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Kevin Harvick - Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images

This Week’s Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet at Pocono Raceway … Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 309 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet is a completely brand new car which will see its first laps on the track during Friday’s practice session.

Follow the Leader … Fresh off his 11th-place finish last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Harvick remains the leader in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points. Harvick has one win, four top-five and nine top-10 finishes in the season’s first 13 races.

Career Pocono Stats … The Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 marks Harvick’s 336th career start in the NSCS.

• 18 NSCS starts at the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped oval, Harvick owns two top-five and five top-10 finishes.

• He owns an average finish of 15.7 at Pocono.

• His best finish at Pocono was a fourth-place effort in August 2008.

• He has finished in the top 15 in eight of his last 10 Pocono starts.

• Pocono Raceway is the only track on the NSCS circuit that he has not led a lap.

In the Loop … Kevin Harvick owns some very impressive loop data statistics over the season’s first 13 races.

• First in average finish (8.8).

• First in Closer category, total positions improved during the last 10 percent of each race.

• Fifth in fastest speed in traffic.

• Sixth in Driver Rating, a formula combining the following categories: wins, finishes, top-15 finishes, average running position while on lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps, and lead lap finish.

• Sixth in average running position.

Charlotte Coca-Cola 600 Recap … Last weekend at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600, Harvick completed every lap and crossed the finish line in 11th. The Bakersfield, Calif., driver overcame two rounds of adversity, one from a bent splitter brace after running over a piece of debris, and another from a severe vibration that forced him to pit out of sequence. The result was Harvick’s 12th finish of 13th or better in the season’s first 13 events.

Jim Rome Is Burning … Kevin Harvick will be a featured guest on ESPN’s Jim Rome Is Burning show on Thursday, June 3, at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

Drive for Five … Shell is launching a new Shell Drive for Five card that will offer new cardholders the opportunity to save five cents per gallon on Shell-branded fuel when you buy a minimum of 45 gallons a month, up to 100 gallons. With more than 80 percent of all Americans living within five miles of a Shell location coast-to-coast, having a Shell card can be an ideal choice for drivers. Consumers can pick up an application to apply at any Shell-branded site, apply online at www.shell.us/driveforfive or over the phone at 1-888-98-SHELL.

Get Your Key to Clean … Pennzoil® announced the “Get Your Key to Clean” promotion this past weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The promotional sweepstakes provides consumers the opportunity to win a VIP weekend for the Charlotte races in October, as well as a piece of automotive history, the first vehicle produced by the newly formed RCR Street Performance Group, a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS. The “Get Your Key to Clean” promotion, which runs June 1-July 31, 2010, will treat five finalists and a guest to an RCR VIP Experience at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 15, 2010. A ceremony will be held before the start of the race where each of the five finalists will be presented with a key and a chance to test the key in the RCR Street Performance Camaro SS. One key will start the engine determining the Grand Prize Winner. Go to www.Pennzoil.com to enter.

KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:

What are your thoughts about Pocono Raceway?

“Pocono has a lot of its own characteristics, to say the least. It’s a 2.5-mile triangle-shaped race track that has three pretty tricky turns. Turn one is really bumpy, and the tunnel turn has a pretty big curb and it is pretty easy to make a mistake there. Turn three is one of the flattest turns we deal with on the NASCAR circuit. It definitely has its own unique challenges.”

What part of Pocono is the trickiest for you to get accustomed to?

“For me, the trickiest part of Pocono is the tunnel turn. You have to carry so much speed into that turn that there is not much room for error. The tunnel turn is so much harder to get through now than it used to be. A few years ago there was a flat curb there and you could lean on it a little bit if you needed to. Now, there is a big curb there and if you hit it, you’ll probably be forced up the race track, and the chances of hitting the wall are pretty high.”

Some drivers say the tunnel turn at Pocono is one of the most difficult turns in all of NASCAR. Would you agree with that?

“It’s a very challenging corner. It’s very inviting to drive the car in too far and then you push up in the center of the corner. When you get it right, it’s a really, really fun corner to go through because it’s really fast and the car is right on the edge getting into the corner, and you’re in the gas really early on exit. The car just kind of has that loose swing as you come up off the corner and you’re right up against the wall. It’s really flat. There’s a little bump in the middle of it. It’s really fun when your car is right. If it’s not right, you lose a ton of time there.”

The frontstretch is so long at Pocono. When you’re coming out of turn three, can you even see turn one?

“You can kind of see (turn one). It’s a long way down there. The turn three exit is the most important corner on the track, just because you have that long front straightaway. If you screw up the exit of turn three, you screw up the place where you can gain the most time. You have to have a lot of horsepower and you have to have your car handling well. You have to get over the bumps right and there’s a lot of technique in remembering what you need to do in each corner. A lot of elements come into play at Pocono.”

Pocono has been a good track for you. Any particular reason for your success there?

“Pocono is a fun track to race on. The last few years, it’s come down to strategy and we’ve been solid. It’s a fun track, and it’s really rough in turn one on the bottom. A lot of times you run through the middle. Usually when my car is running good, I can run anywhere I want through turn one. The tunnel turn is a really fast corner that you run right at the bottom. It’s got a really big curb that you really don’t want to hit at all, because it jumps you up in the air. It’s a challenging race track, and it has three totally different turns.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release