HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2011) – After Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) co-owner Kevin Harvick drove the No. 2 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet to a third-place finish during the rain-shortened season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, team owners Kevin and DeLana Harvick were officially crowned the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Owner’s Champions.
The No. 2 KHI Truck Series team headed to Homestead-Miami Speedway as champions, after Harvick clinched the Owner’s Championship during the series’ penultimate race at Texas Motor Speedway with a win in the WinStar World Casino 350K.
The No. 2 Hunt Brothers Pizza team rolled into Texas Motor Speedway with the advantage of a 72 point lead over the No. 18 truck owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports. Needing to capture a finish of 21st or better to clinch the Owner’s Championship, Harvick drove to victory lane, securing the championship title and the No. 2 team’s seventh win of the season. Harvick’s visit to victory lane at Texas was his 13th Truck Series career win, but the first at the Fort Worth track.
Over the course of the 2011 season, six different drivers piloted the consistently dominant No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado for KHI. The team collected a total of four poles, seven wins, 19 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes.
Clint Bowyer kicked things off by grabbing the team’s first victory of the season at Kansas Speedway in June, while Harvick earned the team three-consecutive wins at Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway in August. In September, four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday joined the No. 2 team and made history when he captured his 50th win in the series at Kentucky Speedway, then followed the historic moment by visiting victory lane the next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Harvick returned to the driver’s seat of the No. 2 truck for the second-to-last event of the season, driving the Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet to victory lane, scoring the team’s seventh win of the season.
The win at Texas also secured Chevrolet the 2011 Truck Series Manufacturer’s Championship.
“We’ve had a lot of momentum in the No. 2 truck all season and I really wanted to be driving the truck when it clinched the [Truck Series] Owner’s Championship, seeing as this is our last season owning the team,” Harvick explained from Texas Motor Speedway’s victory lane. “It’s great to win this race and the Owner’s Championship for KHI, as well as clinch the Manufacturer’s Championship for Chevrolet. I just want to thank everyone from Hunt Brothers Pizza, Bad Boy Buggies, Rheem, OneMain Financial, Budweiser, Chevrolet, Champion, JEGS, Tide, TapouT, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Hollywood Casino and all of the guys for all of their hard work this season.”
The 2011 Truck Series Owner’s Championship is the third for KHI in the company’s 10-year history. KHI entries have made a total of 371 Truck Series starts, collecting 43 wins (second all-time in the series), 152 top-five and 224 top-10 finishes in their highly successful decade of competition.
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