Happy World

KEVIN! KEVIN! KEVIN!

You got that right, girl.

DAMN, Kevin is the SHIT!

Hell yes he is!

I'd love to get happy with Happy.

Me too!
He's fine!

Because....we all hate engine gunk!

Engine Gunk sucks

I watched NASCAR commercials last night. Ahhhh, Kevin.

OMFG! I love this one!

Me too! We had fun doing captions with that!

The caption crew was a good idea...too bad we were too dirty for the place.... HAHA

I know. Party crashers!

The Community is too sensitive. You can't even say the word SEX on there.

Really?!?

Lighten UP! Oh, but Jimmy Spencer can swear on live TV, by God!

CometHarvick. Wow, a comet with shades.

I was thinking of Happy on the drive in to work this morning.

OWNERSHIP HAT FITS HARVICK
Marty Smith, ESPN.com

Marty,

Is it just me or has Kevin Harvick chilled out a lot lately? He seems like he's grown up and left that cockiness he had behind. I'm from his hometown and I've always followed his career, and I'm impressed with the difference I see in him lately. Do you see it, too?

-- Cathryn Sumter, Bakersfield, Calif.

Undoubtedly so, Cathryn. Harvick has matured immensely in the past couple of years. He admits it, and for several reasons. Team ownership is one primary reason. When he started his own Truck Series program, then later expanded into the Nationwide Series, he saw the sport from the other side.

Suddenly, he took a polar-opposite perspective from the only one he'd known before.

The sport looks wholly different from behind a desk than it does from behind the wheel.

He learned the difficulty of balancing emotion versus production versus performance, not to mention the human element that so often determines success in that equation. In time, that understanding began to spill over into his day job -- driving the No. 29 Chevrolet.

"He's more patient with [Richard Childress Racing]," RCR team manager Mike Dillon said. "Don't get me wrong, he has the same fire and intolerance for lack of speed as ever, but his understanding of why it happens is 10 times better.

"That fire and lack of patience as a driver is what makes him so good. If you hear him on the radio he's not going to tolerate anything but the best. He just delivers the message differently now. It's night and day [difference]."

"It's been really good for him," said Jeff Burton, Harvick's teammate at RCR. "Race car drivers, we tend to look at things as only how they impact us, and we fail a lot of times to look at how decisions that are made impact the entire company, and understand why they're made.

"We think it's easier on the outside than it really is. I think that Kevin owning his own team has made him make hard decisions, when he knew everybody wasn't going to be happy with them. It's the worst of two evils. That's tough to understand until you have to do it. For some people, owning a race team would be too much.

"For him, it's been really good. It's showed him how hard it is."

He's a different person, too. More laid-back and jovial. Happier.

"Oh yeah, he's much happier," Dillon said. "He's to a point in his life's that's made him more comfortable, more satisfied with where he is. It's fun to watch. In communicating with him and seeing him mature, it's obvious he's in a really good place."

Fellow drivers have taken notice, too.

"Big time -- his attitude is completely different than when he came in," Elliott Sadler said. "His perception of racing is better. He's a lot smarter racer now -- and he's a damn good driver.

"I see a happier guy. When he first came in he was under a lot of pressure, and was trying to be somebody he wasn't -- cocky and aggressive. Now he's so laid-back. He's one of my favorite guys to be around in the whole sport."

Sadler makes an excellent point. Harvick doesn't get due credit for how he came into Cup. He had to physically replace the most revered driver in NASCAR history.

Imagine how confusing that must be.

He'd never say it, but I'd bet the farm that Harvick reflects on that time in some semblance of awe at how he managed it all. Burton does.

"That would've been really hard -- really damn hard," Burton said. "Following [Dale] Earnhardt would have been hard enough, but the situation was exceptionally hard. It's not like Earnhardt retired. He was killed. And five days later Kevin's at Rockingham driving that car. That's a tough deal and he handled it really well. Exceptionally well. That's a damn hard situation."

One of the biggest factors in Harvick's development may be his relationship with his late father-in-law, John Paul Linville. His wife, Delana, calls the bond her husband and her father shared very special.

"Their relationship made Kevin a better man, and a better person," Delana said.

It shows.

Wow, even the in-laws love him. Kevin's the man!

Reading that made me feel even more for him

Ooo ooo!!

Then again, I'm gonna stick with Clinty

I'm sure Ryan wouldn't mind. It's just one lap.

I could seee you sitting in Kevin's lap

Oooooh......

As enticing as that would be, I couldn't do it to DeLana. I love her.

She doesnt have to be in the picture...lets be fun here!!