KHI No More: Kevin Harvick Announces Shop for Sale, Trucks Gone in 2012, Team Dissolving Into Richard Childress Racing

RICHMOND, Va. – One of the sport’s most successful, independent organizations in Nationwide and Trucks will close its doors after the season. Kevin Harvick told the media at Richmond on Friday (Sept. 9) that, beyond the movement of the Nationwide operations back to Richard Childress Racing, the Truck Series operations of KHI will cease after this season.

The KHI race shop in Kernersville, N.C. is for sale and the majority of the employees will need to find employment elsewhere in 2012. Harvick said an announcement about the future of the Truck teams will come in the next few weeks.

“There will be no trucks that run out of KHI,” he said in a morning press conference. “As far as what happens with the truck teams, that will come in the weeks to come. … It’s a tough model business-wise. We’ve scrimped and scraped and got the sponsorship and things that you need. GM has been a great supporter of everything that we’ve done.

“But from a business standpoint, sometimes you just have to make the decisions of what you want to do. For us, it just didn’t make sense.”

Harvick also noted that the amount of time involved with running a team is extensive and being out from under that demand will afford DeLana and him the opportunity to do more things.

“It takes an extreme amount of pressure off of me as a driver and an owner,” Harvick said. “When you look at the personal time that we get back from DeLana and I’s standpoint, it’s just a tremendous amount of time. … There are some normal things that you can do in life, too, that I hear so hopefully we can experience some of those.”

Harvick said he’s “laughed” at some of the rumors swirling, concerning everything about pending divorce with wife DeLana to a recent David Hyder crew chief lawsuit crippling the team financially. However, the bottom line is clear: KHI will no longer exist as a race organization, with the Truck teams hopefully purchased by others and employees scrambling to simply fit into any Richard Childress openings for 2012.

“Hopefully, the Nationwide teams there will get the sponsorship done,” he said. “I think we have seven or eight races left to sell on the two cars, which is, for September in this day and age, is a great place to be in. We can work hard on getting Austin [Dillon]’s car funded to where it needs to be.”

The chassis operation out of KHI, which had already suspended operations will permanently cease to exist. KHI Trucks and other equipment are expected to be put up for auctions once final details about the absorption are complete.