Even before he was born, Keelan Harvick was a racing celebrity. We were invited to guess his name, the date he’d arrive and, when that magical day happened for Kevin and DeLana Harvick, they allowed racing fans to share their joy.
We’ve watched him grow up and we’ve watched him start his own racing career. Apparently Toyota Racing Development (TRD) was paying attention as well, and has signed a long-term commitment with this third generation racer to continue his development through pavement opportunities. Keelan Harvick will be part of the Toyota Racing family and, for this season, will partner with RACKLEY W.A.R. and Kevin Harvick Inc. KHI) to compete in late-model races nationwide, in the No. 62 Toyota Camry. Harvick has retained backing with ExxonMobil for several of his planned races.
“I’m really grateful to have this kind of opportunity with Toyota Racing Development,” Harvick said. “To have their support and be able to represent ExxonMobil, it doesn’t get much better. I’m still getting experience, but it’s going to be a privilege to be part of the TRD program and learn from the other drivers,” nearly all of whom are far older than Harvick, who is 13 years old and turns 14 in July.
Still, even before this agreement, Keelan Harvick was making motorsports history in a variety of series. In December, he became the youngest-ever victor in the Snowflake 125, held at Five Flags Speedway. He followed up that win with another in Florence Motor Speedway’s Icebreaker competition earlier in February, becoming the youngest winner of that event, as well as earning his first career LMSC victory.
In 2024 Harvick was the index Young Lions National Champion, making the successful transition from Legends to Late Models as he captured four zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model events and a pair of 2025 CARS Tour West Pro Late Model Series races. He became the first driver to win PLM events in both series in the same season. Obviously, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree for Keelan. His father Kevin, 50, is a NASCAR Cup Series champion (2014) who has earned O’Reilly Series titles in both 2001 and 2006. Kevin Harvick holds the all-time record for Cup Series victories at Phoenix Raceway with nine wins.
Tyler Gibbs, president of TRD USA agreed that “Everyone at Toyota and TRD are excited to welcome Keelan into the TOYOTA RACING family. Keelan has proven himself on-track and, despite his young age, has continued to be wise beyond his years with his professionalism and work ethic off of it,” he noted. “TRD is thrilled to partner Keelan and his family as Keelan continues to develop his racing craft. We see a bright future ahead for him, and everyone at Toyota is proud to be part of his journey.”
Toyota Driver Development (TD2) is a program that boasts graduates like Christopher Bell, Corey Heim and John Hunter Nemechek, all competing in the NASCAR Cup Series with Toyota partner teams. Within this program, Toyota takes an active role in each driver’s development, in order to help them achieve their goals of long-term success in motorsport. The TD2 program boasts partners like ExxonMobil, JBL, Safelite AutoGlass, SoundGear and Yahoo.
The TD2 program and the mutual long-term commitment of Toyota and its partners provides added opportunities both on- and off-track. Toyota encourages and supports each driver’s personal development within this program. TD2 drivers, along with racers that compete for Toyota-supported race teams, also have access to Toyota Performance Center (TPC), which provides support with physical fitness, sports psychology, recovery and nutrition.
While Keelan Harvick is looking forward to being part of the Toyota family and wants to gain knowledge from the organization, the most important factor he stated was, “They win a lot, and I want to be with an organization that wins.” Kevin Harvick was a bit more circumspect in his acceptance of this partnership for his first-born: “We’ve concentrated a lot on development and have a theory on how it should go. I felt like the Toyota process matched what we would do,” he said. While he appreciates the effort that Toyota puts into the driving part of its TD2 program, “The human piece of it is very important to us as a family. That was really one of the biggest reasons on why we went this direction.”
Absolute stupidity having a child be subjected to the pressures of a “real” race car driver. Let this child be a kid and maybe in 10 or more years start to mature.
He too damn young!