Mobil 1 Racing: Kevin Harvick Foxwoods Casino Resort 301 Advance and Team Report
KEVIN HARVICK
Going for Three Consecutive Wins
KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (July 28, 2020) – Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on July 22, 2018. He then won the race there on July 21, 2019.
He is hoping to make it three wins in a row during Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire and lift his victory total at the mile oval to five. He also scored victories there in September 2006 and 2016.
Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is tied with his former Richard Childers Racing teammate Jeff Burton for most wins at the track with four.
If Harvick adds a win Sunday, it would be his 54th in the Cup Series, which would put him tie him at 11th on the all-time list with NASCAR Hall of Famer Lee Petty.
In addition to his four wins at New Hampshire, Harvick has 12 top-five finishes, 20 top-10s, one pole and he’s led a total of 759 laps in his 36 career Cup Series starts there. His average New Hampshire start is 12.9, his average finish is 12.8 and he has completed 10,482 of 10,690 laps of competition.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series at New Hampshire, Harvick has 12 career starts with one win, nine top-fives, 11 top-10s and three poles. He scored his victory from the pole in June 2007. And in six NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series outings at New Hampshire, Harvick has finished in top-15 each time with three top-threes.
This weekend, Harvick will again have the help of Mobil 1 on board as a sponsor and partner.
Mobil 1 isn’t just the world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand, it also provides the entire SHR team with leading lubricant technology, ensuring that all SHR Mustangs have a competitive edge over the competition on the track. In its 18th consecutive season as the “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR,” Mobil 1 is used by more than 50 percent of teams throughout NASCAR’s top three series.
Harvick arrives at New Hampshire first in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 763 points, 97 markers ahead of second-place Brad Keselowski. He’s led the points since the conclusion of the March 8 race at Phoenix Raceway and will look to extend that with a solid performance in The Granite State.
KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Could you comment on winning three of the last five at New Hampshire and tying Jeff Burton’s record?
“Yeah, this place has been really good to us, and I think Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and I probably feel like we should have – could have – won them all. But it’s been a racetrack that has been really good for us from a performance standpoint. And I think, from a confidence standpoint, being able to adjust on the car and know what we’re looking for, I think this is definitely a racetrack where a lot of those things came into play, and we used a lot of the same things that we’ve used in the past as far as tools of how we make our car go around the corner. I think obviously it’s been a great racetrack for us.”
On pit road after the race last year, Denny (Hamlin) said he didn’t want to “do you dirty,” and he could have dumped you. How much of that was going through your mind, that he could have dumped you?
“I mean, look, he took his shot. And I think at that point, it’s kind of, ‘Do whatever you have to do.’ It’s the last lap. And I think he thought he was going to move me up out of the groove, and I don’t think he expected for me to be in the middle of the racetrack and be on the brakes and all those things. There was just a lot of scenarios there. When you look at moving Kyle (Busch in 2018) up and out of the groove, I don’t think he expected to be up out of the groove at that particular point in time, and I think he did what he had to do. It’s just like 2018, like I didn’t want to dump Kyle, I wanted to move him out of the groove and try to win the race, and I think that’s what Denny was trying to do. We raced hard and tried to do each other as good as we could and still not sell our teams short. But I’ve been in position where I’ve dumped somebody, and it doesn’t work out well for you as you go through the end of the year.”
What does it take to be successful at Loudon?
“I’d say the most important thing at Loudon is track position, just because it’s hard to pass. You want to be up front and on the right strategy no matter what you do. If the caution flag falls in the wrong spot and you lose track position, it usually becomes a longer day than it could have been.”
Why do your prefer Mobil 1 synthetic?
“I’m a synthetic guy because, in 1993 when we were sitting in the engine shop, we dumped Mobil 1 synthetic in and that’s all we did and gained seven horsepower. From that day on, we would actually save our money and then go to the local auto parts store because, at that time, it was like $5.50 a quart and the conventional and other oils were like $3.50. At the big races, we would put the Mobil 1 in the car and the regular races would put the regular oil in there. You know I’m going to say synthetic.”
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New Hampshire Notes of Interest:
· Dynamic Duo: While this is Harvick’s 20th year in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s his seventh with crew chief Rodney Childers, which is the longest pairing of any current driver-crew chief combination. Since joining forces at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014, Harvick and Childers have combined to produce 30 points-paying victories, a victory in the non-points 2018 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 25 Busch poles, 118 top-five finishes and 169 top-10s while leading 10,308 laps. They won the 2014 championship, finished runner-up in the 2015 title chase to champion Kyle Busch, finished eighth in 2016 and third in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
· Harvick has career totals of 53 wins, 31 poles, 218 top-fives, 378 top-10s and 14,734 laps led in 701 starts.
· His most recent Cup Series win came on July 5 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
· His most recent Busch Pole came in November 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
· Harvick’s 53 career victories put him 12th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. He is third on the active driver list behind Jimmie Johnson and Busch. Harvick is just one win behind Lee Petty for 11th on the all-time wins list.
· New Hampshire Numerology – Harvick has four wins, 12 top-five finishes, 20 top-10s, one pole and has led a total of 759 laps in his 36 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at New Hampshire. His average start at New Hampshire is 12.9, his average finish is 12.8 and he has completed 10,482 of 10,690 laps of competition – 98.1 percent. He is tied with Jeff Burton for the most victories at New Hampshire.
· At the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale in 2019, Harvick became just the 11th driver to have led 14,000 laps in his NASCAR career. He’s led 14,734 and trails 10th-place Busch, who has led 17,633, and Johnson, who is ninth with 18,933 laps led. Harvick has led 10,308 laps as an SHR driver. He led his 10,000th lap as an SHR driver when he took the lead on lap 37 on June 7 at Atlanta.
· Points Position: Harvick arrives at New Hampshire first in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 763 points, 97 markers ahead of second-place Brad Keselowski. He’s led the points since the conclusion of the March 8 race at Phoenix Raceway.
· Already Playoff Bound – Harvick qualified for the 2020 Cup Series playoffs with his win May 17 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
· Laps Completed: Harvick is 16th all-time in laps completed with 200,379 after last Thursday’s race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. He reached 200,000 laps completed on lap 222 of the July 19 race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Harvick is the leader among active drivers and is closing in on Dale Earnhardt, who is 15th with 202,888.
· Harvick in the Xfinity Series at New Hampshire: Harvick has 12 career starts in the Xfinity Series at New Hampshire and has scored one win, nine top-fives and 11 top-10s and three poles. He scored his victory in June 2007 after starting on the pole.
· Harvick in the Truck Series at New Hampshire: In six Truck Series starts at New Hampshire, Harvick has finished in top-15 each time and has three top-threes.
· Second Place: By finishing second June 29 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Harvick now has 56 runner-up finishes and passed Buck Baker for ninth on the all-time list. He can tie Darrell Waltrip for eighth with another runner-up finish.
· 114 and Counting – Harvick scored his 100th career win in NASCAR’s top three series with his March 2018 Las Vegas Motor Speedway win. He now has 114 total victories – 53 in the Cup Series, 47 in the Xfinity Series and 14 in the Truck Series. Only three other drivers in NASCAR history have passed 100 wins in NASCAR’s top three series: Kyle Busch (212), Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (106).
Sources: Joe Crowley/True Speed Communication