No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen at Watkins Glen International
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, will film a commercial for ESPN and throw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees Major League Baseball game before heading to Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International this weekend where he will compete in Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen 90-lap road course race.
• Harvick will be available to members of the media outside the No. 29 Budweiser hauler in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) garage at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, August 12.
• Harvick will travel to ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Conn., this week to film a “This is SportsCenter” commercial for the television network. The “This is SportsCenter” series of comical commercials first started in 1994 and have featured a wide range of sports stars, including NASCAR drivers Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte.
• On Wednesday, August 10, Harvick will throw out the first pitch at Yankees Stadium in Bronx, N.Y., as the New York Yankees face the Los Angeles Angels. A long-time Yankees fan, Harvick has attended a number of the team’s games over the years and even threw out the first pitch at a Yankees game back in 2001. Wednesday’s game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN.
• Race fans in the Watkins Glen, N.Y., area can meet Harvick on Thursday, August 11. He will appear at Tops Friendly Markets, located at 504 ½ South Franklin Street, from 4:30 – 6 p.m.
• Harvick will race chassis No. 321 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend. The No. 29 team utilized this car to score an 11th-place finish at Watkins Glen in 2010.
• In 10 starts at Watkins Glen, Harvick has earned one win (2006), two top-five and five top-10 finishes. His average starting position at the road course is 11.7 and his average finishing position is 13.6. Harvick has completed 96.9 percent (874 of 902) of the laps run in the last 10 NSCS races at Watkins Glen. He has also led a total of 29 laps there.
• Harvick’s loop data rankings at Watkins Glen include: sixth in laps in the top 15 (65.7 percent); seventh in laps led (28 laps); 10th in average driver rating (89.60); 11th fastest on restarts (114.345 mph); 12th in average running position (15.387); 13th in green-flag speed (118.288 mph); 14th in green-flag passes (227); 14th in speed in traffic (116.330 mph).
• Billy Odea, spotter for the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team, returns to his native state for this weekend’s race. The 44-year-old Odea hails from Victor, N.Y., located about 75 miles from Watkins Glen. He’s been Harvick spotter for six years and also works in the RCR shop as a mechanic during the week.
• For the second consecutive year, the Wyndham Championship is partnering with the Kevin Harvick Foundation for its Pro-Am event on Monday, Aug. 15. The event will kick-off the 72nd annual Wyndham Championship, set for Aug. 15 - 21 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Harvick will join PGA TOUR professionals and other amateur golfers in filling four-person teams to compete in the second-annual Kevin Harvick Foundation pro-am presented by Technology Concepts & Design. In keeping with the Kevin Harvick Foundation mission statement to positively affect the lives of children, several hundred local youth will attend the event as special guests of the Kevin Harvick Foundation and its partners. For additional information about the event and to purchase tickets, visit www.wyndhamchampionship.com.
• The DIRECTV Head2Head Knockout Challenge enters the second round with Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International. This week Harvick is paired up against his RCR teammate Paul Menard in fantasy racing game that ends with the August 27 race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Fans participating in the challenge can win an array of prizes and the drivers involved are competing to win money for their selected charities. Harvick has designated the Kevin Harvick Athletic Scholarship Fund at California State University, Bakersfield, as his charity of choice for the challenge. Fans can follow along with the bracket-style game at www.directv.com/nascar.
• For the online version of the Budweiser Racing media guide, please visit http://www.budracingmedia.com.
• 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.
Kevin Harvick on racing at Watkins Glen and throwing out the first pitch at the Yankees game on Wednesday:
When it comes to the road course tracks, you seem to run better at Watkins Glen? Do you like it better than Sonoma? “It’s just different. I mean, for the fact that it’s just a lot higher-speed course. Sonoma is a lot more technical, a lot slower speed. Watkins Glen is high speed, run over all the curbs. I enjoy them both. I enjoy all the road races that we have. I think we need more of them. It’s one of those things that I enjoy getting to do a couple times a year.”
What’s the good and bad and ugly about Watkins Glen? “Restarts are the ugly usually at that particular track. The road courses seem to have become really rough. They’ve probably become the most exciting races we go to on the circuit. The good is it’s usually a whole lot cooler up in that part of the country this time of year.”
Do you expect the same slamming and banging as Sonoma? “Probably, but probably not quite as much because the fenders do mean something there because of the high-speed stuff.”
You’re going to throw out the first pitch at Yankees Stadium this week? “Yeah, it’s going to be pretty cool. I’ve wound up with some good friends in Gene Monahan (head athletic trainer for the Yankees) and Joe Girardi (manager of the Yankees) up there. To go up there, see those guys, hang out for the evening and just take it all in is going to be a lot of fun.”