This Week’s Rheem Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ... Kevin Harvick will pilot chassis No. 396 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the Kobalt Tools 400. Harvick last drove this RCR racecar to a 12th-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway in 2012.
Looking for Lady Luck ... Harvick will make his 13th Sprint Cup Series-career start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Sunday. Since his first appearance at the 1.5-mile facility, the Bakersfield, Calif., native has earned three top-five and four top-10 finishes. He has completed 99.8 percent (3,220 of 3,225) of laps contested and is credited with 58 laps led. This weekend, Harvick hopes to run across ‘Lady Luck’ and pick up a win in Sin City as Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one of nine tracks where the RCR veteran driver has yet to visit Victory Lane.
Gotta Have a Rheem ... Rheem Manufacturing Company (www.rheem.com) is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta and U.S. operations in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas. In its 88th year of operation, the company manufactures a full-line of eco-friendly, technologically advanced residential and commercial heating and cooling systems; tank, tankless, solar and hybrid heat pump water heaters; whole-home standby generators, controls, swimming pool and spa heaters; indoor air-purification products; and commercial boilers throughout North America and world markets. The company’s premium brands, including Rheem, Raypak, Ruud and Richmond have been recognized with countless industry and consumer awards for reliability, innovative design and high quality. Rheem is the official heating, cooling and water heating supplier to Richard Childress Racing, and is a primary sponsor of RCR’s No. 29 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and RCR’s No. 33 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
2012 Race Rewind ... Harvick and the No. 29 Chevrolet team scored an 11th-place finish in the 2012 Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after starting from the third position and battled handling issues for the majority of the 267-lap affair.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
What do you think you’ll learn from the test on Thursday and the race in regard to the Gen-6 car?
“I think the cars are obviously really fast because they have more down force. Everyone’s anticipation of getting to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and getting all of the cars on the race track at the same time is pretty high, just for the fact that no one can tell you exactly what’s going on. You really don’t know what will happen until you get into 100 percent race conditions. The test on Thursday, and the race, will at least give us a direction of where we need to go after the weekend so we can work on things. It’s going to be interesting and we’ll see very fast, high speeds.”