NASCAR veteran Kevin Harvick straps in for final ride Sunday in Phoenix: ‘It’s been real’

The next time Kevin Harvick walks into a racetrack, he’ll have his head up, look around and take it all in.

He’s never done that before.

Harvick, the 47-year-old sure-fire NASCAR Hall of Famer who will run his final Cup Series race Sunday, is in a “mode,” he called it, when he steps onto a track. His head is down as he walks to his hauler, where he slips into his fire suit. Then, he walks to his car, and a few hours later, is back in his hauler before heading home.

The 2014 Cup Series champion has accumulated 60 wins — 10th-most all-time — since replacing Dale Earnhardt in the No. 3 car after the legend died in 2001. Known as a brash agitator earlier in his career, Harvick has become a voice for NASCAR’s next generation.

And after Sunday afternoon’s race, Harvick will officially put a bow on his 23-year career as one of the greatest drivers of all-time.

“All the weeks leading up to this particular one were really not that hard,” Harvick told reporters Friday at a press conference inside the Phoenix Raceway media center. “Up until that point, I don’t think anybody thought it was real. This week, it’s been real.

“This week has been definitely different than everything leading up to this just because the fact that there isn’t a next week. There’s been a next week up until this week.”

Harvick knows he’ll still be at racetracks around the circuit often next year, as he will be joining FOX Sports as an analyst. But he’s cherishing this opportunity to spend more time with his family — his wife, DeLana; his son, Keelan, 11; and his 6-year-old daughter, Piper.

Before he had kids, Harvick said he would say: “Don’t ever get involved in racing. You don’t want to do it. It’s not the lifestyle that you want to live.”

Eleven years after having Keelan, who races, Harvick looks around the Phoenix Raceway media center. He’s 47 years old and almost everything in his life involves racing.

“I love racing, and that really came from watching Keelan race,” Harvick said. “Watching him grow to love the sport, watching the other parents and the other kids and everything that they did was all about racing because they loved going to the racetrack. It brought them together. And that’s really what I’ve done my whole life.”

On Sunday, Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang will be decked out in the familiar colors of his longtime partner Busch Light. And this time, “Harvick” is emblazoned on the logo.

Don’t count Harvick out in his 826th career race.

Harvick owns the all-time wins record at Phoenix, with nine of his 60 victories coming there. No current Cup Series drivers have more than three wins, and Jimmie Johnson’s four wins at the desert mile are second all-time. Harvick hasn’t finished outside the Top 10 in any Phoenix race since a 13th-place performance in 2013.

“You look back at just the history of everything that’s been done here, it’s been OK,” Harvick said. “This is a place no matter how your season is going, you come to with the expectation of running at the front of the pack.

“Hopefully, that’s what we do.”