Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick. Definitely driving together in 2014. (Getty)
During the first day of the annual Sprint Cup Series media tour on Monday, Richard Childress affirmed that Kevin Harvick would be moving to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.
The move was first reported in November of last year, but neither Harvick, Childress or Tony Stewart had said anything in confirmation until Monday evening.
We had a meeting and he told me his plans and we discussed what we were going to do in '13," Childress said Monday. "He'll do well over there at Stewart-Haas, and RCR will keep going and moving forward.
"I think him and Tony will have a good relationship."
For what it's worth, Harvick said he didn't have anything to unveil about his 2014 plans.
Harvick had talked in December about moving on from RCR, the team he's spent his entire Cup Series career with, at the end of 2013 and said he had reached out to Matt Kenseth for advice on how to handle a similar situation. Early last season, Kenseth announced that he wouldn't be returning to Roush Fenway Racing and joined Joe Gibbs Racing. Harvick and Stewart are friends and Stewart drove for Harvick in the Nationwide Series for Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
However, Harvick's situation most closely resembles that of Kasey Kahne, who signed to drive with Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2012 in 2010. That led to Kahne spending a year with Red Bull Racing in 2011 in his transition from Richard Petty Motorsports to Hendrick, where he finished 14th and won at Phoenix in the next-to-last race of the season.
Phoenix is where Harvick got his only win of the season last year and was the race that immediately followed the report of his departure from RCR. Harvick was the only RCR driver to make the Chase in the past two seasons, and after finishing third in 2011, finished eighth in 2012.
Childress comments also jive with Stewart saying earlier in the day at Stewart-Haas that a four-car team was a possibility in 2014 despite the current three-car team having some sponsorship openings for the current season. It's unknown whether Harvick's current sponsor, Budweiser, will make the move with him.
