This Week’s Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway ... Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 099 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series stable in the Food City 250. The Bakersfield, Calif., native drove this RCR machine to a fifth-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway in March. This Chevrolet was also driven by Brendan Gaughan during both Iowa Speedway events and Ty Dillon at Dover International Speedway.
Harvick Returns to the Nationwide Series ... The two-time Nationwide Series champion will return to the driver’s seat of the No. 33 Chevrolet this weekend as the Nationwide Series heads to the hills of Tennessee. This race marks Harvick’s 286th career Nationwide Series start and his ninth of 14 scheduled appearances of the 2012 season. In his first eight Nationwide Series races with RCR in 2012, Harvick has earned five top-five and six top-10 finishes.
Volunteer State Racing ... Friday’s 250-lap event marks Harvick’s 23rd Nationwide Series appearance at the Bristol, Tenn.-based facility. During his 22 previous series starts at the half-mile track, the 36-year-old driver has captured five wins (Fall 2000, Fall 2001, Spring 2003, Spring 2005 and Spring 2009), three pole awards (Fall 2000, Spring 2001 and Spring 2006) 13 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. Harvick has completed 5,665 of 5,739 (98.7 percent) of the laps contested. He holds a 9.4 average starting position coupled with a 7.5 average finishing position.
In the Loop ... Since the inception of NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics in 2006, Harvick has competed in 12 Nationwide Series events at Bristol Motor Speedway. In those 12 starts, the RCR veteran driver has collected impressive statistics including a 115.997 mph Green Flag Speed to lead his fellow competitors. Harvick has earned a Driver Rating of 110.0, positioning him second within the category, and ranks third in the following categories: Average Running Position (8.385), Fastest Laps Run (245), Fastest on Restarts (113.630 mph), Green Flag Passes (333) and Laps Led (372). During his time on track, Harvick has spent 2,754 Laps in Top 15 ranking him fourth among all competitors.
To the Points ... The No. 33 RCR Chevrolet team sits seventh in the Nationwide Series owner’s championship point standings, 72 points behind the No. 18 team in the lead. The No. 33 team earned eight top-five and 15 top-10 finishes between six different drivers (Dillon, Gaughan, Harvick, Paul Menard, Max Papis and Tony Stewart) thus far this season.
Made My Way ... With more than 6,500 locations in 28 states, Hunt Brothers® Pizza is the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry. Perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle, Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin crust pizzas with All Toppings No Extra Charge®, breakfast pizzas, plus Hunt Brothers® Wings and WingBites®. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Hunt Brothers Pizza is family owned and operated with 50 years of experience in offering all of the food products, marketing programs, equipment and training for convenience stores to operate their own turnkey pizza program. For more information, visit huntbrotherspizza.com.
Hunt to Win ... RCR partners Hunt Brothers Pizza and Team Realtree have partnered up for the unique consumer contest, the ‘Hunt to Win Sweepstakes’. Consumers hunt for their nearest Hunt Brothers Pizza location by using the locator map on www.huntbrotherspizza.com/hunttowin. By completing the entry form, consumers are entered for a chance to win more than $25,000 worth of prizes, including the grand prize of a Bad Boy Buggies Recoil IS 4x4 hunting AVT valued at $15,000. The sweepstakes begins September 10 and runs until December 31. For more information about the sweepstakes visit www.huntbrotherspizza.com.
Scoot & Shoot with Harvick ... Hunt Brothers® Pizza is looking for NASCAR fans and hunting enthusiasts to show off their skills and compete in the ‘Scoot & Shoot Challenge’ on Thursday, August 23 at Food City Race Night in Bristol, Tenn. Sixteen lucky fans will be selected from the crowd at the Food City Race Night event to compete in the tournament-style competition, which challenges contestants to race big wheels through a relay course of target-shooting stations which will test their aim and speed. The winner of the ‘Scoot & Shoot Challenge’ will receive an autographed HBP die-cast car. Following the Scoot & Shoot event, Harvick will meet with fans at the Hunt Brothers Pizza display to sign autographs from 5-6 p.m. Eastern Time. Only 200 wristbands will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the display.
In the Rearview Mirror: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ... Running the final road course race on the 2012 Nationwide Series schedule, Gaughan survived a late-race incident to bring home an 11th-place finish last weekend in the No. 33 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
What are your thoughts on returning to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Nationwide Series?
“We’ve done well at Bristol (Motor Speedway) over the years, so it should be fun to head back there this weekend. The track has changed some since we were last there, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I have a lot of fun running in the Nationwide Series and hope that we can bring home a win for the team and Hunt Brothers Pizza.”