No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet
Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
· Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet team utilized teamwork and strategy Saturday night to leave the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway with a seventh-place finish and the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings.
· Harvick started the race from the 31st position and quickly paired up with his Richard Childress Racing teammate Paul Menard. The duo drafted together for the entire race, running inside the top 20 for all but one lap.
· The No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor team pitted four times during the event. The first (lap 24) and final (lap 141) stops were for fuel only, while the team took two tires on the second stop (lap 49) and four on the third (lap 94).
· Harvick led the field for the first time at lap 25 and went on to lead three more times for a grand total of 16 laps.
· Twice during the race all four Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets ran nose to tail and held down positions first through fourth with the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet leading the way.
· Harvick and Menard tried a number of strategies and techniques throughout the race to learn what worked best for their cars and they made use of that knowledge to put themselves in position to go for the win in the closing laps.
· As Harvick and Menard closed in on the top spot, the caution flag waved with two laps to go, sending the race into overtime. The field made the first attempt at a green-white-checkered restart at lap 162 with Harvick in the seventh position.
· The caution flag quickly waved again for a multi-car accident, setting the field up for a second attempt at a green-white-checkered restart. This time Harvick restarted fifth as he took the green at lap 168. The No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet took the checkered flag in seventh position.
· The race was extended 10 laps past the originally scheduled distance by the late-race cautions.
· David Ragan scored his first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400. Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five finishing positions.
· Harvick now leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver standings by five points over Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth complete the top five.
· Follow along each weekend with Harvick and the team on Twitter. Check out @KevinHarvick for behind-the-scenes information straight from the driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. Get live updates from the track each weekend from @Black29Car, the PR team for Harvick. Also, follow @RCRracing and @RCR29KHarvick for additional information about the Richard Childress Racing organization.
Harvick on the race at Daytona: “We had a plan to stick with the No. 27 (Paul Menard) all night and I think we ran every lap with him. The initial green-white-checkered (restart) we really timed the restart well with our Budweiser and Menards Chevrolets there to get a good run off of (Turn) 2 and the caution came out. On the second one, it took me a little bit longer to get up in front of Paul and then I didn’t do a very good job of backing up to him to get us attached real good. We didn’t get as good a run and a couple got up underneath us. But all in all, the car doesn’t have a scratch on it and I think Paul has a couple of dents in the back of his.
“It’s just one of those deals where if you can survive a night like this and you can get a decent finish; you always want to win, but they’re a crap shoot at the end and you’ve just got to be rolling to see what happens.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Coke Zero 400:
Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Affliction Clothing Ford team finished second.
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished fourth.
Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 Pepsi MAX Chevrolet team finished sixth.
Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 12th.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 15th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard Heritage/AMP Energy Chevrolet team finished 19th.
Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge, finished 34th.
Mike Skinner and the No. 60 Big Red Toyota team finished 40th.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Coke Zero 400:
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet, finished eighth.
Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 21st.
Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Wheaties FUEL Chevrolet finished 36th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Kentucky next weekend for the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. As the Sprint Cup teams prepare for their first race at the 1.5-mile track, they will get nearly six hours of on-track testing on Thursday. SPEED’s coverage begins on Friday with two practice sessions starting live at 11:30 a.m. ET. SPEED will also air qualifying coverage that evening at 5 p.m. ET. On Saturday, TNT will provide the live race broadcast starting with the pre-race show at 6:30 p.m. ET. Sirius XM NASCAR Radio and PRN will air radio coverage of the on-track action.