Hunt Brothers Pizza Jumps Onboard With Kevin Harvick and SHR’s NXS Team At Kentucky

Date: Friday, July 7, 2017

Location: Kentucky Speedway in Sparta

Layout: 1.5-mile oval

· Harvick is making his fourth of six scheduled XFINITY Series starts in the No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR in 2017.

· He finished fourth at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March, third at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth in April, and second at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in May.

· Harvick won his first XFINITY Series race at Kentucky Speedway in June 2001 by 1.311 seconds over Greg Biffle.

· Harvick won his second XFINITY Series race at Kentucky in June 2014 by .928 of a second over Brad Keselowski.

· Harvick has two wins, four top-five finishes, five top-10s and has led 202 laps in five XFINITY starts at Kentucky.

· His XFINITY Series career includes 46 wins, 181 top-five finishes, 253 top-10s, 25 poles and 9,444 laps led in 338 starts.

· Harvick will be joined Saturday by SHR teammate Cole Custer in the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang.

· Harvick and crew chief Richard Boswell teamed up to direct the No. 4 Field, Inc. Ford for Jefferson Pitts Racing to victory at Sonoma in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West two weeks ago.

“It’s been great working with everyone on the No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang this season. (Crew chief Richard) Boswell and the guys give me a great car every time out and we are working hard to get that first win of the season. We’ve had great cars with a chance to win each time out and the 1.5-mile program has been really good, especially for a team just coming together and running a partial schedule.”

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“It’s difficult to take anything from past experience Kentucky because they go back every time with a different tire. This will be the third time we’ve gone back since they repaved and this is the third different tire on the right sides, at least. That kind of throws up the flag in terms of whether you want to run scuffs or run on stickers. That’s probably the biggest thing, is figuring out if you want to run on scuffs or sticker tires.”

Given Kevin Harvick’s history in the XFINITY Series at Kentucky, does that give you added pressure to win?

“Any time you go with Kevin, you don’t question his ability. It’s more about us being able to give him what he needs. He is really good at Kentucky, so that helps. It helps give us a direction when we get there if we are a little bit off. He’s is very good at helping get us pointed in the right direction. Track position is going to be big and, really, just unloading good is going to be the biggest thing. – unloading good to where you stay ahead of the track the whole time. Staying one step ahead instead of one step behind is really important at any track but, especially Kentucky.”

What is the biggest advancement you’ve seen in this team since the start of the season?

“Everybody is hungry to win. Everyone here wants to win and puts in that extra hour or two or three – whatever it takes at night to take the best car we can. Everybody is as committed now as they were at the beginning of the year, which is good. Sometimes you get to this point in the year and can get drained and the excitement level doesn’t always hold up. But, right now for us, I think the excitement level is as high as it’s ever been.”