Kevin Harvick - No. 29 Pennzoil Platinum Chevrolet Impala SS - Daytona Preview
Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Pennzoil Platinum Chevrolet Impala SS
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Coke Zero 400– July 4, 2009
Venue: Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.
Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
NOTES:
This Week’s No. 29 Pennzoil Platinum Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway … Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 237 in this weekend’s Coke Zero 400. This is the same car Casey Mears raced (as a No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet) to a 15th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 and a 16th-place finish in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway in April. Built new last season, Clint Bowyer raced this car to 12th-place finishes last fall at Kansas Speedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The Gil Martin-led team also unloaded this car at Atlanta Motor Speedway last October, where Bowyer finished 20th. Bowyer also drove this Chevy Impala SS last season to 10th- and 19th-place finishes at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., a sixth-place finish last March at Atlanta and a 10th-place finish last April at Texas Motor Speedway. For 2009, this No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil racer was converted from its original downforce configuration into a superspeedway car.
Stat Facts … In 16 Sprint Cup Series starts at Daytona International Speedway, Harvick has posted one win (2007 Daytona 500), one pole, four top-five and six top-10 finishes. Additionally, Harvick has led 88 laps of competition and completed 97.5 percent of all laps attempted. In addition to his Daytona 500 win, Harvick visited Victory Lane at DIS in February of this year when he powered his way to the first Budweiser Shootout win of his career.
Restrictor Plate Success … Harvick has competed in 33 NSCS races on restrictor plate tracks (Daytona and Talladega), completing 97.4 percent of the laps contested in those events. He has one win (2007 Daytona 500), two poles, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes. Additionally, Harvick has led 166 laps and has only recorded one DNF.
The Fast Way Around … Harvick captured his only Daytona pole at the 2002 Pepsi 400. He posted a fast lap of 48.638 seconds (185.041 mph).
Change Of Scenery … Instead of the usual yellow and red Shell-Pennzoil colors, Harvick’s No. 29 RCR Chevrolet Impala SS will carry a special silver design in this weekend’s Coke Zero 400 to promote Pennzoil Platinum. Pennzoil Platinum is full synthetic engine oil with superior Active Cleansing Agents that continuously attacks potential and stubborn deposits to help keep the engine clean. Pennzoil Platinum is designed to provide the ultimate cleansing under the most severe driving style or conditions to maximize engine responsiveness.
The Collective RCR … In 17 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 19,474 laps with four different drivers including Burton, Bowyer, Harvick and Casey Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leaderboard for 95 laps and all four teams have earned just shy of $10.5 million combined purse money in 2009.
RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR owns 24 total victories at DIS, including Dale Earnhardt’s emotional win in 1998, kicking off NASCAR’s 50th anniversary, and Kevin Harvick’s dramatic win in the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500. Additionally, RCR won 10 straight (1990-1999) qualifying races with Earnhardt. All told, RCR has won six Bud Shootouts, including Harvick’s win earlier this season, 13 qualifying races, two Coke Zero 400s and two Daytona 500s. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also won the February 2002 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR and Harvick won the 2007 Nationwide Series opener at DIS in the No. 21 Chevrolet. In 111 points-paying Sprint Cup Series races at the historic 2.5-mile Daytona Beach race course, RCR has four wins, 10 poles, 27 top-five and 48 top-10 finishes. RCR-prepared race cars have also led 1,440 laps and earned just over $18 million in purse money. Richard Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s premier division earned two of those top 10s between February 1976 and July 1980.
Meet the No. 29 Crew … The over-the-wall pit crew for the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil team will sign autographs at the Chevrolet display located in the midway at DIS on Saturday, July 4, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
A Very Good Reason … Danny Lawrence, the assistant head engine builder/trackside manager for Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines, won’t be at the track this weekend. To understand how unusual that scenario is, since attending the April 1985 NASCAR event weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Lawrence has missed just one out of the past 788 NSCS events. Since missing that one event at Pocono in June 1991, Lawrence has attended 606 consecutive NSCS races.
There’s a very special reason for his absence, as Lawrence will be in England to participate in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in England on July 3-5, 2009. Lawrence and Rich Burgess, the shop manager for RCR’s No. 31 team in the NSCS, were asked by team owner Richard Childress to care for the No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo that seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt drove to his 76th and final victory. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Daytona International Speedway, a number of NASCAR stock cars, including Earnhardt’s legendary No. 3 Chevrolet, will appear at the annual event, held since 1993 at the Goodwood House in West Sussex, a place of great British motorsports history.
Danny Lawrence: “I’m really honored to be asked by Richard to travel over and take care of Dale’s No. 3 car, and I know Rich (Burgess) feels the same way. He and I were a part of the No. 3 team, and I was there at Daytona every time Dale came so close to winning the (Daytona) 500. One of my proudest accomplishments is being the engine builder the year he finally brought home the Daytona 500 trophy. It’ll be a real thrill to be there to share the No. 3 with the English race fans. Anyone that knows me and my love for racing and RCR knows it would take something this special to keep me away from the track this weekend.”
Double Dippin’ … In addition to his driving duties with the No. 29 Pennzoil Platinum Chevrolet at Daytona, Harvick, a 33-time race winner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, will drive the No. 33 VFW Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Incorporated on Friday, July 3 in the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered by Coca-Cola. The race will be televised live on ESPN and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Catch the Action … The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway can be seen live Saturday, July 4 beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT on TNT and heard live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 18th of 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events will air live on SPEED Friday, July 3 beginning at 4 p.m. EDT and will also be broadcast live on MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTES:
You were the second-place finisher in the Daytona 500. You had to be hoping the rain would go away and you’d get a chance to go for the win.
“I thought we were in a really good position to have a chance to win the race, but you also have the chance to get torn up, too. Daytona has been the highlight of the year, winning the (Budweiser) shootout and being competitive in the Daytona 500. Our cars didn’t have a lot of speed when we went down there earlier in the year, and we wound up totally going to the handling side of it and that really paid off towards the end of the race. As you go back in July, you know that handling is going to be the key issue and I think that’s the best thing we’ve got going for us at RCR right now is the speedway stuff and they’ve turned that around. You’ve just got to stay out of the mess and keep your car handling so you can stay as close to wide open all day as you can.”
How different is the race track from February to July?
“It’s definitely different because of the heat. The cars just slide around a little bit more, and you really have to go more towards the handling side than you would in February. Every year it’s relatively cool in February, so in July, you just go more towards grip and handling more than you do in the first race.”
Is it less likely to get in a big wreck at Daytona than at Talladega?
“It seems like they happen a little less frequently at Daytona than they do at Talladega, because the field gets spread out a little bit because of handling. The hardest wreck I’ve ever been in was at Daytona in a qualifying race. The opportunity is still there to have those big wrecks, it’s just it seems like you have less of them.”