Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team travel to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) this weekend to compete in the Camping World RV Sales 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS).
Mid-Season Review… At the mid-point of the 2014 NSCS season, Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser team have scored wins at Phoenix International Raceway and Darlington Raceway. Harvick has earned three pole awards this year (at Darlington, Kansas Speedway and Michigan International Speedway), which is more than he’s scored in any other season in his NSCS career. He also has five top fives and eight top-10 finishes to his credit so far this year. The Bakersfield, California-native has led 882 laps during the first 18 races of the season. That total is just 13 laps shy of the career-best 895 laps he led throughout the entire 2006 season. Harvick has secured a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and is currently ranked 11th in the NSCS driver point standings.
Chassis Info…The No. 4 team will utilize Chassis No. 868 in Sunday’s race. Harvick raced this car to an 11th-place finish at Richmond International Raceway in April.
New Hampshire Stats... Harvick has 26 prior NSCS starts at NHMS. He has earned one win (2006), five top fives and 13 top-10 finishes, as well as one pole award (2006). He has an average start of 14.0 and average finish of 13.7 at the track.
Loop Data... Harvick owns a number of impressive marks in NASCAR’s Loop Data scoring system at NHMS heading into this weekend's event, including: eighth in average running position (12.651); ninth in green flag speed (124.568 mph); ninth in laps in top 15 (3,430); ninth in laps led (252 laps); and 10th in green flag passes (904 passes).
A Look Back… During last year’s Camping World RV Sales 301, Harvick started 18th and finished seventh.
Salute... Through August 15, beer drinkers can enter a code contained inside specially marked packages of Budweiser on Budweiser.com/donate to trigger a $1 donation to Folds of Honor, accounting for up to $1 million combined with wholesaler contributions for a more than $3 million total donation to Folds of Honor in 2014. Through scholarships and other assistance, Folds of Honor gives back to the families of soldiers killed or disabled in service to our country. Since first partnering with Folds of Honor Foundation in 2010, Budweiser and its wholesalers have raised nearly $10 million for military families, accounting for thousands of scholarships across the country.
Harvick on Racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
What are your thoughts on racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway? “New Hampshire is a track that I enjoy going to. It’s a track where you have to have a good handling car, you have to have track position and you have to have everything going right. If you get yourself stuck in the middle of the pack you’re not going to have a very good day unless you have a really good car.”
What is the key to running well at New Hampshire Motor Speedway? “The hardest thing is just making your car turn in the middle of the corner and being able to have enough forward drive up off. It always seems like the New Hampshire race comes down to a track position strategy call on two tires or four tires toward the end of the race. Track position will play a big part, but getting your car to handle right will probably play an equal part.”
What do you like about racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway? "I always look forward to going to New Hampshire. I like that type of track because it's flat, similar to the tracks out west where I started my racing career. There's a lot of braking and you have to really work on getting your car through the center of the corner and still have the forward drive you need up off the corner."