No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team left Monday’s GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speedway with a second-place finish and the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings.
• The start of the GEICO 400 was delayed a day due to rain and Harvick rolled off from the 30th starting position when the field took the green flag on Monday morning.
• On the first run of the day, Harvick was able to gain five positions before NASCAR threw the yellow flag for a competition caution at lap 30. Before bringing the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet down pit road for service, he radioed to the team that the car’s handling was “tight through the middle and loose off” and that he needed it to “turn better through the center” of the corner. He pitted at lap 32 for four tires and fuel and restarted from the 26th position.
• After the field took the green flag on lap 35, Harvick was able to gain eight positions in just five laps. He had worked his way up to 15th when the caution flag waved again at lap 70 and radioed to the team that the car was “rolling right there.” The Budweiser team pitted once again for four tires and fuel. They lost some ground on the stop as Harvick had to maneuver around tires from the team pitted just before the No. 29 team on pit road, a problem he encountered throughout the race. He restarted in the 16th position on lap 75
• Harvick cracked the top 10 for the first time at lap 80 and stayed there throughout the remainder of the race.
• The No. 29 team pitted four more times for tires and fuel, running as high as fifth before the team’s final trip down pit road at lap 214. On that stop, the team took fuel only and told Harvick to save fuel as they appeared to be several laps shy of the checkered flag.
• Harvick restarted in the seventh position and focused on saving fuel during the first part of the run. In the closing laps Harvick picked up the pace and began to pick off positions as other teams started conserving fuel. He worked his way up to second with five laps to go and started closing in on the leader. The distance was too great for the short number of laps remaining, however, and Harvick crossed the start-finish line in second position.
• Tony Stewart beat Harvick to the checkered flag by 0.941 seconds to claim the win in Monday’s race. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five finishing positions.
• Harvick leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings by a 7-point margin over Stewart. Edwards, Kurt Busch and Earnhardt Jr. complete the top-five spots 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 his second-place finish at Chicagoland:
Was fuel a problem for you guys? “We had a problem with fuel and had to save a lot there at the beginning and I just didn’t know how much we had in our tank there at the end but I was hoping we had enough. Everybody on the Budweiser Chevrolet team did a good job and this is a good way to start the Chase.”
On making it to the finish on fuel: “I wasn’t ever comfortable, but I knew I had saved a little bit under caution and a little bit at the beginning of that run and they felt comfortable with the lap times. Everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet team did a great job knowing exactly how far we could go. We ran out coming on to pit road there, so it was a good first race for us.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the GEICO 400:
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet team finished third.
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished fifth.
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished 12th.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 13th.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford team finished 21st.
• Dave Blaney and the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet team finished 33rd.
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 SPEED Energy/MAPEI Dodge team finished 39th.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the GEICO 400:
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet finished seventh.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 15th.
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 ZECOL/Menards Chevrolet, finished 20th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will travel to Loudon, N.H., for the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. ESPN will provide the TV broadcast of Sunday’s race starting with the pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET. PRN affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio coverage of the race.