Hello everyone,

I just wanted to take a few minutes and say hello from Dover International Speedway.  I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day.  The last two weeks have felt like I lived at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.  Heading into Charlotte I knew it was going to be exciting time for everyone on my Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams. Most of the guys call the Charlotte area home and this is a great opportunity for them to perform in front of their family and friends.

On Thursday before the All-Star race DeLana and I had the opportunity to cheer on the No. 29 pit crew at the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge.  The team did an outstanding job, but unfortunately lost in the quarterfinals.  

Going into All-Star Saturday, I had my sights set on two things.  One, winning another cool million in the All-Star Challenge and two, bring home the title in the Pennzoil Burnout Competition.  Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle and myself had the opportunity to win $10,000 for the charity of our choice.  We all competed against each other in a timed competition consisting of a tire burnout, donuts, precision driving and speed in a Petty Driving Experience car. Unfortunately instead of doing one donut I did two, causing me to pull the car into victory lane with a time of 31.916, which was third best.  After I finished and heard the crowd cheering, I decided to put the nose of the car against the tracks safety walls, blowing tire smoke all through the stands, before blowing a right-rear tire. 

Going into the All-Star race as the defending winner I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task to win back-to-back events.  Starting in the 16th position I felt like I had a good shot at getting to the front of the field, but a tight-handling machine kept me from Victory Lane.  I managed to gain five positions before crossing the finish-line in the 11th spot.

Between All-Star weekend and the Coca-Cola 600 I didn’t have much time to rest. Besides competition meetings, I had to fit in a dirt test for Eldora, two sponsor appearances and a golf tournament in honor of DeLana’s late father, not to mention being on track all day on Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

As most of you know, Coca-Cola 600 weekend didn’t start off on the right foot for Kevin Harvick Inc. Ron Hornaday, who was leading the Truck Series points, got caught up in an early wreck in Mansfield dropping him to fifth position. The No. 2 truck driven by Jack Sprague, had some trouble in the race, but battled back for a solid seventh-place finish, just outside the top-10 in points. The Nationwide cars had a tough night and it certainly wasn’t what we had hoped for.  For Cale Gale’s first time at the track, I thought he and the No. 77 team did a good job.

On Sunday, I knew I just needed to get through the first half of the Coca-Cola 600, and from there we could focus on our adjustments as the track was going to cool off and the handling was going to change. With the help of my crew, we were fortunate to battle back from a lap down and finish the 400-lap race in the 14th position.  This hard work and dedication helped the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet jump two spots in the Sprint Cup point standings to seventh. 

I have a good feeling about this weekend in Dover.  RCR has been pretty good lately at the Monster Mile so hopefully we can continue to climb in the point standings.  I’m glad that the trucks will be back in action for the third consecutive week.  I’ll be anxious to see how Ron and Jack respond from last weekend’s race in Mansfield. I will also be behind the wheel of the No. 33 RoadLoans.com Chevrolet this weekend in the Nationwide Series.

Have a great week!

~Kevin Harvick