Harvick Captures Third Win of 2013 Season at Kansas Speedway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Hollywood Casino 400
October 6, 2013 – Kansas Speedway

Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team capped off a strong weekend with their third trip to Victory Lane of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season at Kansas Speedway. After capturing his first pole award since 2006 on Friday evening, Harvick led the first 85 laps of the 267-lap event before making a green-flag pit stop for routine service. Shortly after the California native returned to the race track, the caution flag was displayed and he was trapped one lap down to leader and forced to take the “wave around” pass under caution to return to the lead lap. Restarting 24th, a tight-handling condition plagued the red and white machine as Harvick climbed back into the top 20 by the halfway point of the 400-mile race. Crew chief Gil Martin decided to play pit strategy under caution on lap 135 and called for the Richard Childress Racing driver to stay out and gain valuable track position. Harvick returned to the lead for another 16 circuits until coming down pit road again for fuel only and chassis adjustments. Martin continued to make the right calls on pit road during multiple caution-flag periods throughout the middle stages of the race and Harvick climbed back into the top five before eventually taking the lead again. Under caution with 36 laps to go, RCR teammate Jeff Burton took fuel only while Martin called for right-side tires on the No. 29 Chevrolet. Harvick passed Burton on the ensuing restart and never looked back, leading the final 36 laps to bring home RCR’s first win at the Kansas City, Kan. facility. With the victory, Harvick gained one position and now sits third in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings.

Well first off, I just want to thank everybody from Sprint. This is a huge race for everybody in this town, Budweiser, Rheem, Jimmy John’s, Chevrolet, Bad Boy Buggies, Realtree and everybody that helps this Chevrolet team. These guys just did a great job all weekend. To have a car fast enough for me to qualify it on the pole says a lot about how fast this thing was. I knew we were fast on Friday when we qualified to get the sixth pole of my whole career. It was just a tough day with track position. I knew if we could ever get back out front after we got caught in the pits there with that debris caution, we would have a shot. It kind of worked out for us there at the end and we caught a couple of those guys, so it all came full circle and we were able to put our Budweiser Chevy up front. Once we got out front, the thing was just really fast. We’ll just keep having fun and keep doing what we’re doing. – Kevin Harvick

Race Notes

• Started – 1st, Finished, – 1st,  Laps led – 138, Points – 3rd
• According to NASCAR’s Post-Race Loop Data Statistics, Harvick was the Fastest on Restarts, Fastest Driver Late in a Run and posted 49 of the Fastest Laps Run.
• Harvick was also credited with the Most Laps Led, leading 138 of the 267 laps completed and received the best Driver Rating (138.4).
• Harvick earned his third victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards.

Photos