“Hamlin had a bottle of Jack Daniels in a cup”- When Kevin Harvick described the ‘night’ he was asked to drive for RCR after Dale Earnhardt’s loss

Kevin Harvick once opened up about the night he was asked to fill in the Richard Childress Racing team entry in NASCAR's premier division. He started his full-time Cup Series career a week after the tragic demise of Hall of Famer Earnhardt Sr. in February 2001.

The 2001 Daytona 500 race changed the future of the Richard Childress-owned famed Cup Series team when seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Sr. died in a tragic last-lap wreck at Daytona International Speedway. As a result, the Bakersfield, California, native Harvick was called in to fill the seat of the Childress-owned team's entry a few days before the 2001 North Carolina Speedway race.

Former Cup Series driver Harvick recalled the time when he was called to meet Kevin Hamlin (former RCR crew chief), Bobby Hutchens (former RCR team manager), and Childress at the team's office in Welcome, North Carolina.

"I'll never forget walking in. I've been in Richard's office a few times but that night was different. Richard was sitting behind his desk looked like he hadn't slept in, you know, three days which he probably hadn't. Kevin Hamlin had a bottle of Jack Daniels in a cup and just sitting there and he, obviously, had plenty of cups of Jack Daniels." [1:34]

Furthermore, Harvick added how Childress just wanted RCR to survive.

"And they were just trying to figure out what they wanted to do and they asked me to drive the car and that at that point it was really about just trying to keep the company afloat and survive and not just have the emotions of the whole situation shut the company down," Harvick said.

However, it didn't take the 2014 Cup Series champion Harvick much time to capitalize on a win in the Cup Series as he drove the renumbered #29 Chevy to victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Harvick's third career Cup start.

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"I didn't make a real first good first impression"- Kevin Hamlin on meeting Kevin Harvick at the RCR office after Dale Sr.'s death

Kevin Harvick with Richard Childress. NASCAR Nextel Cup: Auto Club 500-Qualifying - Source: Imagn

Kevin Hamlin shifted from the role of Mike Skinner's crew chief to the #3 Chevy team of Dale Earnhardt in 1998 after joining Richard Childress Racing in 1997.

In a 2023 conversation, Hamlin addressed meeting Kevin Harvick and reiterated the above-mentioned story from his perspective. He said (via NASCAR):

"I think Harvick’s told the story before. I was kind of on a bender for a couple of days there, but we finally decided that was the decision Richard was gonna make. So Harvick came to the shop or whatever, and I probably didn’t make a real good first impression that day. I mean, it wasn’t the first time Harvick ever met me because we’d worked together. … We all worked as a team there anyway, but I had a bottle of Jack Daniel’s about half-empty, kinda slammed it on the desk and said, ‘welp, this is what we’re doing."

The now-retired driver, Kevin Harvick, then went on to compete for RCR for 13 more years before switching to Stewart-Haas Racing and earlier this year recalled what made him do that.