"That was important for the whole sport": When Richard Childress watched Kevin Harvick heal a grieving NASCAR world

Just three races into his unexpected promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series, Kevin Harvick drove Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s iconic No. 3 car to victory lane in Atlanta. Team owner Richard Childress believed that it healed the racing community.

On February 18, 2001, NASCAR lost Earnhardt Sr. in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. For the sport, it was a traumatic loss of one of its greatest heroes. Richard Childress faced the unenviable task of deciding what came next and made two key changes.

First, the black No. 3 Chevrolet would be retired, at least for the foreseeable future. Second, their developmental driver, Kevin Harvick, would step in immediately. Already a rising star in the Busch Series (now Xfinity), he was the 2000 Rookie of the Year and was scheduled to run part-time in the Cup.

Suddenly, Harvick was thrust into a full Cup schedule, replacing a seven-time champion. The No. 3 was now No. 29, its iconic black replaced with a white-and-red scheme to preserve the legacy. He made his Cup debut at Rockingham and finished 14th. A week later, in Las Vegas, he took eighth. However, it was the third race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 11, 2001, that launched Harvick's career.

"Winning that race did as much for the whole sport as for anything else. To see us go out and win in Dale's car was emotional for all of us, but it was good. It was just what all of us needed. There've been moments in the sport that have given everybody a better feeling about what's going on," Richard Childress said, via Autoweek in 2021.

"Kevin winning at Atlanta was one of them. It showed that Richard Childress Racing was still out here, still racing hard, and still winning. I think that was important for the whole sport," he added.

Jeff Gordon dominated much of the 2001 Atlanta race. Coming off a win at Las Vegas the week before, he led a race-high 118 laps, controlling the tempo. In the final laps, Harvick found something extra. Using the high line while Gordon stuck to the bottom and briefly got held up in traffic, Harvick made the pass with just six laps remaining.

The two cars raced to the finish side by side, with Kevin Harvick finishing 0.006 seconds ahead. His celebration said it all. After a burnout on the frontstretch, he turned the car around and performed a backward Polish victory lap, just like Earnhardt Sr. had done. But this time, he did it with three fingers extended out of his driver's side window as tribute to the man he replaced.

Pit road erupted. Crew members sobbed and hugged. In the RCR garage, team personnel pointed skyward.

Fans hold up three fingers as Earnhardt Sr.'s No. 3 drives past at Talladega Superspeedway. Source: Imagn

That summer, another healing moment came at Daytona when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the July race at the very track where his father had passed away.

By 2014, the No. 3 would return full-time to Cup, with Childress' grandson Austin Dillon behind the wheel. In that emotional stretch of 2001, Kevin Harvick's Atlanta win was the moment the sport and its fans realized they could keep going.

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"Nobody knew what to do": Kevin Harvick reflects on a win that changed everything

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kevin Harvick during the MyAFibStory.com 400 at Chicagoland. Source: Imagn

Looking back decades later, Kevin Harvick admitted that the emotions were overwhelming even in the moment. He was only 25 at the time, still new to the spotlight. And yet, within weeks of joining the Cup Series under the most difficult of circumstances, he made history.

While Harvick would go on to win the 2001 Rookie of the Year and win another Cup race at Chicagoland, nothing would ever quite feel like Atlanta. On the Kevin Harvick Happy Hour podcast, he recalled the chaos and emotion of that win:

"It was kind of the way that Atlanta always was. We saw a lot of those finishes back in the day that were side by side... On this particular day for me, not supposed to be there. Unique situation with Dale's passing and being able to win my first race and win for the team in our third start together, it was pretty emotional and you can see the emotion with the team."

Even as Harvick stood in victory lane with the Richard Childress Racing crew, he said that there was confusion.

"The crazy part was how loud the fans were. It was just nobody knew what to do. You didn't know whether to be happy. You didn't know whether to cry. You didn't know if you should, be excited, talk about Dale, not talk about Dale. There were so many confusing things that were happening during that time period."

Harvick remembered one image in particular of Dale Earnhardt fans climbing the catch fence and cheering his win.

In the years that followed, Kevin Harvick would become one of NASCAR's most successful drivers, with 58 Cup victories and the 2014 championship. But that day in Atlanta mattered more than anything else.