Kevin Harvick
No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
· Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team took home a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway after leading on five occasions for a total of nine laps.
· Harvick started the race in 38th position and quickly hooked up with Dave Blaney in the No. 36 Chevrolet, who would remain his drafting partner for the first three-fourths of the race.
· The duo stuck together and stayed between 20th and 30th position for the first 100 laps of the race. Following their third pit stop of the day at lap 94, Harvick and Blaney worked their way up to the front and were running one-two at lap 100. Harvick led for the first time 22 laps later.
· Harvick and Blaney were separated following pit stops after the caution flag waved at lap 139. Harvick restarted in first at lap 144 and drafted with his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer until the caution flag waved at lap 163.
· When the field went green again at lap 166, Harvick found himself drafting with Blaney once again, but the pairing was short-lived and Harvick ended up with Bowyer for the closing laps. Harvick pushed Bowyer to the lead at lap 185 and then fell back a few positions. The two charged forward on the final lap, but were beat to the checkered flag, leaving Bowyer in second while Harvick finished fifth.
· The top-five finish vaulted Harvick up five spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings to fourth. He’s now just 27 markers out of first.
· Jimmie Johnson scored the win in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 by a 0.002-second margin over Bowyer, tying the series record for the closest finish. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick completed the top five.
· Carl Edwards continues to lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. Johnson sits five points back in second place. Earnhardt Jr., Harvick and Kurt Busch round out 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 Sunday’s race at Talladega:
Was there anything you guys could have done differently to put a RCR car in Victory Lane again? “At that point you just push as hard as you can. We tried to back up a little bit there on the No. 24 and No. 5 and never saw the No. 99 and No. 16 coming at the finish and I didn’t know where the No. 48 and the other guy, I don’t know who was pushing him, but I didn’t know where they were going to go.
“You just push for all your might there at the end. If the No. 48 would have just locked up behind us we would have been in the right line but he went to the bottom and had a lane down there and won the race. All you can ask for here is a chance and everybody on our Budweiser Chevy team did a great job. When it’s rolling at the finish here, you usually have a good finish.”
Tell us about your day. “It was a good day for our Budweiser Chevrolet. All you can ask for at these types of places is a chance to win and today we thought we had the No. 33 (Clint Bowyer) pushed to a win when they all got three and four wide. As the second car you have the wonderful job of pushing and that’s all you can do because there is nowhere to go. So, I just pushed him as hard as I could and we came up a little bit short.”
Was the race what you expected going into it? “It was pretty wild there at the end. It was just a lot of fun and I’m just glad we finished one of these speedway races. I was 0 for 2 this year after only running about 50 laps between the Nationwide race and the Daytona 500. It’s a good top-five run for us. Anytime you can roll out of Talladega with a good finish, you did all right.”
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Aaron’s 499:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet team finished fourth.
Robby Gordon and the No. 7 Fast Five/SPEED Energy Dodge team finished 20th.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 33rd.
Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford team finished 36th.
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished 37th.
Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 38th.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in the Aaron’s 499:
Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet finished second.
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Schrock/Menards Chevrolet, finished 12th.
Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Cat Financial Chevrolet team finished 16th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will enjoy a weekend off before traveling to Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for the Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400 on Saturday, April 30.