Kevin Harvick ‘Crushes’ Competition in Die-Cast Sales

Kevin Harvick

Getty Kevin Harvick's Nashville scheme topped the list of Lionel Racing die-casts.

Lionel Racing, the official maker of NASCAR die-casts, has released the list of the top-10 sellers from 2021. Kevin Harvick’s Grave Digger scheme topped the list, prompting Stewart-Haas Racing to show how the driver of the No. 4 “crushed” the competition.

The Cup Series team tweeted a video in celebration of the news that featured Harvick’s No. 4 Grave Digger Ford Mustang sitting next to the Grave Digger monster truck. The video then showed die-casts of Chase Elliott’s No. 9 and Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 sitting in the parking lot. The two die-casts did not have numbers or decals, but the colors belonged to primary partners NAPA and FedEx.

The reason that the two die-casts sat in the parking lot is that they had a gruesome fate awaiting them. The Grave Digger monster truck drove over the two die-casts and destroyed them, showing that the scheme had crushed the competition both figuratively and literally.


Harvick Debuted the Scheme at Nashville Superspeedway

Kevin Harvick

GettyKevin Harvick debuted the Grave Digger scheme in June.

The 2014 Cup Series champion debuted several schemes during the 2021 season. He advertised Netflix’s “The Crew” during the Daytona 500, unveiled the Busch Dog Brew scheme at Talladega Superspeedway, and joined Subway for three races. However, he used the Grave Digger scheme for NASCAR’s return to a track outside of Nashville, Tenn.

SHR and Harvick’s children unveiled the Grave Digger scheme on June 16, four days prior to the Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. Adam Anderson, the driver of Grave Digger, revealed in a video that Keelan Harvick had reached out to him to set up a Father’s Day surprise for the Ally 400. They then combined for the big reveal, showing Harvick’s stock car sitting next to the monster truck.

Harvick turned in a strong performance behind the wheel of the Grave Digger scheme. He qualified 12th overall while teammate Aric Almirola secured the Busch Pole for the first time in 2021. Harvick then turned in a top-five finish, his fourth in the first 17 races of the 36-race schedule, and kept himself in playoff contention.


Elliott Made the Top-10 Multiple Times

While Hamlin’s No. 11 die-cast did not make the top-10 in 2021, Elliott did so multiple times. He had four separate entries on the list of best-selling products, including two separate Hooters schemes.

Lionel Racing did not provide sales numbers for the die-cast charts, but the company noted that the data came from wholesale outlets, dealers, team stores, and the Lionel Racing online store.

According to Lionel Racing, the throwback Hooters scheme honoring the late Alan Kulwicki landed at No. 9 while the primary Hooters scheme took the sixth spot. Elliott’s winning scheme from the Circuit of the Americas race on May 23 took the seventh spot while the primary NAPA Auto Parts scheme clocked in at No. 3.

Elliott is the reigning Most Popular Driver in the Cup Series four times over, so it’s fitting that his schemes had prominent places in the list of best sellers. It also helps that one of the Hooters schemes is the one that he used during the Bristol Motor Speedway night race, which featured him and Harvick having multiple post-race confrontations.

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