No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet
Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Jimmy Johns team’s plan for the Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway unraveled at lap 104 when Harvick was caught up in another driver’s accident. After making several trips to pit road and eventually going to the garage for repairs, Harvick finished the race in 32nd position.
• Due to the need to race in pairs, the No. 29 Jimmy Johns team went into Sunday’s race with a plan to work with teammate Paul Menard and the No. 27 Menards team throughout the 500-mile race. The plan worked early as Harvick and Menard hooked up and drove to the lead at lap 16 where they stayed for three laps before settling into a comfortable pace.
• The Harvick-Menard tandem worked together during the next several circuits around the track and kept a forward position in the running order. As things started heating up and getting dicey at the front of the field, the duo drifted back a little in the running order after the first 50 laps of the race. Not wanting to get too far behind the leaders, Harvick and Menard started moving closer to the front of the field prior to the third caution at lap 79.
• Harvick was racing in the top 20 with Menard close behind when disaster struck at lap 104. Teammates Marcos Ambrose and A.J. Allmendinger were working together when Ambrose gave Allmendinger too hard of a shove in the middle of a turn. Allmendinger came across the hood of cars in front of Harvick. He had nowhere to go and was caught up in the accident eventually coming to a stop at the apron of the track.
• Harvick drove the No. 29 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet back to the pits where the team went to work on the front end of the car trying to fix the damage. Harvick lost a lap in the midst of the work and would lose another when the No. 29 car started smoking as the field came out of turn four to take the green. He came to pit road to try to determine the source of the smoke. When he returned to the track he was two laps down in 37th place.
• The smoking problem persisted on the No. 29 car and NASCAR black-flagged the team at lap 128 forcing Harvick to take the car to the garage so the team could fix the issue with the car. After quickly assessing and fixing the problem, Harvick returned to the race, six more laps down but still in 37th place.
• As the laps wound down and the attrition rate continued to build, Harvick was able to pick up five positions before the checkered flag waved to finish the race in 32nd place.
• Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton battled it out for the win with Bowyer edging Burton at the finish line. Dave Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers round out the top-five finishers in the Good Sam Club 500.
• The 32nd-place finish cost Harvick points and positions in the championship point standings. He now sits in fifth place, 26 points out of first place.
• Carl Edwards maintains the lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and increased his lead with his 11th-place finish on Sunday. He has a 14-point lead on Matt Kenseth who sits in second place. Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart and Harvick complete the top-five drivers in the point 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 accident at Talladega Superspeedway: ““It is a little bit frustrating. You do what you think is right at this particular race track and you hope for the best. We had a lot of great runs in the weeks leading up to this and I guess the odds were against us coming into this one. Obviously that wasn’t the day we wanted. But, but the way the rest of those guys raced, it didn’t devastate us. We wanted to be in the front. We thought that was the safer place to be in case the thing went green. I thought I was around a pretty good group of cars there. I don’t know what happened. It is just one of those deals.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Good Sam Club 500:
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished fourth
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished fifth
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished sixth
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford team finished 18th
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Paint the 88/National Guard Chevrolet team finished 25th
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 SPEED Energy/MAPEI/Menards Dodge team finished 37th
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Good Sam Club 500:
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Chevy 100 Years Chevrolet finished first
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished second
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Serta/Menards Chevrolet, finished 12th
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will return to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, October 30. ESPN will provide the TV broadcast of the 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.