“The First Bottle Of Wine I Ever Drank” — Kevin Harvick Celebrated First Cup Series Win With $12,000 Wine From Richard Childress

How do you know you've "made it" in any profession? Well, drinking a $12,000 bottle of wine is probably a good indication. This week, Kevin Harvick sat down with owner Richard Childress on his Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour Podcast to talk about many subjects, of course including Dale Earnhardt , but also his early career and having to step in after Dale tragically passed away in 2001. Of course, Kevin Harvick was called upon to race Dale Sr.'s car immediately following his tragic death, which you can imagine would've been extremely daunting for any young driver... I can't even imagine the pressure he must've been feeling. A few weeks after Dale's death on February 18th, 2001, Harvick won his his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which occurred on March 11th, 2001. He drove The Intimidator’s car to Victory Lane for the first time without him, and set the tone for a successful career in just his third Cup Series start. On the podcast, they recalled that day, and how when Harvick took over the car, they'd agreed (well Harvick kind of told him), that they'd drink a $12,000, 1945 bottle of Château Mouton that Childress had bought in honor of his birth year. They kind if both thought they wouldn't win a race, so it wouldn't matter, but they were very wrong... and Harvick was ready to celebrate after Atlanta. They went back to Childress' house, with a few other people, and opened it. But the kicker is, it was the first time Harvick ever drank a bottle of wine, and obviously this was an extremely nice bottle, so "I'm sitting there and I said, 'Man, $12,000. They've never drank a bottle of wine like this in their life.' And I remember us all sitting around the dining room table." Trying to open it, the cork came apart (because it was so old), and they had to strain the wine to get it out without pieces in it. Harvick laughed as he recalled that, obviously, Childress didn't really want to open it and share it with people who didn't even know what they were drinking, but hey, not too shabby for your first bottle... "Richard did not really want to open this bottle of wine. But we sat there, and that was the first bottle of wine I ever drank, was that 1945 bottle that you had poured." What a great story and light moment form what was an overall very sad time for the sport of NASCAR: You can watch the full podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxvL1SVU46U&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE </div>