Catchfence

No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race 26 of 35 – Atlanta Motor Speedway

DOMINATING RETURN: After a dominating performance in last year’s Nationwide Series race, Kevin Harvick returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway in the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet looking to repeat his win and add another Atlanta victory to his résumé.

Harvick led a race-high 131 laps in last year’s event, dominating the competition as he won his second-career race at the 1.5-mile track. The only other win Harvick had at the Atlanta track was his first-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in 2001.

In eight starts at the track, Harvick has one win, three top-five and five top-10 finishes. His three top-five finishes have in fact been top-two finishes over his last three appearances where Harvick scored two runner-up finishes in 2008 and 2007 before sealing the deal in 2009 with his first-career win at the track in the Series. He has led 136 laps, 131 of those coming during last year’s victory. In addition, his average starting position is 8.9, his average finish is 10.2 and he has completed 94.3 percent of laps attempted (1509 of 1600 laps).

On the Cup side, Harvick will be making his 20th-career start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. In his 19 previous starts at the track in the Cup Series, he has one win, four top-five and six top-10 finishes. He has led 136 laps and completed 97.4 percent of laps attempted (5966 of 6123 laps).

In the Truck Series, Harvick has two starts at the track with a second place-finish in 2009 followed by a dominating win earlier this year where he scored his first-career Truck Series win at the track. With his win, Harvick added 100 laps led to the 68 laps he led in 2009 for a total of 168 laps led at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Harvick has an average start of 3.5, an average finish of 1.5 and has completed 100 percent of laps attempted (260 of 260 laps).

COMPLETING THE TRIFECTA: With his dominating win earlier this season in the Truck Series, Harvick has now completed the trifecta at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He recorded wins at the track in all three of NASCAR’s elite Series, starting in 2001 with his first-career Cup Series win, followed in 2009 with his first Nationwide Series win at the track and this year with his Truck Series victory. The only other track where Harvick has accomplished this feat is Phoenix International Raceway, where he was the first driver to win in all three of the series at the one-mile track. Harvick won his first-career Truck Series race at Phoenix in 2002, followed by a sweep of the Nationwide and Cup Series races in 2006.

Kevin Harvick

As the defending winner of the Nationwide Series race and after a dominating performance in the Truck Series race earlier this season, talk about the confidence that you have returning to Atlanta.

“Atlanta has been a really good track for us and it seems like we have a really good base set-up, the only difference is the tires. You have that added variable in there because you don’t know how the Nationwide car is going to react. We ran good with the same stuff in the trucks, so hopefully going back it’s still a race track that works good for us and our confidence is really high.”

What makes Atlanta such a good track for you? What about it fits your driving style?

“I just like the fact that the car slides around a lot and you have to move around the race track and really search for somewhere to find more grip in order to make the car drive well and still be able to make fast lap times hunting for places to find grip.”

Winning the Truck race earlier this season at Atlanta made this the second track where you have won in all three series, with Phoenix being the first place you achieved this accomplishment. Talk about the significance of this and what it means to you.

“I think that it is pretty cool. Anytime you can win in any of the top-three series, it makes for a lot of fun, let alone win in all of them at one track. I know there are a lot of race tracks where we have won in a couple of races in a couple of different divisions, but not in the Truck divisions. Hopefully we can knock a few more of those off, but Atlanta has been pretty successful for us.”

With your success at Atlanta Motor Speedway, describe the perfect lap around the 1.5-mile track.

“It all depends on what lap you are on with the tires. The first lap is usually the perfect lap on the tires just because you have so much more grip than on the second, third, fourth, fifth laps, but Atlanta is just very fast and we seem to want to be right around the bottom. You use a lot of throttle, there’s a lot of corner speed and the car has to work good over the bumps.”

CHASSIS HISTORY: This weekend the No. 33 Rheem team will unload chassis No. 061 for Harvick at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This chassis made its race debut earlier this season at Chicagoland Speedway where Harvick earned his 21st career pole and finished the race seventh.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: In one of the closest finishes in NASCAR Nationwide Series history, Max Papis earned his career-best NASCAR finish in the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet as he crossed the finish line at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada inches behind Boris Said. Officially, Said edged Papis by 0.012 seconds, making it the closest road-course finish and fifth closest finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series history.

Kevin Harvick

Year No. Team Start Finish

2009 33 KHI 2 1
2008 33 KHI 6 2
2007 21 RCR 12 2
2006 33 KHI 30 11
2004 29 RCR 3 15
2003 21 RCR 2 9
2001 2 RCR 2 8
2000 2 RCR 14 34

*KHI: Kevin Harvick Inc.

*RCR: Richard Childress Racing

About Rheem:

Rheem Manufacturing Company (www.rheem.com) is a privately held company with headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. In its 81st year of operation, the company distributes throughout North America and world markets an award-winning line of eco-friendly, technologically advanced residential and commercial heating, cooling, water heating, whole-home standby generators, controls, pool and spa heaters, indoor air purification products and commercial boilers. The nation’s leading consumer products review magazine recently reported that Rheem products have been rated most reliable among all leading brands by tens of thousands of consumers. The premium brands of Rheem Manufacturing Company include Ruud, Raypak and Rheem. Rheem Manufacturing Company is the primary sponsor of Kevin Harvick Inc.’s No. 33 Chevrolet Nationwide® Series car and is an associate sponsor of KHI’s No 33 truck in the Camping World Truck Series.

About Kevin Harvick Inc.:

Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), established in 2001 by Kevin and DeLana Harvick, is an 80,000 sq. ft. facility located in Kernersville, N.C. Home of the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship team, KHI enters 2010 in its seventh full year of competition with two full-time Truck Series teams and one full-time Nationwide Series team. Four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday returns to the helm of the No. 33 Truck team looking for his fifth title and third championship for KHI (2009 and 2007), while Sprint Cup series stars Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler guide the No. 2 Truck team. Two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Harvick will again shine as the lead driver of the No. 33 Nationwide Series team as he continues to make his mark in motorsports and establish KHI as one of the top teams in NASCAR competition. For more information about KHI and its teams, please visit www.KevinHarvickInc.com.

- Kevin Harvick Inc. Press Release