Harvick and the No. 29 Rheem Team are Ready for the Southern 500

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Southern 500
May 11, 2013 – Darlington Raceway
Kevin Harvick, No. 29

Kevin Harvick will pilot chassis No. 383 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the Southern 500. This is the same Chevrolet the Bakersfield, Calif., native drove to Victory Lane at Phoenix International Raceway last November and a 13th-place result in March. Darlington Raceway is one track where Harvick has yet to visit Victory Lane. Since 2001, the RCR veteran driver has made 16 starts collecting two top-five and five top-10 finishes. He holds a 17.6 average starting position coupled with an 18.8 average finishing position, has completed 5,267 of 5,583 (94.3 percent) of the laps contested and is credited with 63 laps led. Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team collected a 16th-place finish in last season’s Southern 500 after battling handling issues at Darlington Raceway.

Share your thoughts on racing at Darlington Raceway.

There is a lot of history at Darlington Raceway. I’ve been fortunate to win a lot of the marquee races on the schedule, and I mark the Southern 500 on my calendar every year as one I want to win. There is so much history behind this event. It’s definitely a race we want to do well in, and Darlington is a race track we want to win at every year. – Kevin Harvick

What makes racing at Darlington Raceway such a challenge for the drivers and teams?

The track was originally not designed for the cars to be running as fast as they are today. The track’s very narrow and you carry a lot of speed. From a driver’s standpoint, it’s very challenging just to keep the car off the wall, but it’s also a lot of fun to drive, too. – Kevin Harvick

Talk us through a lap around Darlington Raceway.

Well, any lap around Darlington is a lap where you have to be paying attention to what’s going on because you can get yourself in trouble at any point on the race track. You carry a lot of speed into turn one and you run up the banking right up next to the wall and get right back into the throttle. As you come back down the hill you might have to breathe the throttle a little bit, but it’s a lot of fun coming out of turn two as it kind of shoots you down the backstretch. Turns three and four are probably the hardest because you carry so much speed off of (turn) two into three and the line kind of moves around a bit there. It’s probably the easiest place to get in the wall. Well, it’s pretty easy to get in the wall anywhere, but definitely the easiest place to get into the wall is the middle of (turns) three and four. – Kevin Harvick

Radio & TV

FOX’s live coverage of the Southern 500 begins Saturday, May 11 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SIRIUS XM NASCAR Radio.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results at Darlington Raceway

• Starts: 17
• Wins: 0
• Poles: 0
• Top 5: 3
• Top 10: 6
• Laps Led: 63
• Average Start: 17.2
• Average Finish: 17.94