NASCAR: The all-time record Kevin Harvick tied at Richmond

Kevin Harvick tied an all-time NASCAR record simply by competing in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.

All Kevin Harvick needed to do to break an all-time NASCAR record in Sunday’s Cup Series race, the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway, was take the green flag, and he did just that.

This 400-lap race around the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) oval in Richmond, Virginia marked Harvick’s 727th career Cup Series start and 1,197th career NASCAR start, as he has also competed in 346 Xfinity Series races, most recently in 2018, and 124 Truck Series races, most recently last month at Bristol Motor Speedway.

He is still more than 450 starts away from tying the all-time Cup Series starts record, which is held by Richard Petty (1,185), but his start in Sunday’s race tied him with Joe Nemechek for the most career NASCAR national series starts.

Nemechek had been the sole holder of this record since breaking it in November 2019.

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When Nemechek broke the record, it had belonged to Petty, who only competed in Cup Series races throughout his career. Nemechek made his 1,186th, 1,187th and 1,188th career starts in the final race weekend of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway two years ago, competing in the season finales for all three national series.

Since then, he has made just nine starts, all in 2020. He competed in eight Xfinity Series races and one Truck Series race last year. He attempted to compete in the 2021 Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway but failed to qualify, leaving him at 1,197 career starts, and has not attempted to compete in a race since then.

Harvick has competed in at least one NASCAR race in each of the last 27 years. A start for Nemechek this year would extend his streak to 33 years, tops among all active drivers.

Harvick is poised to break Nemechek’s record in this Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET, provided Nemechek does not compete in the Ag-Pro 300 Xfinity Series race at the track the afternoon prior.