Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet
Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway
Budweiser Racing Notes of Interest:
Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet team travel to Sparta, Ky., this weekend for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Kentucky Speedway.
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.)
Media Availability… Harvick will be available to members of the media at 5:55 p.m. on Thursday in the Kentucky Speedway media center.
Chassis Info… The No. 29 team will utilize Chassis No. 381 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable this weekend. Last year Harvick raced this car to a 13th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in November.
Last Year… Harvick started 19th in last year’s inaugural NSCS race at Kentucky Speedway and scored a 16th-placefinish. In the Rearview Mirror… In last weekend’s race at Sonoma, Harvick started 26th and ran inside the top-10 before running out of fuel just past the halfway point of the race. The team was able to rebound and scored a 16th-place finish.
Added Experience… While Harvick has only one prior NSCS start at Kentucky Speedway, he’s competed in three NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) races at the 1.5-mile track. Harvick won the inaugural NNS race at Kentucky in 2001 and earned finishes of sixth (2006) and second (2011) in his subsequent starts at the track.
Double Duty… In addition to his duties with the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet in the NSCS race on Saturday, Harvick will drive the No. 33 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet in Friday night’s NNS race.
Follow along each weekend with Harvick and the team on Twitter. Check out @KevinHarvick for behind-the-scenes information straight from the driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. Get live updates from the track each weekend from @Black29Car, the PR team for Harvick. Also, follow @RCRracing and @RCR29KHarvick for additional information about the Richard Childress Racing organization. Fans can also interact with Harvick on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/OfficialKevinHarvick.
Harvick discusses racing at Kentucky Speedway:
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 stands haven’t been full, so it’s one of those places that just really supports everything that we do.”
Kentucky Speedway Track Facts: Track Length – 1.5-miles Race Length – 267 laps/400 miles Grandstand Seating Capacity – 107,000 First Race – July 9, 2011 Degree of Banking in Corners – 14 degrees Degree of Banking on the Frontstretch – 8 degrees Degree of Banking on the Backstretch – 4 degrees Frontstretch – 1,662 Backstretch – 1,600 TV – TNT, 6:30 p.m. ET Radio – PRN affiliates, Siriux XM NASCAR Radio
