NASCAR: Would Kevin Harvick be the oldest Cup champion?
By Asher Fair
Kevin Harvick is the oldest in a group of four Championship 4 drivers who are the oldest Championship 4 group in NASCAR Cup Series history. But would he become the oldest champion in series history?
The average age of this year’s four NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 drivers is 38.50, the oldest it has ever been, and the oldest one of these four drivers is Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.
The Bakersfield, California native is 43 years old and set to turn 44 on Sunday, December 8, just three weeks following the season finale.
Should he win the 2019 championship in this Sunday afternoon’s season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, would he become the oldest champion in series history?
Harvick won the 2014 championship, and he became the 10th oldest driver to win a Cup Series championship in doing so. That was when he was only 38 years old.
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Two years later, Jimmie Johnson won his seventh championship at the age of 41, bumping Harvick down to 11th on the all-time list.
Where would a potential 2019 championship rank the 43-year-old Harvick on this list?
It wouldn’t quite make Harvick the oldest champion in Cup Series history, but it would be close. When seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt won his final championship in 1994, he was 43 years old, but he was several months farther from his 44th birthday than Harvick is. As a result, there are only two champions in Cup Series history that are older than Harvick is right now.
Bobby Allison was 45 years old and less than two weeks from his 46th birthday when he won his first and only championship in the 1983 season, and Lee Petty was also 45 years old, albeit a few months younger than Allison, when he won his third and final championship in the 1959 season.
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Will Kevin Harvick become the third oldest champion in NASCAR Cup Series history by securing the title in this afternoon’s Championship 4 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway? This race, the Ford EcoBoost 400, is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.