Keelan Harvick Becomes the Youngest Ever Icebreaker Winner
Author: Buddy Pulley
TIMMONSVILLE, S.C. (Feb. 7, 2026) – Saturday afternoon’s 11th Annual IceBreaker added another notch in Keelan Harvick’s impressive resume at Florence Motor Speedway — but this one may have been the most hard-earned yet.
In just his third career Late Model Stock start, Harvick held off defending race winner Matt Cox and a late charge from Lee Pulliam to earn his first IceBreaker victory in the division. The win adds to a résumé at Florence that already includes wins in a Legend Car, last year’s IceBreaker Limited Late Model feature, and a Pro Late Model victory last fall.
“Just a lot of practice time,” Harvick said when asked about his success at the track. “This is where I pretty much started racing the legend cars. I raced the legend car here for about three years, then moved up to the limiteds and now I’m here. It’s just a lot of time, effort, practice just has gone into this track, but it’s been worth it and it’s been really fun.”
The day didn’t start smoothly for the Harvick camp. Transmission issues in qualifying forced the team into a thrash between sessions just to make the race. In the spirit of short-track racing, it was Cox’s team — the same driver Harvick would battle for the win — that provided the replacement transmission needed to get the car back on track.
Despite the setback, Harvick never doubted the outcome.
“I wasn’t that worried,” he said. “I knew my guys were going to get it fixed for me and I knew that we’d have the best shot at the race.”
Once the green flag dropped, Harvick showed the poise of his veteran competitors. After Jake Bollman led much of the opening segment of the race, Harvick took the lead on the only restart of the race with 45 laps to go. From there he managed the race up front and fending off pressure from Cox while Pulliam worked his way forward in the closing laps.
Cox, having to work his way up from his 7th place starting position, felt track position ultimately made the difference.
“Yeah, we just got a little bit tight there with about 15 or 20 to go,” Cox said. “We had a good car. I think we needed to start a little bit closer to the front. We could have rode a little bit more at the start instead of having to race and maneuver our way up here to the front. But all in all, a good day for us, and we’ll take second and move on to the next one.”
Pulliam rallied from deeper in the field, coming from as far back as 14th at one point, believing that was the difference between a top 5 and a true shot at the win .
“It was a tough race,” Pulliam said. “These fields are so tight these days and we were just a little bit off — just a little free. I still feel like we had a car that could have won. We may not have had the best car, but if I had qualified a little better and had some track position, we might’ve had a shot. That’s all it takes.”
Before last fall at Martinsville, Pulliam hadn’t been behind the wheel in a year, but after the 300 at Martinsville and the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National, the recent seat time has helped him get back into rhythm.
“It’s definitely helping me,” he said. “I went a long time without sitting behind the wheel, so things are starting to slow down again. As the weekend goes on, everything gets a little easier. I’m just super thankful to be able to do this and to have the support from Best Repair Company, Folsom Fence Supply and Carolina Drilling to make it possible.”
On lap 112, Harvick made contact with the frontstretch wall, ripping the wiring on the track’s scoring loop. Therefore, the final 13 laps were hand scored. Official results are unavailable at this time
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