Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet
Coke Zero 500 at Daytona International Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest:
Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet team travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., this weekend for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Daytona International Speedway (DIS).
Red, White and Blue Summer… The patriotic red, white and blue Budweiser Folds of Honor paint scheme will again be featured on Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet this weekend at DIS. 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 2 p.m. on Thursday in the DIS media center.
Chassis Info… The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team will utilize Chassis No. 295 in Saturday’s Coke Zero 400. Harvick started off 2012 in this car at DIS and was credited with a 22nd-place finish in the Budweiser Shootout after getting caught up in a wreck. Previously, Harvick drove this car to Victory Lane in the 2010 Coke Zero 400 at DIS and scored a seventh-place finish with it in the Daytona 500 that February as well.
Winner, Winner… Harvick has two victories in his 22 starts at DIS – the 2007 Daytona 500 and the 2010 Coke Zero 400. During the 2010 race at DIS Harvick started from the pole position and went on to earn his 13th NSCS career victory.
Harvick at Daytona… In addition to his two wins at DIS, Harvick has earned five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes at the superspeedway. He’s led 178 laps at DIS and has completed 93.4 percent of the laps run at the track since July 2001 (3,609 of 3,865 laps). Harvick holds an average starting position of 16.0 and an average finish of 15.0 at Daytona.
Last Year… Harvick started 31st in last year’s CokeZero 400 at DIS and earned a seventh-place finish.
In the Rearview Mirror… Harvick scored a hard-fought 11th-place finish during last weekend’s race at Kentucky Speedway. After starting fourth, Harvick was shuffled back several positions as he battled an ill-handling car. The No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor crew made several adjustments throughout the night and were able to earn a solid finish, leaving Kentucky still ranked sixth in the NSCS point standings.
Meet the Man … Fans will have an opportunity to meet Harvick this weekend at DIS by upgrading their race experience to include the 31 Degrees hospitality package. Harvick will make an appearance there on Saturday, July 7, at 4:30 p.m. Fans who would like to attend can contact the DIS ticket office to purchase the 31 Degrees hospitality package that includes access to food, drinks, a climate-controlled environment, driver appearances and comes with a Sprint Fan Zone/pre-race pass and more.
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 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race.
For the online version of the Budweiser Racing media guide, please visit .
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 talks about racing at Daytona International Speedway: What are your overall thoughts heading back to Daytona International Speedway? “Speedway racing has been good for us. The last couple of races at Talladega haven’t been great due to some crashes, but Daytona has been a good race track for us. Ithink the main talk when we get back this year is going to be about cooling as we go to the restrictor plate stuff again. Obviously with the race being inJuly the cooling isn’t going to be better than it was in February, so it will be interesting to find that balance as to how hard you can push the engine and keep yourself in a position to be able to run up front and hopefully win the race.”
Do you have different strategies for the weather differences in the two Daytona races? “It used to be a lot different before they repaved the race track. You had to really worry about handling. But July is definitely the hottest time of the year that you could go and race in Daytona. I don’t think handling is as big of an issue once the track was repaved, so now it’s just a big chess game.”
How did the Daytona 500 start the season out for your team? “We ran a pretty conservative race at the 500 and didn’t really get ourselves in the right position there toward the end of the race to have a chance to win, but we were competitive and took care of our stuff. We knew we were going to have some cooling issues and probably couldn’t race all day, but all in all, it was a good start to the year.”
Harvick’s Career Record at Daytona International Speedway:
Daytona International Speedway Track Facts: Track Length – 2.5-miles Race Length – 160 laps/400 miles Grandstand Seating Capacity – 146,000 First Race – Feb. 22, 1959 Degree of Banking in Corners – 31 degrees Degree of Banking on Straights – 3 degrees Degree of Banking in Tri-Oval – 18 degrees Frontstretch – 3,800 Backstretch – 3,000 TV – TNT, 6:30 p.m. ET Radio – MRN Radio affiliates, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio
