Keelan, the son of the iconic Kevin Harvick, is one of the most promising young racers in motorsports currently. He recently reached the final lengths of winning the 2024 Summer Shootout Championship in Charlotte but saw glory slip away in the last lap. As he braved the storm to set his eyes on the next goal, he got an opportunity that few others can dream of.
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Kevin and Keelan were spotted with none other than the 3X Cup Series champion Tony Stewart early this week. Keelan tested out Stewart’s NHRA top fuel car at the zMAX Dragway before the NHRA Carolina Nationals. In a video shared by Tony Stewart Racing Nitro, Smoke can be seen providing instructions to the youngster as he climbs into the car and figures things out. What a memory to have.
Keelan later went on social media and thanked his “Uncle Smoke” for giving him the opportunity. The 11-year-old came across many highs this year. He won a Legends feature at the New All River American Speedway back in April, finished second in his first-ever street stock debut, and won multiple times at Charlotte as part of the Summer Shootout. The only low point was missing the Summer Shootout title.
.@KeelanHarvick is a natural #TSRnitro | #NHRA | @TonyStewart pic.twitter.com/PyHLIG4ti9
— Tony Stewart Racing Nitro (@TSRnitro) September 23, 2024
A runner-up finish would’ve given the championship ahead of Neal Dulin. All his efforts came in the No. 62 Hunt Brothers Pizza car of KHI.
Tony Stewart fails to impress on the track in front of the Harvick family
As for Stewart, he took his car to the track after introducing it to Harvick. He had to face reigning Top Fuel World Champion Doug Kalitta in a challenging first-round battle. The Mahindra Tractors TSR Dodge//SRT Dragster ran quite well till the halfway point but soon lost traction and exited the contest.
Despite the loss, Stewart is sixth in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel points standings, 220 points behind the leader. He later told the press, “This just wasn’t our weekend. We qualified 14th, and the car didn’t make it down the track during the money run on Friday night. We had a very uncommon error, but we addressed it.”
“We’re one team, all team, and all the guys rallied around what happened. Now, we’ll head to St. Louis for another strong weekend.” The Cup Series legend sure must have hoped for a better result in front of his former driver and family.
