DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick spent the last decade avoiding dealing with Dale Earnhardt's death.

He was closed off to teammates. He was detached from fans. He was unwilling to broach the delicate subject with just about anyone.

Until recently.

With the anniversary of Earnhardt's fatal crash looming at Daytona International Speedway, Harvick opened up to teammates during a Richard Childress Racing dinner earlier this month. With tears in his eyes and 10 years of emotion pouring from his heart, Harvick caught everyone by surprise.

And this much was clear: Harvick finally has embraced Earnhardt's legacy.

"It's hard to be in the shadow of somebody," teammate Jeff Burton said. "There's no way that Kevin Harvick steps into that car after the tragedy without being in his shadow. You know, that's hard. I don't want to speak for Kevin, but it takes a little while to separate yourself from that."

It took years.

Harvick was 25 when Earnhardt died on Feb. 18, 2001, in a final-lap wreck during the Daytona 500. At the time, Harvick was a budding star in NASCAR's second-tier series. He envisioned making the jump to the Sprint Cup Series, but never could have imagined it happening the way it did.

Crew chief Kevin Hamlin summoned Harvick to Richard Childress' office in the middle of night and asked him to do the unthinkable -- replace Earnhardt.

Harvick was woefully unprepared.

"Instantly, it's like everybody knows your name, everybody knows what you're doing, so you start from the wrong end of the spectrum and you don't have time," Harvick said. "A lot of times when you come into something new you have time to learn. You don't know what to say and all of a sudden you have all that stuff at once. So instantly I just put up my defense and it was easier just not to talk about it."

He didn't.

Instead, Harvick shut down. He figured that was the easiest way to cope with everything going on around him.

Racing in the same Chevrolet but with a different colored paint scheme with No. 29 on the side, Harvick got behind the wheel days after Earnhardt's death and finished 14th at Rockingham. Harvick vividly remembers details of that day, from the bright lights of a news conference to a private conversation with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Two weeks later, everything became a blur.

Harvick won over the legion of Earnhardt fans with a victory at Atlanta in his third race. He nipped Jeff Gordon at the finish line by six one-thousandths of a second then did a reverse victory lap with three fingers out the window and everyone on their feet.He won again that season but found mixed results in the years that followed. He did, however, develop his own brash style and reputation. While Harvick didn't always see eye-to-eye with Childress on the direction the team, any disagreements seemed to bring them closer together.

They got really tight in 2010 as Harvick contended for the title. He finished third in points, remaining in a tight race until the finale in Homestead. His success from last season, along with the 10 years that have passed, have helped him come to terms with replacing Earnhardt and accepting his leadership role at RCR.

Still, Harvick knows he will never escape Earnhardt's shadow. And he's fine with it -- finally.

First Published February 16, 2011, 6:06 a.m.