Author: Tom Jensen
Date: April 8, 2016
Some 800 students at Samuel Beck Elementary School in Trophy Club, Texas, got a big surprise Thursday, when Kevin Harvick showed up for their school assembly.
Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, recognized fourth-grader Jenna Johnson for winning the Lionel Racing "Design A Die-cast" competition as part of Texas Motor Speedway's Speeding To Read program, which includes 11 schools and more than 6,500 students.
Johnson's black car featured the school's mascot -- a bulldog -- on a blue hood, books on the sides of the doors and reading glasses on the roof. It also had yellow, orange and red flames on the back of each wheel well.
"I'm just very happy and very excited," Johnson said. "When I was drawing this design, I just thought about the school and it reminded me of Bulldogs, so I put a bulldog on my car and some cool designs."
Harvick gave Johnson a 1:24-scale Lionel Racing die-cast that replicated her winning design, as well as an autographed 1:24-scale die-cast of his No. 4 Jimmy John's Chevrolet and four tickets to Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
"That was a really cool deal and a lot of fun," Harvick said. "This is a great program that Texas Motor Speedway has and you can see the kids are really excited about Speeding To Read. I can tell you that 800 screaming kids can make your ears hurt."