Richard Childress Racing

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March 14, 2012

Kevin Harvick Event Preview: Food City 500

"Bristol is always a fun place. You never know what can happen there. It seems like it's just a place where anything can happen at any time."

RCR/HHP Photo RCR/HHP Photo

Event Preview Fact Sheet

Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet Impala

Event/Date:       
Food City 500
March 18, 2012

Venue:          
Bristol Motor Speedway

Race Notes and Quotes:

This Week's Budweiser Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway ... Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team will utilize chassis No. 340 from the Richard Childress Racing stable for Sunday's race. This Chevrolet Impala was raced four times in 2011 by the No. 33 team, scoring a ninth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway in April and a sixth-place finish at Richmond International Raceway that same month. 

Statistically Speaking ... Harvick has made 22 Sprint Cup Series starts at BMS. During that time the Bakersfield, Calif., native has earned one win, nine top-five and 12 top-10 finishes at the short track. He has completed 98 percent of the laps run in those races (10,790 of 11,013) and led 427 laps. Harvick holds an average starting position of 18.2 and a 12.5 average finish position at BMS. 

Loop Data ... Harvick has earned impressive Loop Data statistics at BMS, including: first in closers; fourth in green-flag passes (662); sixth in fastest drivers early in a run; sixth in fastest drivers late in a run; sixth in green-flag speed; seventh in speed in traffic; eighth in average running position (13.872); eighth in driver rating (90.2); ninth in laps in the top-15 (4,094); and 10th in fastest laps run (232).

Save Water Drink Beer ... Harvick selected RCA country music recording artist Chris Young's song "Save Water Drink Beer" to walk out to for driver introductions during Sunday's pre-race festivities. 

Baby 101 ... Bristol Motor Speedway will help celebrate the impending birth of Harvick and his wife DeLana's baby boy at its fan event Friday night at the BMS hospitality village. NASCAR on FOX pit reporter Matt Yocum will serve as host of the event and the pair will play a variety of games to see which of them knows the most about babies. Baby 101 starts at approximately 7 p.m. and is free to fans.

Media availability ... Harvick will be available to members of the media on Friday, March 16 at 10 a.m. ET in the BMS infield media center. 

Last Year ... In last spring's race at BMS, Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team rebounded from a late-race accident to score a sixth-place finish. 

In the Rearview Mirror ... Last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Harvick earned an 11th-place finish and moved up to second in the NSCS driver point standings. He's currently 10 points behind point leader Denny Hamlin. 

Double Duty ... In addition to driving the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet in Sunday's NSCS race, Harvick will also race the No. 33 Armour Vienna Sausages Chevrolet for RCR in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition on Saturday. ESPN will provide live television coverage of the event starting with the pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET. PRN affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will carry the radio broadcast.

KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:

What are your thoughts on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway this week?
"Bristol is probably the place that we've had circled on the calendar as the place that we ran the worst at last year. As a company, the last race was just bad. For us, we've talked about Bristol a lot. I'm looking forward to getting on the race track and running through some different theories and things that we think we needed to do different. Bristol is always a fun place. You never know what can happen there. It seems like it's just a place where anything can happen at any time. It's a fun race track and obviously short-track racing is something we all grew up doing."

What do you think of Bristol Motor Speedway being the first short track race of the year?
"Well technically, it's the second because we also consider Phoenix a short track. I think Bristol is the first full-contact, short track race that we're going to go to. It's obviously a lot different complexion than it used to be. You can race all over the race track, and you have to really work on your car to get it to turn sooner into the corner. You never know whether you're going to end up at the top or the bottom. It's become an interesting track."

At Bristol Motor Speedway, we never know what kind of weather we're going to get. Does that track change with the weather?
"I think with the concrete surface it's a lot more consistent than a lot of the other race tracks. It allows you to not have to worry about the inconsistency with the weather. I think it's a lot more consistent than a lot of places that we go to."

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