Catchfence

Kevin Harvick with RCR Team Owner Richard Childress - Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR

No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet Impala

Race Notes and Quotes

This Week’s Budweiser Chevrolet at Pocono Raceway … Kevin Harvick will race chassis No. 318 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. The No. 29 team utilized this car to score an 11^th-place finish at Kansas Speedway earlier this season. Harvick also raced this car to three top-10 finishes in 2010: third at Kansas Speedway (October), eighth at Charlotte Motor Speedway (October) and sixth at Texas Motor Speedway (November).

Harvick at Pocono Raceway … In 21 starts at Pocono Raceway, Harvick has earned five top-five and eight top-10 finishes. His best finishing position at the 2.5-mile track is a fourth-place result, which he’s scored three times (August 2004 and June and August 2010). Harvick holds a 20.2 average starting position and a 14^th-place average finishing position. He’s led just five laps at Pocono, but has completed 95.6 percent (3,910 of 4,089) of the laps run in the races he’s competed in.

Last Time Around … In June, Harvick started 32nd and finished fifth at Pocono. Last year, he scored twin fourth-place finishes in the two races at the track.

In the Loop … Harvick holds a number of impressive loop data statistics at Pocono Raceway: first in green-flag passes (1,121); fifth in closers; fifth in quality passes (560); seventh in speed in traffic; ninth in drivers rating (92.0); 10th in average green-flag speed (158.636 mph); 10th in laps run in the top 15 (1,588 – 63.2 percent); 10th in average running position; and 10th in driver fastest late in a run.

Truckin’ it at Pocono … Kevin Harvick Inc. co-owner Harvick returns to the seat of the No. 2 Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Chevrolet Silverado for Saturday’s Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125 at Pocono Raceway. The race marks his third Camping World Truck Series event of the season. Harvick scored top-five finishes in each of his previous two NCWTS starts this year: fourth at Martinsville Speedway (April) and fifth at Dover International Speedway (May). SPEED will air the live television broadcast at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the live radio broadcast.

KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:

Looking ahead to Pocono, are there more passing zones there than most tracks you go to?

“Well, the race track creates that with the bumps and the asphalt being wore out. It’s a fun race track to drive because you have options. With the race track being in the shape that it is, there’s a lot of opportunities to make a lot of mistakes with your car sliding, bouncing, the tires falling off, everything that happens. I think from a driver’s perspective, that’s a good thing because you have an opportunity to make your car handle better and have those options to pass people.”

Do you think your team has a good handle on Pocono?

“We’ve run well there the last couple of years. I think as we move forward, we just have to keep doing the things that we’re doing. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We just need to put ourselves in position at the end of the race. I know that we ran well, so we just need to keep doing that.”

Explain why drivers like Pocono?

“It’s a fun race track to drive on because you have options. With the race track being the shape that it is, you have a lot of opportunities to make mistakes with your car sliding and bouncing and your tires falling off. I think from a driver’s perspective that’s a good thing because you have the options to make your car better and pass people.”

Is the team done experimenting for the Chase?

“I think we’ve raced pretty out of character the last six weeks. We need to get back to consistency and not take so many chances. I think our cars run well, but we just have to do some different things that we’ve gotten a little out of character that we’ve been doing.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release