Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team scored an 11th-place finish in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• Harvick started the race from the third position and moved up to second less than 20 laps into the race and then began to close in on the leader, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet inherited the lead at lap 44 as the No. 88 came down pit road for service. The caution flag waved that lap and crew chief Shane Wilson called Harvick to pit road for a four-tire stop with chassis adjustments to improve the car’s handling. Earnhardt Jr. managed to stay on the lead lap despite pitting as the caution flag waved and retook the lead as the rest of the field came down pit road. Harvick restarted second at lap 49.
• On the following run, Harvick reported the car was “tight to the center and loose under throttle,” so Wilson called for air pressure adjustments as the team pitted for right-side tires at lap 74 under the next caution. The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team got Harvick off of pit road first and he led the field to green on lap 77.
• Harvick remained inside the top five until teams started cycling through green-flag pit stops 45 laps later. Once all of the teams had made their way down pit road for service, Harvick was back up in the fifth position at lap 126.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team pitted again at lap 172 for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to help alleviate the tight-handling condition Harvick reported at the beginning of the previous run. Some teams opted for two tires instead of four during that sequence of stops, so Harvick restarted from the 15th position.
• He made his way back up to seventh and told the team that the car was “tight to the center” of the corner and “loose off.” When the caution flag waved again at lap 204, Wilson called Harvick down pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments. Once again, some teams elected to make two-tire stops, so the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet restarted from the 12th position at lap 209.
• Wilson and the crew calculated that the car was several laps short of making it to the finish on fuel, so when the caution flag waved at lap 228, he called Harvick to pit road for a two-tire stop. Two teams didn’t pit and several made fuel-only stops, placing the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet in 14th position when the field took the green flag at lap 233.
• Harvick had trouble on the restart and fell back to 18th as he radioed to the crew that the car was “too tight.” With only a few cars on the lead lap behind him, Wilson called Harvick to pit road under caution at lap 246 for four tires and fuel in an effort to allow the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet to charge back toward the front in the closing laps.
• When the green flag waved at lap 250, Harvick was in the 20th position. Over the course of the final laps he was able to gain several positions and scored an 11th-place finish.
• Tony Stewart scored the win in Sunday’s race. Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five spots.
• Following the third points race of the season, Biffle holds the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. Harvick is ranked second, 10 points behind the top position. Denny Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth complete the top-five in the standings.
• Follow along each weekend with Harvick and the team on Twitter. Check out @KevinHarvick for behind-the-scenes information straight from the driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. Get live updates from the track each weekend from @Black29Car, the PR team for Harvick. Also, follow @RCRracing and @RCR29KHarvick for additional information about the Richard Childress Racing organization. Fans can also interact with Harvick on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/OfficialKevinHarvick.
Kevin Harvick on his finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
“The Budweiser Chevrolet started off strong today. We ran up front, led a few laps and stayed in the top five for the first half of the race. Then we lost track position and it killed us. Track position is so important at these tracks and once we lost it, we were done and struggled with the handling from there until the end.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Kobalt Tools 400:
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet team finished 10th.
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 32nd.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Kobalt Tools 400:
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Schrock/Menards Chevrolet finished seventh.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 14th.
• Brendan Gaughan and the No. 33 South Point Casino Chevrolet team finished 34th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will travel to Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Food City 500. On Friday, the first practice session is scheduled for noon – 1:30 p.m. EDT and will be followed by qualifying at 3:40 p.m. EDT. SPEED will provide live coverage of both, as well as Saturday’s practice sessions scheduled for 9:30 – 10:25 a.m. EDT and noon – 1 p.m. EDT. On Sunday, FOX will air live coverage of the race starting with the pre-race show at 12:30 p.m. EDT. PRN affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the live radio broadcast.