This Week's Budweiser Chevrolet SS at Texas Motor Speedway ... Kevin Harvick will pilot chassis No. 431 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the AAA Texas 500. Harvick drove this RCR-prepared machine to Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway and to a sixth-place result at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October.
Racing in the Lone Star State ... Since 2001, Harvick has made 21 Sprint Cup Series starts at Texas Motor Speedway. Throughout the years, the California native has collected three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, has an average starting position of 21.1 coupled with an average finishing position of 12.5, has completed 99.8 percent (7,011 of 7,025) of the laps contested and has five laps led to his credit. In addition to his Sprint Cup Series stats, Harvick has visited Victory Lane five times (March 2007, November 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2012) in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and once (November 2011) in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Race Rewind ... Harvick and the No. 29 team salvaged a ninth-place finish in the 2012 AAA Texas 500 after starting from the 23rd position and battling handling issues for the majority of the event.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:
How important is qualifying and track position at a place like Texas Motor Speedway?
"Qualifying is definitely very important on the 1.5-mile race tracks. Texas (Motor Speedway) is one of those places where the tires wear out, but track position is so important to keep the handling on your car. We tested there last week and hope that the information we gathered will allow us to go back to the track with a good balance on our car. We tried some different things and I'm hoping we learned enough to not only make me comfortable in the race car, but be able to put ourselves in a position to run in the top five and possibly even win the race."
What is the race at Texas Motor Speedway like from the driver perspective?
"There is never a dull moment because you're trying to drive the car to the edge every lap. You're trying to make the car go as fast as you can. When you're in traffic, it's harder to drive the car than it is when you're out there by yourself for the fact that it takes downforce off of the car and it feels like the car is lifting out of the race track. These cars become even harder to drive in traffic. It's definitely a challenge every lap."