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[/media-credit]Kevin Harvick paid a visit to Virginia Tech, VA on Tuesday and toured the No. 13 ranked Hokies facilities. Harvick also had lunch with several Virginia Tech football players and later sat through their media interviews before a press conference with football coach Frank Beamer.
The Q&A session started of with a simple question to Harvick, “What’s you knowledge of Virginia Tech football?”
“I think for me I have learned a lot about Virginia Tech football today. To see the facility and everything that goes in, it’s a first class facility with great people to make it go around.” Harvick said.
“There’s a lot of similarities about what it takes to make a race team go around and what makes a football team or any other business for that matter. It takes good people, it takes dedication and it takes determination to do what you have to do. So there are a lot of similarities and I enjoyed my afternoon.” Harvick added.
With the merge of KHI and RCR how much does the free you up for the chase coming up, does it kind of take the load off of your mind knowing that all you have to worry about now is driving?
“I’m glad it’s off my mind. We have been working on it for awhile, myself and Richard (Childress) and I think it’s going to elevate the performance of the Nationwide teams next year.” Harvick said. “For myself and DeLana, its going to allow us to do some things not having to be involved on a day-to-day basis. But we are still going to be heavily involved.”
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[/media-credit]Beamer was asked whom he liked in the Chase, Beamer said “Kevin Harvick!!!!!” but quickly added that he also roots for Virginia drivers, “you have to pull for them a little bit ”. A person from the media said that there “were not any Virginia drivers in the chase”, Beamer again quickly added, “you have Denny Hamlin!”
Beamer presented Harvick with a No. 29 Hokies jersey with his name on the back. In return, Harvick presented Beamer with a replica helmet.
“We wish Kevin good luck as he starts the chase here and we have a hat for him and then we got a jersey. Its got the right number on it and the right name on it.” Beamer said.
Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell gave Beamer two framed lifetime tickets to Campbell’s presidential suite at the track.
Beamer took time to recall his 15-lap drive around Bristol Motor Speedway with five other celebrities. He started second, but his daughter, Casey, recalled him being passed twice from kicker David Akers. Beamer added that he (Akers) wanted to race cars after his football career is over.
“I noticed a lot of people were going by me. But I was just trying not to run into the wall. So I got through the race and was happy as heck I didn’t run into the wall.” Beamer said.
What does Harvick think of this year’s chase?
“I tell you, with so many different people winning this year, I think it shows how competitive the series is right now. It seems like everybody’s been through a certain period of struggles and I always tell everybody that each Chase takes on its own characteristic, and it will be interesting to see if this is going to be a consistent one, one where you have to win or one where you have to make the best out of your bad days. It will be interesting.” Harvick said.
Harvick enters the chase with four wins, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Harvick and Budweiser will debut the new Budweiser “Bowtie” can paint scheme for the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at the Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday.
The focal point of the design is Budweiser’s iconic bowtie, complemented by the time-honored Budweiser creed and Anheuser-Busch medallion.
“We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate these two milestones than by creating the special Budweiser bowtie can paint scheme to kickoff the Chase at Chicagoland this weekend.” said Rob McCarthy, vice president, Budweiser.
