No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen at Watkins Glen International
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team survived a wild green-white-checkered finish to score a sixth-place effort in Monday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen road course race at Watkins Glen International.
• Originally scheduled for Sunday, the race was delayed a day due to rain and the field took the green flag just after 10 a.m. ET on Monday with Harvick in the 23rd starting position.
• At the start of the race the team stuck with their pre-planned race strategy and hit pit road for fuel at lap 6. That dropped Harvick back to the 38th position, but put him back on the course with open track ahead, allowing him to gain some ground on those bunched up in traffic. Other teams elected to start pitting about 10 laps later.
• The caution flag waved for the first time at lap 27 as the No. 16 car ran out of fuel on the course. After telling crew chief Gil Martin that they “had a good car,” Harvick brought the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet down pit road to the attention of the No. 29 pit crew on lap 29. They changed four tires, added fuel and lined up 18th for the restart at lap 31.
• The caution period threw a kink into the team’s original pit strategy, but after analyzing the fuel mileage numbers, Martin called for the team to make their final pit stop of the day at lap 60 for four tires and fuel, knowing they’d be good to make it to the checkered flag from there.
• The strategy played out and Harvick was in the 12th position when the caution flag waved at lap 65. Martin told Harvick to conserve all the fuel he could under caution to allow some leeway in case of a green-white-checkered restart at the end.
• The caution flag waved again at lap 85 with Harvick running in the eighth position. Lengthy cleanup for oil on the track sent the race past the originally scheduled distance of 90 laps. Once again, Martin told Harvick to save all the fuel he could to make sure they could make it to the end.
• The green flag waved at lap 90 and the field bunched up getting into the first turn. Harvick managed to pass two cars in the lap and a half before the caution flag waved during the final lap. The field was frozen when the caution came out, ending the race, and Harvick was scored in the sixth position.
• Marcos Ambrose earned his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in Monday’s road course race at Watkins Glen International. Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano completed the top-five finishing positions.
• Following Monday’s race, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are tied for the top spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings with 752 points each. Jimmie Johnson sits six markers back in third and Harvick is fourth, 14 points out of the lead. Matt Kenseth rounds out the top-five in the standings.
• 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 his sixth-place finish at Watkins Glen: “We had a great car; we just didn’t get track position until right there at the very end. On that last restart everybody went three wide and sliding through the first corner. I just slowed down, got into the side of the No. 48 and kept digging. It got crazy, but was a good finish for the Budweiser team.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen:
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished second.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford team finished 14th.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet team finished 15th.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 18th.
• Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge, finished 24th.
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished 26th.
• Andrew Ranger, driver of the No. 32 Bully Hill Vineyards Ford, finished 35th.
• Mike Skinner and the No. 60 Big Red Toyota team finished 43rd.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen:
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished ninth.
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet finished 11th.
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet, finished 32nd.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will compete in the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday, August 21, at Michigan International Speedway. ESPN will air the live television broadcast of the race starting with the pre-race show at noon ET. MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio coverage of the race.