Kevin Harvick has contested more NASCAR national-series races than any other driver in NASCAR history. The NASCAR Cup Series regular took sole possession of the record when he made his 1,198th start across all three of NASCAR’s national series on April 25 when he took the green flag at Talladega Superspeedway for the Geico 500 Cup Series race. He, then, pulled two races ahead of former record holder Joe Nemechen and to within one race of the 2,000 race mark Sunday in the Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Harvick’s total NASCAR national-race tally includes 729 Cup Series races. Harvick began his Cup Series career in the second race of the 2001 season when car owner Richard Childress promoted him to drive the car vacated by the death of Dale Earnhardt in the Daytona 500 and renumbered 29. He continued to race in the Xfinity Series, claiming the 2001 championship in that series while also securing 2001 Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year honors.
Harvick claimed his first of 58-career Cup Series wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2001, his third race at NASCAR’s top level.
Continuing to race in both the Xfinity and Cup Series simultaneously, Harvick won a second Xfinity Series driver championship. He has 346-career starts in the Xfinity Series, resulting in 47 wins.
Harvick added a Cup Series championship to his two Xfinity titles in 2014, his first season after leaving RCR for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick was eliminated from championship contention shy of the 2020 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, but he was regular-season champ and led the series in wins with nine.
Harvick also has contested 124 Truck Series races, resulting in 14 wins.
Two drivers are in the top-five on the all-time national-level starts list. Kyle Busch is fifth on the list with 1,097 after contesting both the Truck and Cup series races at Kansas. NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Mark Martin are third and fourth with 1,185 and 1,143 races, respectively.
