Energy performance enhancement in the transport industry leads manufacturers to lighten their systems. As a result, the contacting parts are more and more stressed. Where cracks were previously initiated on inclusions in sub-surface, more and more surface defects appear. In order to guarantee and improve the performance of the parts under rolling contact fatigue, gas nitriding treatment is widely used. This thermochemical treatment enhances the steel surface properties by introducing residual stresses and increasing its hardness. Although this treatment is widely studied, crack initiation phenomenon are still grey areas. Nitrided steels present a network of intergranular precipitations of cementite that are significantly harder than steel. Their role has been highlighted in the case of crack propagation but their role in initiation remains hypothetical. In addition, in some cases, surface defects coexist with subsurface fatigue. The model and experiments presented in this study provide answers on these issues. The fatigue behavior is modeled using a finite element model coupled with Dang Van fatigue criterion. The modelization of nitrided steel, and particularly of its material properties, is complex. Given the property gradient between the surface and the bulk material, the resistance limits are indeed different. Independently tested, it is shown that neither surface nor bulk parameters can correctly model the fatigue behavior of the whole material. It is necessary to take into account the property gradient to model a fatigue response corresponding to the experimental observations. In this study the gradient of fatigue properties, difficult to measure, is similar to the micro-yield stress, more accessible. This model highlight the reason for the coexistence of surface defects and subsurface fatigue in the studied case. Indeed, although the load is highly located on the surface, the decrease of property material in the subsurface causes the appearance of deep areas undergoing fatigue. Realized experiments highlight the role of cementite precipitates on initiation of cracks. Their over-presence near microcracks confirms indeed their disruptive role of the involved phenomena. These carbide boundaries, which elastic behavior is similar to that of steel, seem to speed up the initiation. This is explained by the incompatibility of deformations in the microplastic field around precipitates. This incompatibility causes the de-cohesion of these elements thus generating microcracks. These microcracks can cross the cementite precipitates, circumvent it or more rarely propagate in steel. In the end, the proposed model predicts the fatigue response behavior of nitrided steel. The hypotheses formulated on the role of carbide precipitation in the literature seem to be verified experimentally and allow to propose scenarios proposed based on experimental observations and realists physical considerations.