This Week’s Budweiser Chevrolet at Pocono Raceway ... Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 396 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for competition during the 2012 season, this RCR racer was utilized by Austin Dillon earlier this season at Michigan International Speedway where he captured a 24th-place finish in his 2012 Sprint Cup Series debut.
Taming the “Tricky Triangle” ... Harvick has made 23 starts at the 2.5-mile track over the course of his Sprint Cup Series career, collecting five top-five and eight top-10 finishes. The Bakersfield, Calif., native holds a 19.7 average starting position and a 14th-place average finishing position at the “Tricky Triangle”, with his best starting and finishing positions of third coming in the fall of 2003 and in the spring of 2006, respectively. Harvick has completed 4,270 of 4,449 (96.5 percent) of the contested laps.
Getting Loopy in Pocono ... Since the inception of NASCAR’s Loop Data Season-to-Date Statistics in 2006, Harvick has completed 15 Sprint Cup Series events at Pocono Raceway. The RCR driver ranks within the top 10 in several categories including: first in Green Flag Passes (1,324), third in the Closers category gaining an average of 3.1 positions within the last 10 percent of laps in a race and sixth in Quality Passes (630). The 36-year-old driver also ranks eighth in Speed in Traffic (158.369 mph), ninth in Average Running Position (13.574) and Driver Rating (90.8) and tenth in Laps in the Top 15 (1,813).
Points Racing ... With 20 points-paying events in the books, Harvick remains sixth in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, 78 markers behind the leader. Harvick has collected three top-five and nine top-10 finishes thus far this season, completing 99.77 percent (5,635 of 5,648) of the laps contested.
Red, White and Blue Summer ... The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet will once again feature a patriotic red, white and blue look this weekend at Pocono Raceway. The special paint scheme reflects the “Red, White and Blue Summer” packaging featured on the iconic Budweiser bottles and cans found at various locations this summer.
Go for the Gold ... With the 2012 London Olympics in full swing, the No. 29 Budweiser team will be cheering for Team USA’s women’s trap athlete Corey Cogdell as she competes in the sport-shooting event on Saturday, Aug. 4. Members of the No. 29 Budweiser Racing team had breakfast with Cogdell while visiting the U.S. Olympic Complex in Colorado Springs, Colo., last month. Cogdell became the first American woman to ever win an Olympic Medal in her sport when she won a bronze medal in women’s trap at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Transform Reality with Blippar ... Emerging technology from Blippar delivers an exclusive mobile experience to fans of Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Racing Team. Blippar is the first image-recognition phone app aimed at bringing to life products with exciting augmented reality interactions and instantaneous content. With the Blippar app fans can use their smart phones to convert the Bud 29 logo into an interactive, wow experience where they can view footage of Harvick and the team, get behind-the-scenes access and take their photo with the driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. The free app is available for download on iOS and Android devices. Once downloaded, fans can utilize the app to blipp (scan) the Bud 29 logo, accessible in retail locations and on team merchandise, to access the special content.
Meet the Press ... Harvick will be available to members of the media on Friday, August 3 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time at the back of the No. 29 Sprint Cup Series hauler.
The Last Time By ... Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team finished 14th in last season’s Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway after battling loose and tight-handling conditions.
In the Rearview Mirror: Brickyard 400 ... Harvick and the No. 29 Jimmy John’s team settled for a 13th-place finish in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after battling handling issues during last Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series event.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:
How do you approach each corner at Pocono Raceway?
The first thing you do is you’ve got to survive the restart. We learned last time that practice didn’t really matter, if you could get a good restart and survive going through the corner and get in line then you were in good shape. It’s really fast and the thing I like about what they did at Pocono (Raceway) is that all the bumps are now kind of swells and you have the same kind of feels that you had there, they are just not extreme bumps. Each corner is fast. Turn one is a corner where you drive in and down shift. The key to Pocono (Raceway) now is getting up off the corners and in the throttle and being able to stay in the throttle really in all three (turns).”
With the repave at Pocono Raceway, will you take more of what you learned at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with you when heading back to Pocono?
“I think you bring a lot more to Indianapolis (Motor Speedway) just because of Pocono (Raceway) and Michigan (International Speedway) and how aggressive you can be with the front of the car and keeping the splitter on the ground. I think those race tracks apply more to each other that they have in the past. They have obviously applied in the past, but I think you can be as aggressive at all three of them now.”
You started with a rectangle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed by a triangle in Pocono Raceway and you finish off with a road course at Watkins Glen International. Is this one of the most unique three race stretches on the schedule?
“I feel like we are starting over in school. I think as we go from Indianapolis (Motor Speedway) to Pocono (Raceway) obviously there is a lot to take back and forth. Watkins Glen is different. As a driver it’s fun to kind of mix that up because each week you really have to change up what you’re thinking about and your approach. Going into that particular week is a lot different than going from Indianapolis (Motor Speedway) to Pocono (Raceway) is not that much different, but Pocono (Raceway) to Watkins Glen (International) is a big difference. It’s just a matter of the train of thought that you go through.”