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Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet Team Leave Texas with a Top-20 Finish

Post-Race Reports | NASCAR Cup Series | 04/10/11

No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team left Texas Motor Speedway with a 20th-place finish in Saturday night’s Samsung Mobile 500.
• After starting from 29th position, the No. 29 team struggled with the handling of the Budweiser Chevrolet throughout the race and Harvick wasn’t able to gain a lot of ground.
• The team attempted to make gains on the first two trips to pit road, but instead lost ground through no fault of their own. On the first stop Harvick was caught between the No. 47 and No. 00 teams that were pitted on either side of the No. 29’s stall. On the following trip to pit road, the No. 00 car spun leaving his pit box, blocking Harvick behind the No. 47 in the No. 29 team’s stall.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team made air pressure and chassis adjustments throughout the race to help the car’s handling. Despite the changes, Harvick continued to battle to stay inside the top 20.
• Two long green-flag runs in the second half of the race left Harvick down two laps to the leaders going into the final run of the race. In the closing laps a couple of teams ran out of fuel, moving the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet up to 20th position when the checkered flag waved.
• Matt Kenseth snapped a 76-race winless streak by claiming the victory in Saturday’s race. Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Paul Menard completed the top-five finishing positions.
• Edwards’ top-five finish moved him into the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. He holds a nine-point margin over second-place driver, Kyle Busch. Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch round out the top-five drivers.
• Harvick’s 20th-place finish dropped him four positions to ninth in the driver point standings. He’s currently 28 points behind the leader.
• 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.

Crew Chief Gil Martin on the team’s run at Texas and RCR’s season so far:
The streak had to come to an end, but I bet this isn’t what you expected at Texas. “No. It’s not, but it’s not the end of the world either. We’ve had a good race every race this year. Sooner or later you’re going to have a bad one. We’ll bounce back from it.”

Does this give you any concern for the next mile-and-a-half race track? “No, not at all. It’s just one of those things that happens. We’ll come back from it. We’re tough.”

The other three RCR teammates were all top 12 and your team won two in a row. What does that say about RCR? “I just think it shows how strong our whole organization is. All the cars have run good every week, just the other three guys, especially the No. 31, have had some bad luck. Tonight they were able to put a pretty decent finish together. It just shows that none of the teams are weak and that they’re all pretty strong. We’ve just been able to put some of them together at the end.”

The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Samsung Mobile 500:
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford team finished first.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet team finished ninth.
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 18th.
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished 21st.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 27th.
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 Fast Five/SPEED Energy Dodge team finished 31st.

The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Samsung Mobile 500:
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet finished second.
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet, finished fifth.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 11th.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for next Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team’s first practice session is at 2 p.m. ET on Friday and final practice is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. SPEED will provide live TV coverage of both sessions. In addition, SPEED will air Saturday’s qualifying live at 11:30 a.m. ET. FOX will air the live race broadcast on Sunday starting with the pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET and MRN Radio and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio will provide radio coverage.


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