This Week’s Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet at Kentucky Speedway ... Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 381 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in this weekend’s Quaker State 400. Harvick drove this Chevrolet to a 13th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in June of 2011. It was also driven earlier this season by Brendan Gaughan at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a No. 33 RCR Sprint Cup Series entry.
Racing in the Bluegrass State ... Harvick has made one Sprint Cup Series start at the Sparta, Ky.-based facility starting 19th and finishing 16th during the series’ inaugural event in 2011, and has completed 100 percent of laps contested (267 of 267) at the track. The RCR veteran driver has also logged laps at Kentucky Speedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with three starts that resulted in one win, two top-five and three top-10 finishes.
Going for a Loop in Kentucky ... According to NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics, in Harvick’s sole Sprint Cup Series start at Kentucky Speedway he is tied for sixth in the Closers category improving six positions during the last 10 percent of the race and ranks ninth in Fastest on Restarts (161.781 MPH). Harvick maintained an Average Running Position of 13th during the inaugural event, made 98 Green Flag Passes and ran within the top 15 for 65.5 percent of the race (175 laps).
Points Racing ... With 16 points-paying events in the books, Harvick and the No. 29 team remain sixth in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, 64 markers behind the leader. The team has collected three top-five and eight top-10 finishes thus far this season, completing 99.75 percent (4,748 of 4,760) of the laps contested.
Red, White and Blue Summer Returns to the Track ... The patriotic red, white and blue Budweiser Folds of Honor paint scheme returns to Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet this weekend at Kentucky Speedway. The special paint scheme reflects the “Red, White and Blue Summer” packaging featured on the iconic Budweiser bottles and cans as part of a summer initiative in which the brand will contribute a portion of all sales from May 20 - July 7 to help raise as much as $2.5 million for the Folds of Honor Foundation*, which provides post-secondary educational scholarships for families of U.S. military personnel killed or disabled while serving their country. The Folds of Honor logo will also be featured on the TV panel of the No. 29 Chevrolet. (*Maximum donation of $2.5 million includes $5,000 for every walk-off in select 2012 professional baseball games and a portion of sales for every case of Budweiser sold, 5/20-7/7.)
Supporting Folds of Honor ... On Tuesday June 26, Harvick spent the afternoon with Christopher Cash and his family at the RCR campus. Cash, who lost his father in 2004 during combat in Iraq, is a student at Appalachian State University, Folds of Honor Foundation scholarship recipient and now an intern with the foundation. Cash and his family enjoyed lunch at the facility before Harvick provided a personal tour. The Folds of Honor Foundation provides post-secondary educational scholarships for families of the U.S. military personnel killed or disabled while serving the country. Since its creation in 2007, the foundation has provided more than 2,600 scholarships across the country.
Meet the Press ... Harvick will be available to members of the media on Thursday, June 28 at 5:55 p.m. ET in the Kentucky Speedway infield media center.
Double Duty ... In addition to competing in the Quaker State 400 Saturday evening, Harvick will also drive RCR’s No. 33 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet in the Feed the Children 300 Friday night. The Nationwide Series race will air live on ESPN 2 beginning at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The Last Time Around ... Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team left Kentucky Speedway with a 16th-place finish in the 2011 Quaker State 400. Harvick started the night out in the 19th position and battled with the car’s handling for much of the race before crossing the finish line 16th during inaugural Sprint Cup Series event at the Kentucky-based facility.
In the Rearview Mirror: Sonoma ... Harvick and the No. 29 team settled for a 16th-place finish during the Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Sunday afternoon after running out of fuel during a mid-race run.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:
You had a disappointing finish last year at Kentucky Speedway. Were there any unusual reasons for finishing 16th?
“As a company we struggled there last year. It was just a long weekend for us. We’ve obviously looked at this particular race for a while trying to figure out exactly what we needed to do differently from last year, so we’ve got a lot of different things to try and hopefully we’ll run better this year.”
How do you feel about the racing at Kentucky Speedway?
“Last season we struggled so it was hard to get a real idea of how the race track was. It’s definitely a rough race track, but a very high speed race track as well.”
Tell us about the fans at Kentucky Speedway. Could you see their enthusiasm about the event last year?
“The fans last year looked very enthused. Kentucky (Speedway) is one of those places that we’ve been racing at for a long time. I was fortunate to be a part of the first Nationwide Series race there. I’ve never really raced a race there when the stand haven’t been full, so it’s one of those places that just really supports everything that we do.”