BACK TO BRISTOL: Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Rheem team will head to Bristol Motor Speedway this week for the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ second visit of the season to the Tennessee short track. Bowyer has 11 starts at Bristol in the series with one win (2008), five top-five and eight top-10 finishes and has led 254 laps. This Friday’s race will mark the Emporia, Kan., native’s sixth of nine races with the team for the 2011 season. Behind the wheel of the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala, Bowyer collected the pole and drove to a runner-up finish in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, his best start and finish thus far this season.
KHI SUCCESS AT WORLD’S FASTEST HALF-MILE: Since 2005, Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) has made 18 starts at Bristol. KHI co-owner Kevin Harvick collected his first win in his own equipment in March 2009. To date, KHI has two poles, one win, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes.
CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 33 team will unload chassis No. 066 this week when they arrive at Bristol. This chassis has been utilized five times thus far this season including the first race at the 0.533–mile concrete facility in April with Harvick behind the wheel. Harvick drove to a sixth-place finish after starting the race in the eighth spot. The best finish for this chassis includes a pair of second-place results with driver Paul Menard at Richmond International Raceway in May and Harvick at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July.
PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Scott Speed climbed behind the wheel of the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala on Saturday for his debut with the KHI team and first Nationwide Series start at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. Speed qualified in the fourth position for the 74-lap event and battled his was way to a sixth-place finish after a late-race incident caused damage to the No. 33 and put the driver as far back as 24th with less than 20 laps to the end of the race.
COMMENTS FROM THE DRIVER: CLINT BOWYER
“I love Bristol. It’s one of my favorite tracks. I’ve run well there in the past and was able to get a Nationwide Series win there in 2008 which was really cool. Racing there is an endurance test. You’ve got to get to the end of the race with the fenders still on that thing. You have to work hard to keep good track position, not abuse your equipment and also not make any mistakes on pit road. If you can do all that, you have a good shot at winning. The No. 33 Rheem team builds fast, great cars and we’ve had some great runs together. We’ve had some bad luck though too and not had the finishes to show how well we’ve run. I’d really love to get this Rheem Chevrolet into victory lane this Friday night.”