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TRUCKS: KHI Patiently Built Championship Program
Written by: SceneDaily.com
SceneDaily.com   
11/27/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Kevin Harvick Incorporated, co-owned by Delana (Left) and Kevin (Right) Harvick began racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2004 and hold both the 2007 and 2009 series titles. (Photo: LAT photographic) ยป More Photos

Kevin and DeLana Harvick have clearly found the perfect formula for crafting a winning organization.

From their working relationship with one another to that of their drivers, crew chiefs and crews, it truly does seem to come down to one key ingredient: Teamwork.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide series team owners have built one of the most competitive organizations to come into the sport at those levels in recent history. The team started as a way for Harvick to race in the Truck series, but since they began racing full time in the Truck ranks in 2004, and in what is now the Nationwide series the following season, the team has steadily gained on the competition.

Now, they are the team to watch in the Truck series each season. With driver Ron Hornaday, KHI has a worst points finish of second in the last three Truck seasons. They hold both the 2007 and 2009 series titles and lost the 2008 crown by single-digit points.

Like everyone else, they've faced issues with funding from sponsors and manufacturers this season. But the Harvicks have clearly made smart choices and kept the championship team on track.

How have they done so?

By working together and keeping the team operating as a unit - and by letting people do the jobs they were hired to do.

That works at all levels. Crew chief Rick Ren says it's important to watch people to see how they perform, but to let them do their own jobs.

"I try to teach each one of my guys, they're like their own little department managers," he says. " … When you get a guy that will take the rope and run with it and they want the responsibility then I feel good about that we've taught somebody to do something and it's something for them to be proud [of]."

This isn't a team where the owners or top officials micromanage others. Instead, they trust in the decisions they make on placing people in the right jobs unless they have reason to do otherwise.

"I think anybody that knows anything about Kevin and I truly knows that we work together well as a team and with a guy like Hornaday, you don't have to micromanage," DeLana Harvick says. "… You know he's going to go out and give 100 percent in the truck all the time and you have to put the right people in the right places. That's so important, so we've been very fortunate to have a lot of really good people and dedicated loyal people who believe in what we're doing and I think that makes the difference."

They also continually evolve. Hornaday has repeatedly pointed out the strengths the team derives from the Harvicks attention to detail this season.

That remained the case when he snared his record-setting fourth title this year, and then captured the owners championship in the season finale.

"It would have been really bad if we did not win that owners championship," Hornaday says. "This team really deserves it. Kevin and DeLana have given us the equipment to do the stuff that we do. Five wins in a row is remarkable, and that's because of Rick Ren and all the guys and Kevin and DeLana letting us build new trucks week in and week out.

"I went up there probably two months ago and I had like 11 trucks done. I went back up there two weeks ago and only had four trucks. So Kevin keeps selling my trucks and building new ones. I'm not going to complain because they're faster than anything you drive."

The team hasn't always had the ability to do such, but has patiently built to its current status.

As they look back over the years, the owners see the 2006 season as one in which the team hit a new stride and reached a new level.
After that, things really began to take off for the organization.

"I think it was a building process," Kevin Harvick says. "I think when you went from, we started in '01 and then you went through '02 and '03 with me driving the truck and just trying to establish things slowly so that you could acquire the facility and the tools and all the things that it takes and we went through '06 without a sponsor and in '07 we hired Rick [and he] came in and that's when things really started taking off. But '06 was probably the turning point when we really started getting a core group of people and '06 to '07 was a big jump and [in] '07, '08 and '09 everything's been pretty consistent. So '06 was definitely the turning point."

Not that people have slacked off at all since then. The Harvicks consider an offseason in which they plan to spend a couple of days at the beach and then host family and friends to be a good break from the sport.

Kevin Harvick says a break of some sort is important.

Otherwise, racing could just consume you, especially since he also competes for Richard Childress Racing in the Cup series and drives for his own team on occasion in the Nationwide and Truck ranks. In fact, Harvick won the final pair of Truck races this season.

"You like to do other things because you're so consumed with racing and you wind up - everything that you do revolves around racing, racing, racing and then when you get something normal to do, that it doesn't seem normal to us because we don't get a chance to do that very often, so it's always fun to go to the beach or go do whatever because we just don't do those things and we wind up being so consumed with racing that normal things become very fun," he says.

Still, with the team preparing for 2010 and trying to stay on top of the Truck series and continue to grow in the Nationwide, the Harvicks don't want to get too far away from racing.

Understanding that and working together for common goals is just another aspect of the teamwork the husband-and-wife team show.

And perhaps one of the true keys to their success.

"I think for us, because we're so committed to KHI, there's not a lot of time that we're going to walk away from that," DeLana Harvick says. "You can't take the month of December and walk away and have vacation. It sounds nice, but realistically that's never going to happen for us. So we try to intermix it when we can, but really for us just stay home and spend time with our friends and family is extremely important for us … So we try to cram a lot of that into being home at the holidays."

SceneDaily.com•HT Motorsports Truck team trims number of employees
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