Kevin Harvick floods back to a “confusing and emotional” win at Atlanta, just weeks after Dale Sr.’s death

Kevin Harvick's NASCAR career changed overnight after Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s death. A young Harvick was rushed into the Intimidator's RCR car by Richard Childress for the Rockingham race. Kevin Harvick did not disappoint his owner as he clinched his first race just 3 races in at Atlanta.

Harvick had big pressure on his young shoulders replacing an icon of the sport. But edging Jeff Gordon for the win by just 0.006 seconds marked his arrival to NASCAR. Kevin Harvick honored Earnhardt by driving backward on the track and raising three fingers outside the driver's window as a sign of tribute.

Now retired after winning a Cup Series title, the 49-year-old talked about the emotional day of winning his maiden Cup race at Atlanta. Kevin Harvick reminisced and said:

“That 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."

He continued,

"But on this particular day for me and not supposed to be there; unique situation with Dale’s passing and being able to win my first race and win for my team in our third start together, you know. It was pretty emotional.”

"You can see the emotion with the team. The crazy part was how loud the fans were. Nobody knew what to do, they didn’t know whether to be happy or cry. There were so many confusing things happening during that time period."

“I remember dumb little things like that”

The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver also remembered fans screaming and cheering from the stands and that nobody had left the stadium as he went on to perform his victory burnout. Harvick won the Atlanta NASCAR race a total of 3-times in his career, but none would have felt the same as his first one.

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Kevin Harvick picks Penske star to win Atlanta after a dominant Daytona 500 outing

Having won 60 career Cup races, Kevin Harvick knows a thing or two about winning. In his latest podcast episode, the former NASCAR champion shared his pick for the winner of the Atlanta Spring race.

Team Penske put out a dominant showing at the Daytona 500, despite nothing to show for in results. However, Harvick's pick for the winner is a surprise as he neither chose Joey Logano nor Ryan Blaney. Yep, the veteran NASCAR driver feels Austin Cindrick will take the checkered flag this time.

NASCAR: DAYTONA 500 - Source: Imagn

Kevin Harvick made the prediction on his podcast stating:

"We’ve talked about Ford’s we talked about the advantages not advantages just things that they do better than the other makes right now, and I'm going with Austin Cindric. I'm going to pick the #2 this weekend. He’s been up front at all the superspeedway races. I think this is a good week for them to have a chance to win.” [1:06:23]

Austin Cindric grabbed runner-up in Stage 2 of the Daytona 500, losing the stage win to his teammate Ryan Blaney. He also had a great shot at creating Daytona 500 history by winning the race but was denied the shot in the final lap.

Had Cindric won the race, he would have become the first driver to win multiple Daytona 500s in his first 5 starts. Can Austin Cindric and Team Penske bounce back this weekend?