Harvick Has 24th Career Start at Martinsville Speedway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – STP Gas Booster 500
April 7, 2013 – Martinsville Speedway
Kevin Harvick, No. 29

Kevin Harvick will pilot chassis No. 420 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the STP Gas Booster 500. This Chevrolet is new to the RCR line up and will run its first competitive laps this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Sunday’s race marks Harvick’s 24th-career Sprint Cup Series start at the Virginia-based facility. Since 2001, the 37-year-old driver has collected one win (April 2011), one pole award (April 2010), three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. Harvick holds an average starting position of 13.3 coupled with a 16.7 average finishing position, has completed 97.4 percent (11,236 of 11,534) of laps contested and is credited with 363 laps led. Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team started second in this event last season, battled handling issues for the majority of the event and ultimately finished 19th.

What type of mentality must a driver have to be successful at short-track racing?

It’s a balance between being patient and making the right moves. You can get lapped pretty quickly if your car is off. You want to take care of your race car, but you want to take advantage of the opportunities when you get them. – Kevin Harvick

Talk about the importance of brake conservation at Martinsville Speedway.

Braking is obviously going to be something that you look at when going to Martinsville (Speedway), but I think now the brakes and the rotors and everything are so good that the issue you have now is the tires. The brakes will basically melt the bead of the tire because they’re so hot, so you have to concentrate on not only the cooling of the brakes, but also the cooling of the tires. – Kevin Harvick

Radio & TV

Be sure to tune in to Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 3. Menard will join host Claire B. Lang to chat about being eighth in the driver championship point standings and his performance this season.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results at Martinsville Speedway

• Starts: 24
• Wins: 1
• Poles: 0
• Top 5: 3
• Top 10: 10
• Laps Led: 363
• Average Start: 13.7
• Average Finish: 16.58