Keelan Harvick, the 13-year-old son of former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, took his first major step toward a future NASCAR career Monday by signing a long-term development deal with Toyota Racing Development.
The deal allows Keelan Harvick to run late-model races with Rackley W.A.R, an organization that fields a full-time entry with driver Dawson Sutton in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Harvick has already built an impressive early resume. In 2025, he won four Pro Late Model races on the CARS Tour and two in CARS Tour West competition, becoming the first driver to capture Pro Late Model victories in both series in the same season. He previously honed his craft in Legend cars before advancing into late models.
“I’m really grateful to have this kind of opportunity with Toyota Racing Development,” Harvick said in a news release.
A regular driver’s license is not required to compete in NASCAR, nor is it required to race in many other racing series, though approval is often needed from tracks or sanctioning bodies. That allows young drivers such as Keelan Harvick to compete.
Keelan Harvick is the son of NASCAR royalty
Given his racing lineage, it’s unsurprising that Harvick has such an opportunity this early in his career. (His dad won a NASCAR title in 2014.) Keelan has grown up in racing, and with a Cup Series champion and future NASCAR Hall of Famer in his father, Kevin, to mentor him, he’ll have plenty of support along the way.
A deal with Toyota also makes sense for Harvick, given NASCAR’s current developmental landscape. Chevrolet has plenty of teams competing in NASCAR’s Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, but has a vast group of young talent — Rajah Caruth, Corey Day and Carson Kvapil, among others — moving up the ranks, making it a crowded ladder to the top.
Meanwhile, Ford’s presence in NASCAR’s developmental series has shrunk significantly. There are only two full-time Fords in the O’Reilly Series competition in 2026. Kevin Harvick drove a Ford at Stewart-Haas Racing for the final eight years of his Cup Series career (2017-24).
Like Chevrolet, Toyota also has plenty of young talent — Brent Crews, Isabella Robusto and Kaden Honeycutt, among others — working their way up the ranks. But seeing as any Truck Series or O’Reilly Series starts for Keelan Harvick are four or five years away, there’s time for that talent to move up or be pushed out, a more unlikely scenario at Chevrolet.
The partnership with Rackley W.A.R and Toyota as a whole could prove beneficial when Harvick can run select Truck Series races at age 16.