The next generation of NASCAR kids is already making noise. Brexton Busch is stacking wins like his dad stacks trophies. Owen Larson is sliding dirt cars like it’s second nature. And then there’s Keelan Harvick, quietly putting together runs that turn heads.

At just thirteen, he stepped up to Late Model Stock cars and walked away from absolute chaos with a top-five finish in his very first race. Not bad for a debut.

Keelan Harvick battles chaos in late model debut

The South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway is no gentle welcome mat. It’s a tight four-tenths-mile bullring where cars run nose-to-tail and one hiccup can take out half the field. Keelan finished fifth, which was already a statement, and somehow kept the fenders mostly attached through a race that looked more like a demolition derby than stock-car racing.

After the checkered flag, he stood on pit road still catching his breath and told reporters, “Definitely just a lot of stuff happening in that race … can’t thank my KHI guys enough, they brought me a really fast car.”

He admitted he “damaged it a bit” and laughed about the big pile-up in turn two: “They all just checked up and had nowhere to go.” Translation: total mayhem, zero room, and somehow he threaded the needle.

When a reporter asked what he learned about hanging in there when everything is going wrong, Keelan grinned and said, “Yes, sir … they just told me they’re gonna keep wrecking … and I was just lucky enough to get through it all and not tear up the car anymore.”

He finished in fifth place on debut, against guys who’ve been doing this for years, including the Kvapil brothers, and he calls it luck. That’s a thirteen-year-old’s confidence right there.

He finished the night saying the top-five “definitely builds the confidence” and that he just wants to “keep going.” With Rodney Childers turning the wrenches on the Hunt Brothers Pizza No. 62, the car was stupid fast when it needed to be, and tough enough to survive the beating.

For a first dance in Late Model Stock, bringing it home fifth and in one piece is about as good as it gets. That same weekend, Rodney Childers, the crew chief who helped Kevin Harvick win the 2014 Cup title, gave a little window into what’s really going on behind the scenes.

Childers believes Kevin is training Keelan for battle

Childers was at Florence, turning wrenches for Keelan, and couldn’t stop smiling about the kid. He said Keelan is “just a super smart kid” who sometimes gets an earful from his dad, but he’s learning from the best every single day.

Kevin Harvick’s retired from full-time Cup racing now, so he’s got time to be Dad-Coach 24/7. That means Keelan is up running every morning before school, because that’s the kind of discipline Kevin lived by his whole career.

Childers says Kevin watches every move like a hawk. He’ll follow right beside the track, study the lines, then pull Keelan aside and break it all down: why a pass took too long, what corner entry needed to be cleaner, where he could have lifted half a second sooner to avoid trouble.

Mistakes still happen, Childers laughed about one the week before out west when Keelan tried squeezing past a lapped car and got it wrong, but the kid owned it, checked on the other driver, and moved on. That maturity at thirteen is rare.

Between the daily runs, the trackside film sessions, and a dad who’s been to victory lane more times than most people have been to the grocery store, Keelan’s getting the kind of schooling money can’t buy. Childers flat-out said the next few years are going to show just how special he can be, because there’s no ceiling when you’ve got that kind of fire and that kind of teacher.

From eighth at Nashville Fairgrounds to fifth in the South Carolina 400 and a Snowball Derby date coming up, Keelan Harvick is checking boxes faster than most kids check homework. He’s learning that sometimes surviving the chaos is the win, and when you’ve got Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers in your corner, surviving is just the start.