Catchfence

2010 Kevin Harvick - Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet Impala
Race Notes and Quotes

This Week’s Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway … Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 318 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable.  Built new for 2010, this Chevrolet made its debut last month at Kansas Speedway, where Harvick led 16 laps and finished third.  He then followed that up with an eighth-place finish two weeks later at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Back to Yellow and Red … After switching to a special white and camouflage paint scheme at Talladega for longtime RCR partner, Realtree, the No. 29 car will be back in its familiar yellow and red colors of Shell-Pennzoil for the final three races of the year.

Career Texas Stats … The Texas 500 marks Harvick’s 356th career start in the NSCS.

• • In 15 NSCS starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Harvick owns three top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
  • He has completed 99.8 percent (5,008 of 5,020) of the total laps contested at TMS.
  • He owns an average finish of 12.9 at Texas, seventh best for Harvick of all tracks on the NSCS circuit.
  • He has finished 11^th or better in five of his last six TMS starts.
  • In 12 Nationwide Series starts at TMS, Harvick owns four wins, five top-five and nine top-10 finishes.  All four of Harvick’s wins came in RCR-prepared Chevrolets.

Last Time Around … Harvick and the No. 29 team are looking to improve upon their result at TMS in April, when the Bakersfield, Calif., native finished seventh.  The weekend was plagued by rain, as the teams were only able to manage one practice session, and the race was postponed until Monday morning.

Talladega Thriller … Harvick and the No. 29 scored a runner-up finish last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, as NASCAR officials deemed teammate Clint Bowyer was inches ahead at the time of a caution flag on the final lap.  After suffering damage in two separate incidents during the race, the Gil Martin-led team made the necessary repairs and Harvick was able to draft his way back to the front of the field in the closing laps.

Master of the Restrictor Plates … Harvick enjoyed tremendous success at restrictor-plate racing in 2010.  In the four points-paying races, Harvick finished in the top 10 in each one, the first time that feat has been accomplished since Jeff Gordon in 2007.  Harvick enjoyed an average finish of 2.75 in the four races.  In February at Daytona International Speedway, Harvick was one of, if not the most dominant competitor, throughout the 2010 Speedweeks.  He opened the season with a bang by winning his second straight Budweiser Shootout.  He followed that up by finishing second in his qualifying race for the Daytona 500.  In the “Great American Race,” Harvick led the most laps (41) and finished seventh.  In April at Talladega, he won, and followed that up with a dominating performance in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July, where he led the most laps (28) and scored the victory.

Mr. Consistent … The RCR driver leads all NSCS drivers in top-10 finishes with 23, and is tied for the lead in top-five finishes with 15.  For the season, Harvick owns three points-paying wins (Talladega, Daytona in July and Michigan in August), a second straight Budweiser Shootout victory at Daytona in February, and 29 top-15 finishes in the season’s 33 races.

In the Loop … Harvick owns some very impressive loop data statistics over the season’s first 33 races.

• • First in average finish (9.0).
  • Second in Closer category, total positions improved during the last 10 percent of each race.
  • Third in fastest drivers late in a run.
  • Third in fastest speed in traffic.
  • Third in green flag speed.
  • Fifth 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 percentage of laps run on lead lap.
  • Sixth in fastest drivers early in a run.
  • Fifth in average running position.

Chevrolet Allows Fans to Celebrate Like a Champion in Las Vegas … Kevin Harvick fans can enter the “Team Chevy Celebrate Like a Champion” Sweepstakes for their chance to win a grand prize package that includes a meet and greet with Team Chevy driver Kevin Harvick during Champions’ Week in Las Vegas.  The grand prize winner will also win two Chevrolet Cruze LTZ, a trip for four to Las Vegas-Including four tickets to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony and $2,000 spending cash-and the chance to meet both Kevin Harvick and Miss Sprint Cup.  Fans can enter the “Team Chevy Celebrate Like a Champion” sweepstakes at the Win Your Chevy Sweepstakes page now through Nov. 15, 2010.  No purchase is necessary. See official rules for details at www.winyourchevy.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your…Grocery Carts? The No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil crew will be participating in the Shell-Kroger Grocery Bagging Challenge at the Kroger located at 945 W. Lamar in Arlington, Texas on Thursday, November 4 from 5:30-7 p.m. CDT.  The competition will pit the crew against fans to see who can bag groceries the fastest. Fans who fill their bags faster than the crew will win a $25 Shell Gift Card, and the runner-up will receive a Kroger Gift Card in thanks for their participation. Additionally, the Kroger logo will run on the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet during the November 7 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:

With three guys so close in points, what is it going to take to win this championship?

“I really think you are going to have to finish in the top five over the last three races.  If you’re not able to do that and be in contention to lead laps, you’re probably not going to win the championship.  You can’t be conservative.  You can’t go there hoping for a top 10 because, as you’ve seen over the past few years, top fives and leading laps is what it’s going to take over the next three weeks.  I just believe one of three cars is going to do that.”

You guys have separated yourselves from the pack, so can you be more aggressive at Texas and some of these other tracks than you have been?

“I think so.  We will take a little more horsepower this time than we did the last time we were there. We ran well the first time we were there this year, and we have a pretty good baseline to start our set-up. We feel like we have good notes, and I feel like we have much better race cars than we had at the beginning of the year. Our cars were great at the beginning of the year, but I think they are much better now. We’ve fixed some issues we had on pit road, and I feel like we’re a better race team than we were six weeks ago. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and keep from having those big hiccups.”

You’ve been pretty consistent at Texas. It looks like you guys having been closing in on the right package for Texas.

“Yes, with all of the progression with the cars, the power, and the difference in the way we understand some of the engineering things we work with now, I think we’re just better than we were the first time at Texas. You never know until you get back, and a lot of things are dictated by the tire and using those notes. You just never know until you get there and go on the track for those first few laps.”

What is the key to getting around Texas?

“Well, the key is getting off the exits of the corners, holding it wide open, and finding that balance between being too loose and too tight up off the corners.  Texas is a lot different than a most of the other mile-and-a-half race tracks, because the banking flattens out so fast.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release