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| · 2013 Formula One F1 Driver Line-up, Rumor Round-up & 2014 Silly Season Rumors - February 10th (Feb 10, 2013)
· 2013 Formula One F1 Driver Line-up, Rumor Round-up & 2014 Silly Season Rumors - February 9th (Feb 9, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One F1 Friday Test Results - Raikkonen, Lotus Fastest! (Feb 8, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One F1 Thursday Test Results - Massa, Ferrari Fastest! (Feb 7, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One (F1) Wednesday Test Results - Grosjean, Lotus Fastest! (Feb 6, 2013)
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2013 Daytona 500 (Unlimited): Kevin Harvick NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Preview
Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team will kick off Budweiser Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway with Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited (formerly called the Budweiser Shootout).
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Media Availability… Harvick will be available to the media Thursday, February 14, during the afternoon session at NASCAR’s annual media day at Daytona.
Off Season Activites… During NASCAR's off season Harvick enjoyed spending time with wife DeLana and son Keelan, as well as attending Super Bowl XLVII. A Bakersfield, Calif., native, Harvick is an avid San Francisco 49ers fan and traveled to New Orleans to cheer for his team in the championship game.
Preseason Fun… In the midst of the hectic preseason schedule, Gil Martin, crew chief of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, took the entire team to Victory Lane Karting in Charlotte, N.C., for a team-building go-kart racing on January 23. The guys were paired, based on their practice speeds, for a timed race where each completed two 10-minute stints at the wheel. The duo of Michael Hodges (shock specialist) and Bryan Smith (gas man) scored the win while Harvick, paired with tire specialist Andy Flynn, ended up ninth.
Chassis Info…The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team will utilize Chassis No. 387 in Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited race. Harvick raced this car twice in 2012 to earn a seventh-place finish in the Daytona 500 and an 11th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in October.
Sprint Unlimited Stats... Harvick has eight previous starts in the special exhibition event at Daytona and has raced his way to Victory Lane twice in the Budweiser Shootout (2009 and 2010). He has earned four top fives and six top 10s, and has an average finishing position of 8.5 in the event.
Loop Data... True to his nickname, “the closer,” Harvick is ranked first in NASCAR statistics Loop Data Closers category, which ranks drivers by the number of positions improved in the last 10 percent of laps in each race. In the past six Budweiser Shootout races he’s competed in, Harvick has moved up 15 positions, gaining an average of three spots per race. He also holds the record for Fastest Drivers Early in a Run, which ranks each driver during the first 25 percent of laps run since a pit stop, at 190.805 mph.
Kevin Harvick on the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway and the 2013 Season
What are your thoughts on the new Sprint Unlimited race?
“It’s a very interesting format. Sprint has done a good job in coming up with something new and interesting for the fans. I think as we go through the night you’ll be able to see some different things happen and it will all be from a fan vote. I’m just looking forward to getting on the race track and the information that we’ll gather for the next week in knowing what to expect.”
Do you think your team has a good chance of being strong this year?
“I think the door is wide open for anybody this year. I think as you look at the new car coming in there’s a lot of unknowns. We haven’t even raced them in a complete pack yet, so you’ve got to understand where you are. There’s going to be people that hit it and people that don’t.”
Will we see the No. 29 team back in the Chase this season?
“Obviously for us we started the year strong last year and were able to gather some points because we had a huge struggle in the middle of the year and in the end of the year we were able to get our car back in Victory Lane and into the Chase. We didn’t perform as well as we’d like to, but I think as you go into the new year you have a pretty unique situation here with the new car and a clean sheet of paper with that. It’s just a matter of where you start, how you address the problems that you have and how quickly you can rectify those.”
Talk about your expectations for 2013.
“I expect it to be fun. Obviously everything needs to perform well. For a guy sitting in the driver’s seat that bodes well for what everybody wants to achieve. The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter where I’m going to drive next year because right now it’s all about this year and making cars fast. Everybody here wants to win races.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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