin Harvick recently revealed how his first year of co-owning the CARS Tour has panned out.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick, along with Jeff Burton and Justin Marks, would head into their second year of owning the CARS Tour. While Harvick raced with the series at one point earlier this year and has also owned cars that raced in the series, he explained that the challenges of running an entire series are entirely different from the challenges of competing.
Harvick said, “I think the CARS Tour venture with Dale, Justin, and Jeff (Burton) has been very good for me to learn from the ownership side of a series.” According to the NASCAR Cup Series champion, the biggest goal for them in 2023 was to not mess up.
“When you look at our first year, the biggest thing that we had to do is not screw it up because the CARS Tour is a tour that Jack (McNelly) has built over the last 10 years and late model stock racing in the South East is alive and well,” he explained.
In an episode of the Dale Jr. Download, both Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kevin Harvick admitted that they had wanted to take over something that was already in a good spot and then make it even bigger and better. The next goal for them was to expose the grassroots level racing to larger audiences to show them how good these drivers are.
Kevin Harvick debunked a major ownership myth
NASCAR fans often think that the owners do nothing except invest money in a racing series. But that is not true. Kevin Harvick emphasized that the owners are greatly invested in the day-to-day operations of the series.
“A lot of people that you buy the series and we’re just four guys that are hands off,” said Harvick. “We’re as involved in the day-to-day operations as you could possibly imagine and it’s been really fun. We have a very unique group of owners that see things from a different perspective.”
“That’s been fun because it’s fun to hear what somebody else is seeing and what they think about a certain situation,” he added, as he emphasized that the CARS Tour is something that all four owners have a burning passion for.
