No. 29 Rheem “Chasing the Cure” Chevrolet
AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• While all eyes may be on the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, with the debut of the No. 29 Rheem “Chasing the Cure” Chevrolet, Rheem and RCR hope to inspire the racing community to join in “Chasing the Cure,” the company’s month-long program created to help raise national awareness of the importance of regular check-ups and early diagnosis in the fight against breast cancer. Rheem and RCR will mark the start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a pink and black paint scheme on Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 Rheem “Chasing the Cure” Chevrolet for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.
• Harvick will be available to members of the media outside the No. 29 hauler in the NSCS garage area at Dover at 10:15 a.m. on Friday.
• Two races into the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Harvick is currently ranked second in the driver point standings and sits just seven markers back from the top spot. He has earned one top five and his average finish is 7.0.
• The No. 29 team will race chassis No. 353 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) stable. Prior to this weekend the team utilized this Chevrolet twice in 2011 to score a win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and a seventh-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early September.
• In 21 starts at Dover International Raceway, Harvick has accumulated two top-five and eight top-10 finishes. His average starting position is 21.190 and he holds a 16.952 average finish at the track. Harvick has led 134 laps at Dover and has completed 98.3 percent (8,264 of 8,404) of the total laps run in NSCS competition at the track since 2001.
• In last year’s fall race at Dover, Harvick started 33rd and finished 15th. In May, he started and finished in the 10th position.
• With 28 races complete, Harvick holds several impressive Loop Data statistics leading into Sunday’s race at Dover International speedway, including: second in fastest speed in traffic; third in closers (2.1 average spots gained in the last 10 percent of each race); fourth in percentage of laps run on the lead lap (90.31 percent/7,264 of 8,043 laps); seventh in driver rating (92.4); seventh in drivers late in a run; eighth in average running position (13.505); eighth in green-flag speed; eighth in laps in the top 15 (64.7 percent/5,200 laps); 10th in laps led (4.1 percent/333 laps); 10th in drivers fastest early in a run; and 10th in fastest drivers on restarts.
• 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 racing at Dover International Speedway:
What are some of the challenges for your team in going to Dover International Speedway this weekend?
“We’ve had a good car there the last several times and haven’t necessarily got the finishes that we probably have deserved with where we ran all day, but it’s been a decent race track for us. It’s a fast race track. You’ve got to keep up with the race track as the groove moves around and the rubber builds up on the track. The biggest challenge is being able to get the car up off of the corner under power, wide open throughout the whole run.”
What does it take to be successful at Dover International Speedway?
“You have to have a car that handles good because it’s so fast and there are so many things happening so fast that the driver has to be comfortable in the car. It seems like at Dover they always have one of those runs where you have green-flag pit stops and halfway through that run the caution comes out, so you have to be a little bit lucky to not end up on the wrong side of that there.”
How do you feel going into this weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway?
“We should be fine in Dover. I felt like we’ve run well there the last few times so I don’t really have any specific concerns. I think as you go to every race track there is always concern on whether you’re going to run good or bad and you never really know until you get there and see what the tire is and see exactly what the weekend brings with weather and all the different things that come with putting a weekend together. We can run really well at any race track. Along with anybody in the garage we have that opportunity to run bad, too. You just have to make the best out of whatever the weekend gives you.”