No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet
Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Four races into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Kevin Harvick sits second in the NSCS driver point standings, just one marker behind Carl Edwards following a sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway. Harvick has one top-five and three top-10 finishes thus far in the Chase. His average finish in the first four races is 7.5.
• Prior to this weekend’s events, Harvick will spend Wednesday participating in the John Paul Linville Memorial Golf Classic, an annual event that honors John Paul Linville, a longtime racer and late father of DeLana Harvick. The charity golf tournament will benefit the Kevin Harvick Foundation in its mission to support programs that positively enrich the lives of children in need throughout the United States.
• Harvick will be available to members of the media in the Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) infield media center at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday.
• The No. 29 team will race chassis No. 373 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) stable at CMS. The team utilized this car for the August race at Michigan International Speedway where Harvick finished 22nd after having problems on pit road.
• In 21 races at CMS, Harvick has earned one win, two top-five and five top-10 finishes. His average starting position at CMS is 19.8 and he holds a 19.1 average finish there. Harvick has led a total of just five laps at CMS, but has completed 96.9 percent (7,219 of 7,450) of the laps run there in NSCS competition since 2001.
• Harvick has publicly commented numerous times about his dislike of CMS, however, the Bakersfield, Calif., native has scored solid runs at the speedway recently. In the past three points-paying races at CMS, Harvick holds an average finish of 6.67, which is more than 12 positions better than his career average finish at the track.
• Last October Harvick took home an eighth-place finish at CMS, which at the time was his best finish at the 1.5-mile speedway since his rookie season in 2001. In May, the No. 29 team gambled correctly on fuel mileage and took home the checkered flag in the Coca-Cola 600. The win was Harvick’s first NSCS points-paying victory at the speedway.
• Harvick holds a couple of Loop Data statistics at CMS heading into Saturday night’s race, including: first in closers and fourth in green-flag passes (973).
• Race fans at CMS will have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session with Harvick on Saturday afternoon at the OktoberFast Fan Festival presented by Budweiser. The fan hospitality package includes access to a driver autograph session, a fan forum with Harvick, live music, special food and drinks, games and more. For ticket information and a full schedule of events, visit http://www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/oktoberfast.
• For the online version of the Budweiser Racing media guide, please visit http://www.budracingmedia.com.
• 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.
Kevin Harvick on Charlotte Motor Speedway:
What are your thoughts on racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway? “From a driver’s standpoint, it’s just never been a race track where I’ve had a great feel. There’s nothing wrong with the surface, nothing wrong with the shape of the race track or anything like that. It’s just from a performance standpoint we just don’t have the stats that need to be there like we do at a lot of other places. Over the last couple of years it’s definitely gotten a lot better for us. We won a race there at the beginning of the year and after we won there we feel like we can win anywhere.”
Talk about racing at night at Charlotte Motor Speedway with cooler temperatures expected. “As soon as it goes to night there, the track becomes a different race track than it is during the day. I’m sure that we’ll practice during the day and have no clue what we have at night. All-in-all, it’s going to be the same old Charlotte that it always is – really, really fast at night. The cooler it gets, the more grip there is.”
It’s known that you haven’t been a big fan of Charlotte Motor Speedway in the past. After winning at the track in May, can one win really give you a better attitude coming into this race? “We’ve definitely run better at Charlotte over the last couple of years. For us that’s a huge step. In the past, it’s been a place where you just want to come and survive and try to get a top-10 (finish). The last time we were in contention, I think we restarted fifth there and had a solid car all night. It seems like we’ve gotten better every time. Hopefully that win keeps everybody happy coming in before we get started.”