No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Jeff Byrd 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• After a late-race accident that took them out of contention for the win, Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team rallied back to score a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• Harvick started Sunday’s race from the 15th position and fell back several spots before the first caution at lap 28. He brought the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet to the attention of his pit crew for new tires and adjustments to help the car’s loose-handling condition. On the subsequent caution at lap 50, the team opted for only fuel and a chassis adjustment, and Harvick restarted in the 11th position on lap 56.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet was solidly inside the top five in less than 10 laps. Harvick continued to gain positions and took the lead at lap 155.
• Harvick remained first until he got hung up in lapped traffic and the No. 48 car got by at lap 192. At the halfway point the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet was running in the third position and remained inside the top six as Harvick radioed to the crew that the car was still loose in the middle of the corner. On the subsequent trip to pit road, crew chief Gil Martin called for a four-tire stop with air pressure adjustments to help the car’s handling.
• While running in the top five, contact from the No. 5 car sent Harvick for a spin at lap 437. The No. 29 Chevrolet sustained damage to the left-rear quarter panel and the team pitted twice under caution to make repairs and change tires.
• Harvick restarted at the back of the field in 16th position at lap 444. A caution just six laps later allowed him to line up with the rest of the lead-lap cars in the 13th position when the green flag waved at lap 456.
• Harvick worked his way into the top 10 by lap 471. In the remaining laps he raced his way up to seventh and passed the No. 22 car coming to the checkered flag to finish sixth.
• Kyle Busch scored the win in Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500. Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard rounded out the top-five finishers.
• Kurt Busch took over the top spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings after Sunday’s race. He holds a one-point lead over Edwards. Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Menard round out the top five.
• The solid top-10 run at Bristol moved Harvick up five spots to 15th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. He’s currently 13 points outside of the top 10.
• 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 Bristol Motor Speedway and the No. 29 team’s season:
Did you just go through a little bit of everything in the race today? “Well, I just want to thank all of my guys. You know when we were sitting there running third and fifth, we were really just riding. I just wanted to make sure that we had a race car left and the No. 4 got a little tight and the No. 5 ran over us again. Luckily we didn’t hit anything and they got the fenders off the tires and our Budweiser Chevrolet was really, really fast today, especially the last run there. I was able to maneuver and pass cars and do what I needed to do. We’ve had top-five cars every week and we don’t really have a lot to show for it. We came back and got a good sixth-place finish today. These guys are doing a great job and I really think it shows the maturity of the race team and the things that we go through and the way we’ve been able to come back.”
I heard words uttered over the radio that this is what a championship is all about. Do you feel that this year? “We have a championship team. We proved that we could race for it last year. Everybody is just so confident in each other and everybody is just mellow on the radio and when something happens we just fix it and come back. That’s not a feeling I’ve ever had until last year and these first four weeks I’ve had that feeling over and over again and we keep fighting back.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Jeff Byrd 500:
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford team finished fourth.
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished ninth.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet team finished 11th.
• Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Pepsi MAX Chevrolet, finished 14th.
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 18th.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 36th.
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 SPEED Energy/Food City Dodge team finished 39th.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Jeff Byrd 500:
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet finished fifth.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 20th.
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 BB&T Fuel Chevrolet team finished 35th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., next week for the Auto Club 400. SPEED will provide coverage of Friday’s practice at 3 p.m. EDT, followed by qualifying at 7 p.m. EDT. Saturday’s practice sessions will air live on SPEED starting at 2:30 p.m. EDT. FOX will air the Auto Club 400 starting with the pre-race show at 2:30 p.m. EDT. MRN Radio and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast.