JR MOTORSPORTS – No. 5 TEAM PREVIEW
DRIVER: Kevin Harvick / No. 5 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet
RACE: Food City 300 (300 laps / 159.9 miles)
TRACK: Bristol Motor Speedway
DATE: Friday, Aug. 22, 2014 (7 p.m. ET – ESPN)
TWITTER: @KevinHarvick, @hbpizza, @hbpracing, @JRMotorsports
Quotes | Kevin Harvick
“The night race at Bristol always seems to ramp up the intensity for everyone. Track position is going to be really important. In the spring race, the high line was the place to be, especially on restarts. I expect that to be the case again this week. Being able to carry momentum and getting into a good rhythm is the key to running well at Bristol. It’s easy to get bottled up in traffic and lose time to the guys you’re racing so you have to be really methodical about how you approach every move you make during the race.”
Notes | No. 5 Team
BRISTOL STATS: Harvick leads all drivers in Nationwide Series competition at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” with 15 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes. His five wins and 1,216 laps led rank second to Kyle Busch in both categories. The two-time series champion’s 7.5 average finish ranks third among drivers with 10 or more Nationwide Series starts at Bristol.
FOUR IN A ROW: Friday night’s race at Bristol marks the first of four consecutive Nationwide Series starts for Harvick in the No. 5 Chevrolet. After Bristol, he is scheduled to compete at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Aug. 30), Richmond International Raceway (Sept. 5) and Chicagoland Speedway (Sept. 13). In his Nationwide Series career, Harvick has recorded 16 wins and 43 top-five finishes at these four tracks.
TOP-10 STREAK: Harvick has recorded 19 consecutive top-10 finishes in Nationwide Series competition dating back to 2013. It’s the second-longest top-10 streak of Harvick’s career, as he previously went 23 races in 2006-07.
COPE IN THE NEWS: JR Motorsports announced this week that crew chief Ernie Cope will transition from the No. 5 team to the No. 9 team at the end of the season. Cope will replace Greg Ives as Chase Elliott’s crew chief. Last month, Ives was named Steve Letarte’s successor for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Sprint Cup team starting in 2015.
FOOD CITY RACE NIGHT: Fans can meet Harvick at the Armour display during Food City Race Night in downtown Bristol, Tenn. on Thursday, Aug. 21, from 6-7 p.m. A limited number of wristbands will be given away at 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.foodcity.com/community/racing/food-city-race-night-bristol.
IN-RACE REPORTER: Harvick will serve as ESPN’s In-Race Reporter during Friday night’s Nationwide Series event at Bristol. Fans can submit questions for Harvick by visiting ESPN.com and searching ‘In Race Reporter’.
MEDIA INFORMATION
TV: ESPN (7 p.m. ET)
RADIO: PRN & Sirius XM Ch 90 (7 p.m. ET)
FIRST PRACTICE: 8/21, 1:30-2:30 p.m. ET
FINAL PRACTICE: 8/21, 3-4:30 p.m. ET
QUALIFYING: 8/22, 3:40 p.m. ET (FS1)
GREEN FLAG: 8/22, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)