No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick edged out Carl Edwards by 0.139-seconds to take the checkered flag in Saturday night’s Wonderful Pistachios 400 and took the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet Team to Victory Lane at Richmond International Raceway.
• Harvick started the night out in seventh position and after three back-to-back cautions in the first 26 laps, he worked his way up to the second position, where he remained until the No. 29 Budweiser team hit pit road under the fifth caution of the night at lap 58. Harvick told the team that the No. 29 Chevrolet was a little tight in the center of the corner, so crew chief Gil Martin called for a four-tire stop with air pressure adjustments to the left-side tires.
• Several cars opted not to pit under the caution and the No. 99 team elected to take only two tires, so Harvick restarted in the eighth position at lap 61. Less than 15 laps later, he took the lead from the No. 17 car as he battled a loose-handling car.
• Harvick held the top spot until the team pitted again on lap 156, and the No. 16 team took just two tires and the No. 99 team beat the No. 29 team off of pit road. However, after taking the green flag at lap 160 in the third position, Harvick made his way back to first by lap 162.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet held the lead until the No. 99 car slipped by at lap 202 as Harvick fought a car that he said was “tight in the center and loose off.” Harvick continued to slide back as the laps wore on and was running in the sixth position when Martin called him to pit road for a green-flag stop at lap 245.
• As Harvick brought the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet down pit road, the caution flag waved, costing the team a lot of track position. Harvick continued down pit road and rejoined the field in 18th position before coming back down pit road for service at lap 248.
• Harvick restarted from the 17th position at lap 253 and was inside the top 10 in just four laps and was running eighth when the caution flag waved at lap 284. The team pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment just two laps later. He restarted from the eighth position at lap 290 and was running sixth when the caution flag waved again at lap 295.
• He restarted sixth at lap 301 and quickly worked his way past several cars and was running third when the caution flag waved again at lap 308. The team pitted at lap 310 for tires and fuel and Harvick restarted in fifth at lap 313. Two laps later he took the lead in the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. Harvick remained at the top until the No. 24 Chevrolet got by him at lap 378.
• As the laps wound down, Harvick told the team he was too loose to challenge the No. 24 team. Then on lap 384, the caution flag waved for the final time. Harvick and Martin discussed pit strategy and elected to come down pit road for new tires and fuel.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team made a lightning-fast pit stop and got Harvick off pit road first. When the green flag waved at lap 388, Harvick jumped out into the lead and gained some ground on the field as they raced two-wide behind him.
• In the final laps, Edwards began to close in on the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet and challenged for the lead. Harvick stuck to the bottom of the track and was able to hold off the No. 99 and took the checkered flag at lap 400.
• Edwards finished second and was followed by Jeff Gordon, David Ragan and Kurt Busch to complete the top-five finishing positions.
• Following Saturday night’s race, Kyle Busch held the top spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings by a three-point margin over Jimmie Johnson. Edwards, Gordon and Harvick completed the top-five in the standings. After the points were reconfigured for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Harvick and Kyle Busch are now tied at the top of the standings with 2012 points each, but as a result of using the tiebreaker rule (most top-five finishes) Kyle Busch is seeded first and Harvick is second going into next weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway. Jeff Gordon is three points back in third and Matt Kenseth and Edwards 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.
Harvick on the win at Richmond: ““We had a really good Budweiser Chevrolet on the short runs. I just want to thank the fans and all of our troops for everything that they do for us to come out here and race. Everybody from Sprint for letting us be a part of it. We had a good car up until about the last quarter of a run. (Jeff) Gordon was able to get by us, and we just got really loose. On the green flag runs, we could take off for the first 40 or 50 laps really good. They got it a little bit too tight there at the end and Carl (Edwards) was actually a little bit better than we were. I finally just started hugging the bottom and parking it and figured he was either going to have to knock me out of the way or go around the outside. It was a good race.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Wonderful Pistachios 400:
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 12th.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP/National Guard Chevrolet team finished 16th.
• Dave Blaney and the No. 35 Pepsi Max Chevrolet team finished 19th.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Ollie’s Ford team finished 23rd.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 33rd.
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge team finished 37th.
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished 38th.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Wonderful Pistachios 400:
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet finished 22nd.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 29th.
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevrolet, finished 34th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will travel to Joliet, Ill., to kick off the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway. ESPN will provide the TV broadcast of Sunday’s race starting with the pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET. MRN Radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio coverage of the race.