Pre-race report: Auto Club 500

Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Performance History at California Speedway

Notes

This Week's Race Car at Auto Club Speedway

Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 254 from the Richard Childress Racing stable.  This car is a workhorse for the No. 29 team, having raced in 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races last season, including the August race at Auto Club Speedway, where Harvick drove it to a fourth-place finish.

In addition, he drove it to an eighth-place finish at Michigan International Raceway, a third-place finish in July at Chicagoland Speedway and a fourth-place finish at Pocono Raceway in August.  

• Stat Facts … In 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Auto Club Speedway, Harvick has posted four top-10 finishes.  Additionally, the 33-year-old driver has completed 99.1% of all laps attempted and has led 32 laps. 
• Iron Man … Harvick has not recorded a DNF (did not finish) in 81 consecutive races, a modern-era record.  His last DNF recorded was at Dover in September 2006. 
• Homecoming … There are six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers competing in this weekend's Sprint Cup Series race that hail from the state of California (Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Scott Speed and the newest member of the RCR stable of drivers, Casey Mears, who is also from Harvick's hometown of Bakersfield). 
• Kevin's Krew … Shell and Kevin Harvick are joining with Colton, Calif. police officer, Todd Smith, for the second time to host a group of special needs students at the Auto Club Speedway this weekend.  The group of kids, adorned in No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil hats and shirts donated by Shell Oil Company, will attend Sunday's Auto Club 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, where they'll participate in a special meet-and-greet and photo opportunity with Harvick on pit road before Sunday's race. Several organizations, including Shell, donated tickets this year for the group. Smith was looking to start a kids program tied to the local school district, and the decision to bring the kids to the track was inspired by a trip Smith made to a Sprint Cup race at the speedway two years ago.  Smith previously brought a number of students to the southern California track for the August 31, 2008, Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway.
• Four To Go … RCR has earned a Sprint Cup Series victory at 18 of the 22 tracks on the 2009 schedule. The only tracks on the current schedule where RCR hasn't earned wins are Auto Club Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Additionally, RCR has Sprint Cup Series wins at 21 tracks overall, including North Wilkesboro (N.C.), Riverside (Calif.) and Rockingham (N.C.) which are no longer on the schedule. 
• RCR in SoCal … In 44 overall starts at Auto Club Speedway, RCR cars have earned one pole (Mike Skinner - April 2000) five top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. Clint Bowyer's third-place run in September 2006 is RCR's best effort at the moderately-banked D-shaped race track. RCR in SoCal … In 44 overall starts at Auto Club Speedway, RCR cars have earned one pole (Mike Skinner - April 2000) five top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. Clint Bowyer's third-place run in September 2006 is RCR's best effort at the moderately-banked D-shaped race track.
• Double Down in Cali … In addition to his driving duties with the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, Harvick, a 32-time race winner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, will drive Kevin Harvick Incorporated's No. 33  Chevrolet in the Feb. 21 Stater Bros. 300.  The race will air live on ESPN2 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).  The race will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.
• Special Decal...The No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick will feature a special decal on the deck lid this weekend for the running of the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway. The Mater Dei High School (Evansville, Indiana) name will be featured on the deck lid of the Richard Childress Racing machine in honor of the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas®  winning student team. The Shell Eco-marathon®, held at Auto Club Speedway each April, invites teams of students to design and build the most energy-efficient vehicle powered by either conventional or alternative fuels. The students from Mater Dei High School set a record for fuel efficiency during the 2008 competition with a rating of 2,843 miles per  gallon. The team claimed a $10,000 prize for their victory and also beat the overall mileage record that was set in 2007 by Cal Poly.
• Shell is committed to providing energy in a responsible way that addresses the realities of today without  compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To learn more about the Shell Eco-  marathon® and to view a complete list of student teams and results from the Shell Eco-marathon Americas®  challenge, visit www.shell.com/ecomarathon.    
• Media Opportunity … Harvick will be available in the California Speedway media center to field questions from the media Fri., Feb. 20 at 2:45 p.m. 
• Up to Speed … The Auto Club 500 at California Speedway will be televised live on Sun., Feb. 22 beginning at 5 p.m. EST on FOX. The race will also be broadcast live on MRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the second of 36 points-paying races on the 2009 NASCAR Cup Series tour begins Friday, Feb. 20 at 6:40 p.m. EST and will broadcast live on SPEED.

Kevin Harvick Quotes:

What are your thoughts on "Kevin's Krew," the group of special needs students who will be attending the race?

"I think it's a really cool thing Shell is participating in. We did this same thing back in August, and the excitement I saw on the kids' faces was priceless. A lot of these students may never have watched a race on TV, much less seen one from the grandstands or down in the infield.

They seem pretty overwhelmed, in a good way, when you meet them. It just reminds you that we're very blessed to be in the position we're in, and to be able to race for a living. I enjoyed meeting the group last year, and I hope we can give these students something to cheer about this time around."

What are your thoughts on the Auto Club Speedway?

"California's been a good race track for us the last couple of years. I know, statistically, it hasn't been that good for us the first few years I went there, but we've had good performance and solid finishes and it's been a fun place to go.

It'd be fun to win here, just because it's close to him and we've got a lot of family and friends there, so hopefully we can go back and do what we've done the past couple of years."

Last year's race got rained out until Monday. Does that wreak havoc on your game plan, since the track can change so dramatically that your setup may no longer be the way you'd like it?

"Anytime you start a race and stop it and start it and stop it and you have to go into Monday, it just kind of changes the type of race that it is. If you have a storm like that and you start the race on Sunday and the car's pretty good, it's probably going to be crappy on Monday, just for the fact that the race track is green.

It adds a lot of twists and turns, just because you don't have that steady progress of rubbering up the race track and having that consistent progress of knowing where your car is, setup-wise. You kind of lose track of that and have to guess a little bit."

Since California is the first race of the season where you don't use a restrictor plate, is it your first chance to really see how your cars stack up to the competition?

"From a competition standpoint, I think it gives you a rough idea of where you're at. California's become kind of worn out and has developed its own character in terms of the way you drive the track and things that you do. It does give you a rough idea, but I think Vegas is the first race track you go to for your mile-and-a-half stuff where you really know where you're at."

Since you were so consistent at the end of last year on the mile-and-a-half tracks, did you feel like you had a target on your back and that everyone was looking at you as the guy to beat on those tracks?

"I think that target kind of moved between three guys - Jimmie (Johnson), Carl (Edwards) and Kyle (Busch). Kyle kind of fell off there at the end of the year when it all counted, but they started the season very well.

Carl was pretty consistent through the mile-and-a-half stuff and if that continues, they'll be the car to beat. It's so unpredictable, though.  I'm sure there will be something that changes everything and somebody else will be the guy to beat.

Kevin Harvick's 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Stats