No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet
Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400 at Richmond International Raceway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team scored a 12th-place finish in Saturday night’s Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
• Harvick started the race from 12th position and ran as high as eighth and as low as 35th (during a round of green-flag pit stops) during the 400-lap event.
• Early in the race Harvick radioed to the crew that the car wouldn’t “roll through the center (of the corner) like I need it to and then I’m loose up off.” He fought the car’s handling being tight in the middle of the corner and loose off for much of the night despite the numerous chassis and air pressure adjustments the team made to the car.
• Harvick ran inside the top 15 for most of the first half of the race. In the second half, he cracked the top 10 at lap 305 after narrowly avoiding a wreck and raced his way up to eighth before dropping back a few spots in the final 50 laps.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team pitted for the final time at lap 293, taking four tires and fuel. Following the stop, crew chief Gil Martin asked Harvick to save as much fuel as he could under caution in the final 100 laps as the team thought they might be a few laps short of making it to lap 400. While Harvick went down a lap to the leader with just over 10 laps to go, he was able to complete the final laps on fuel and brought home a 12th-place finish.
• Kyle Busch scored the win in Saturday night’s race at Richmond. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, David Ragan and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five finishing positions.
• Edwards continues to lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings and holds a nine-point margin over Jimmie Johnson. Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick complete the top five. The driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet is currently 35 points outside of the lead.
• 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.
The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in Saturday night’s race:
• Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota, finished third.
• Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team finished 10th.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet team finished 19th.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford team finished 21st.
• Robby Gordon and the No. 7 Fast Five/SPEED Energy Dodge team finished 35th.
• Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, finished 36th.
• Mike Skinner, driver of the No. 60 Big Red Toyota, finished 41st.
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Childress Racing teams participating in Saturday night’s race:
• Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet finished sixth.
• Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 16th.
• Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 Libman/Menards Chevrolet, finished 37th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for the Showtime Southern 500 on Saturday night, May 7. SPEED will have live coverage of on-track action on Friday starting with first practice at 11:30 a.m. ET, followed by final practice at 2 p.m. and qualifying at 5 p.m. FOX will carry the race broadcast on Saturday night starting with the pre-race show at 7 p.m. MRN Radio and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio will provide radio coverage of the event.