Harvick Stretched His Hit Season Into a Double

When Kevin Harvick, an untested 25-year-old rookie from Bakersfield, was named to replace the legendary Dale Earnhardt as driver of Richard Childress’ GM Goodwrench Chevrolet after Earnhardt’s tragic crash in the Daytona 500, hardly anyone expected Harvick to continue his quest for the Busch Grand National championship.

It would mean hopscotching around the country, often driving the Busch car at one track and the Winston Cup car at another on the same weekend, once at tracks as far apart as Pikes Peak, Colo., and Pocono, Pa. It would mean running 68 races, 35 Winston Cup and 33 Busch.

No one had ever run a full schedule for both NASCAR series. No one thought it feasible.

“I felt I had to do it because of all the effort the Busch crew had made, getting the car ready for the season and looking forward to racing,” Harvick said. “Looking back on last year, even though I drove my first Winston Cup season, the Busch championship means more to me than anything because people said we couldn’t do both, that I needed to concentrate entirely on the Cup after getting the ride in Dale’s car.”

Tonight, at the Busch awards banquet in the Regent Beverly Wilshire, Harvick and the Childress team will collect $1.8 million for winning the championship. Harvick also finished ninth in Winston Cup and was named rookie of the year, despite missing the opening race at Daytona.

“It was an amazing year, I know I’ll never go through one like it again in my life,” Harvick said. “The pressure wasn’t only on the track, but it was all around me. Richard [Childress] told me from Day 1 what it would be like--the media attention, the fans, the critics, the demands by sponsors for my time, stuff like that.

“The year went by so fast, rushing from one race to another, from one meeting to another, having microphones stuck in my face before I even got out of the car. I’m just now beginning to realize how much we did, how much we accomplished.”

As a Winston Cup driver, in Earnhardt’s car, the color changed from black to white and the number from 3 to 29, Harvick won his third time out, at Atlanta, and finished with another victory at Chicago. He had six top-five finishes and 16 top-10s, earning $4.3 million. No one had ever won a race so soon after joining NASCAR’s toughest series.

As a Busch driver, in the No. 2 AC Delco Chevrolet, he had five victories, 20 top-five finishes and 24 in the top 10, winning nearly $920,000.

And he also found time to marry DeLana Neville, on Feb. 28, only seven days after being told by Childress that he would drive Earnhardt’s car.

When someone suggested that his life had been pretty hectic, Harvick laughed and said, “Hectic? That’s not even the half of it.”

The 2002 season will start early for him, however. He will share a Corvette with Rick Carelli, Dave Liniger and John Metcalf in the 40th annual Rolex 24-hour race at Daytona on Feb. 2-3, then begin practicing for his first IROC race and Daytona 500 on Feb. 6.

“I’m cutting back this year,” Harvick said, grinning. “After the 24-hour, I’ll run 36 Winston Cup races, along with four IROC, three Busch, five Craftsman truck and one Southwest Tour.

“I just love to race, plain and simple. Give me a bicycle or a wagon for that matter and I’ll race it.”

AARWBA Banquet

J. C. Agajanian would have been 89 in June. He has been gone since 1984, dying the day practice started for the Indianapolis 500, a treasure he won twice, with Troy Ruttman and Parnelli Jones.

In a way, Aggie will be honored Saturday night when the Agajanian family--J.C.’s three boys, Cary, J.C. Jr. (or Jay) and Chris--are feted at the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. awards dinner at the Sheraton Suites Fairplex in Pomona.

Like their father, none of them raced themselves, but all have been heavily involved in motor racing for most of their lives. The family patriarch, James T. “Pappy’ Agajanian, forbade his 18-year-old son J.C. to drive race cars, and the tradition was carried on through the family.

Cary, 60, is a Los Angeles attorney, part owner of an Indy car and a Busch series car, and manages a number of prominent drivers, among them Tony Stewart, Ron Hornaday, Dave Blaney and Billy Boat. With Mike Curb, he owns a Busch car driven last year by Jay Sauter and also is one of the owners of Boat’s Indy car, which finished fourth in Indy Racing League points last year.

Jay, 52, keeps the Agajanian interest alive in the annual Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix, conducted the last three years at Irwindale Speedway. The family has promoted Turkey Night since J.C. brought it to Ascot Park in 1960 and A.J. Foyt was the winner.

Chris, 50, promotes flat-track motorcycle races and recently sold his company to Clear Channel, but remains as a consultant.

J.C. was a charter member of AARWBA’s Legends in Racing Hall of Fame, and Saturday his sons will be honored as “Pioneers in Racing.”

Former land-speed record holder Craig Breedlove and Indy car owner-promoter Andy Granatelli will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Also honored will be members of the AARWBA All-American team. Expected to attend are drag racers Kenny Bernstein and John Force, Indy Lights champion Townsend Bell, Trans-Am winner Paul Gentilozzi and off-road racing champion Rob MacCachran.

Three All-Americans, Stewart, Danny Lasoski and Dave Darland, will miss the dinner because they will be in Tulsa, Okla., to drive in the annual Chili Bowl midget race Saturday night.

The winner of the Jerry Titus Award, named for journalist-driver Jerry Titus, who died in a racing accident in 1970, and given each year to the driver who gets the most All-American team votes, will also be announced. Force won the last two years, after having previously won in 1996. Four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon is the only other Titus winner on the team. He won in 1995 and 1998.

Tickets: (818) 842-7005.

The Good Old Days

What is it about things that happened 50 years ago that seems so interesting today? There has been no end of books and articles about racing in the ‘50s. The latest is Art Evans’ regional work, “The Fabulous Fifties: Sports Car Races in Southern California.”

As a sequel to his earlier book, also titled “The Fabulous Fifties,” the new 230-page edition contains reproductions of race programs with text as to the outcome. The first book was a collection of personality sketches of racing people from the ‘50s. The new one expands Evans’ work in what he calls “the seat of the American car culture.”

Anyone who remembers racing at Torrey Pines, Hourglass, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Catalina or 15 other sports car venues from that era will enjoy the book. Evans, 68, is a former racer-photographer from Redondo Beach who was an active participant in “the fabulous ‘50s.” Besides maps and diagrams showing where the races were run, Evans has pictures showing the areas today, some sites now shopping malls or golf courses. Only Willow Springs remains as a sports car racing site.

Books are $65, plus $5 for shipping from Photo Data Research, 800 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, CA 90277.

Fast Laps

Dick McClung will be the honoree at the eighth annual California Roadster Assn. Reunion at the Radisson/Knott’s Berry Farm on Saturday.... The Vintage Auto Racing Assn.’s annual tech inspection Saturday morning at Irwindale Speedway will feature old cars as well as old drivers, fans and officials. More than 100 cars are expected to line up, starting at 8 a.m. in the Speedway parking lot.