Kevin Harvick details conversation with wife DeLana Harvick about coming out of retirement

Kevin Harvick was recently announced to be the standby driver for Kyle Larson as the Hendrick Motorsports driver hopes to qualify for the Indy 500 later this month. Harvick, who bid goodbye to NASCAR at the end of last season, would potentially be coming out of retirement to run in the #5 car.

Harvick recently revealed how he communicated this news to his wife DeLana Harvick. The former Stewart Haas Racing driver described on his podcast show, Happy Hour with Kevin Harvick, how Rick Hendrick called him and asked him to drive the #5 car. He replied that he had to call a few people at FOX and his wife before making his decision.

"I called my wife, and I was like, 'Hey, are you sitting down?' She was like, 'I'm driving.' I said, 'Well maybe you should pull over.' And she's like, 'Oh man, this is obviously a pretty serious question that you're getting ready to ask me.' I said, 'So, about that retirement thing ... they've asked me to go drive Kyle Larson's car during the North Wilkesboro weekend.'

"She's like, 'Okay, what'd you say?' I said, 'Well I said yes, of course,' because there's just not too many opportunities that are presented the way this one was presented by Rick to say I need a favor. And she's like, 'Well, if Mr. Hendrick needs a favor, he's done us good. You should go do it.' I said, 'Okay,'" Harvick described. [1:45]

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Kevin Harvick happy to be a small part of something legendary in the making

After he described how the conversation with his wife went about him coming out of retirement less than a year after he said goodbye to driving in NASCAR, Kevin Harvick insisted that he is still retired. As for what a retired driver is doing driving a racecar, Harvick claimed he's "technically just helping some friends out."

Harvick also mentioned that, albeit he'd be a small part, he's happy to be a part of what Kyle Larson is hoping to achieve with his Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 double duty.

"I'm excited to be a part of the equation. I hope Kyle Larson goes up there and qualifies up on the pole and wins the race. And I just think that story of when Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart went and did the double, that was good for racing. I think it's good for NASCAR. I think it's good for Kyle Larson.

"I think it's good for Hendrick Motorpsports. The bigger platform that Kyle Larson is on that weekend and at that week, the month is good for everybody," Harvick said. [3:00]

He added that he's happy to be a "little part of the equation" and help in some way, shape, or form, on what Kevin Harvick deemed would be a fun day.