Kyle Petty gets 100% real on paying $45,000 fine for replacing Kevin Harvick mid-race

Kyle Petty recalled his $45,000 fine for replacing Kevin Harvick mid-race at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2004. On the Happy Hour podcast, Petty said that while he had to pay the hefty fine, he would've dished out more to drive Harvick's racecar.

At the time, Petty drove the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after Harvick got out of the car due to the numbness in his arm. As a Dodge driver under Petty Enterprises, Petty, who had exited the race earlier, was fined $45,000.

The two NASCAR legends discussed the switch at Bristol on Kevin Harvick's podcast, with Kyle Petty saying:

"I was driving for Dodge, and you were driving a Chevy, and [you're all] in the point. So all I need to do is keep it out of the wall."

Petty said his father, seven-time champion Richard Petty, taught him to take over cars whenever the drivers left the cockpit for whatever reason. Unfortunately for him, the Bristol incident resulted in a $45,000 fine.

"I got a bill from Dodge, from Chrysler, we got docked $45,000, which was one race, so we had to pay them back $45,000 for driving it because I drove a Chevy because I was a Dodge driver," Petty said. [0:50]

However, Petty seemed unbothered and said he would have paid even more to drive Kevin Harvick's Chevy.

"Listen, I'd have paid 145 grand to drive your car," Petty concluded.

After the 2004 Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the No. 29 Chevrolet finished 24th, with Petty's No. 45 Dodge settling with a DNF. The 500-lap night race witnessed Dale Earnhardt Jr. win and birthed the famous phrase, "It's Bristol Baby".

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"To race with Big E": Kevin Harvick on joining Richard Childress Racing

Kevin Harvick shared the reason for racing for Richard Childress Racing in the early 2000s. The 49-year-old said he wanted to race with Dale Earnhardt Sr., but the unfortunate 2001 Daytona 500 incident forbade the driver pairing.

During the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Sr., who won six of his seven NASCAR championships with RCR, passed away in a last-lap wreck. He was replaced by Harvick, albeit in the No. 29 Chevrolet instead of the late driver's No. 3 car.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion said (via the Happy Hour podcast):

"I went to RCR to race with the Big E, with Dale Sr. That was the final piece of the puzzle that made my decision to go to RCR, I had a few different things that were happening at that point. Ultimately, I wanted to be on the same team as Dale Earnhardt."

"I went to RCR and everybody knows the story in the way that worked out. Never actually got to race against Dale. So to me that was one of the pieces of the puzzle that I never got to have play out," he added.

Kevin Harvick drove for the Chevrolet-affiliated team until the 2013 Cup Series season. He moved to the now-discontinued Stewart-Haas Racing team the following year and won the title in his first season wheeling the No. 4 car.

The Californian retired from the sport in 2023 with one championship and 60 race wins (23 with RCR and 37 with SHR).