Danica Patrick’s NASCAR career was a lightning rod for debate, but few critiques cut as deep as Kevin Harvick’s. The 2014 Cup Series champion didn’t mince words about his former Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, attributing her struggles to a 20-year experience gap and the stark contrast between open-wheel and stock car racing.
As Patrick prepared for her final Daytona 500 in 2018, Harvick’s candid assessment then reminded her of how motorsports’ disciplines demand divergent skills, timing, and lifelong immersion.
Kevin Harvick’s Blunt Assessment of Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Transition
Harvick’s argument centered on experience. “I had 20 years on her when she started in a stock car,” he said during the NASCAR Media Tour in 2018.
“That is experience, and the things that come with that, you are never going to make up that ground. As long as I’m still racing, I’m going to be 20 years ahead regardless. I think it never is going to be easy to go from (IndyCars to NASCAR).”
Patrick, an IndyCar race winner, entered NASCAR full-time in 2013 after limited stock car exposure. Harvick emphasized the cultural whiplash: IndyCars weigh half as much as Cup cars and prioritize precision over brute force.
“I have never driven an IndyCar, but based on everything I’ve heard, the characteristics and how you drive them are 180-degrees different. It has been very hard for a lot of the open-wheel guys to come over here and drive these (3,300-pound) cars. It’s the total opposite of everything they have been taught their whole lives,” he said.
The stats underscored his point. Patrick logged seven top-10 finishes in 191 Cup starts, with no wins or top-fives. Harvick, meanwhile, amassed 60 Cup victories before retiring in 2023.
“A lot of the kids we have coming up through our ranks now have been in stock cars since they were 12 or 13 years old. It’s much different,” Harvick added.
Why Harvick Believes Early Specialization Dictates NASCAR Success
For Harvick, Patrick’s path highlighted a broader truth: crossover success is rare. “You have to pick a path,” he said.
“If you want to race open-wheel cars and do those things, it’s probably going to be carts and into an open-wheel series.”
Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya bucked the trend, but Harvick called them outliers.
“There are very few people that have been able to do them both. Tony Stewart and Montoya have done it the best in my opinion. Might be somebody else I am missing. But there have been a lot that have tried,” he shrugged.
The 2014 champ linked performance to stardom. While Patrick’s marketability made her a “superstar,” Harvick argued that winning transforms athletes into “megastars” like Tiger Woods.
“Danica had a personality. She didn’t perform well,” he once again spoke to the media about Patrick later in the same year. “In the end, performance trumped superstar to megastar.”
Kyle Petty echoed this sentiment, calling Patrick a “marketing machine” who “couldn’t race.” Yet Harvick’s critique wasn’t personal — it was pragmatic.
Patrick retired with a legacy of breaking barriers, but Harvick’s take endures as a stark reminder that in NASCAR, experience isn’t just an advantage — it’s a lifeline.