Kevin Harvick will have a new look for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
The No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will be sponsored by Hunt Brothers Pizza and FIELDS, two longtime supporters of Harvick.
Hunt Brothers Pizza has partnered with Harvick in NASCAR for 11 years and last visited victory lane with him when he won the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Harvick has also won NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races with Hunt Brothers Pizza as the primary sponsor at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, both in 2011. The company also sponsored him in the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race in 2014 and 2015 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Harvick finished second in both races.
For 2019, Hunt Brothers Pizza moved up to the Cup Series for three races and, in 2020, is on Harvick’s car five times, including this week’s race at Richmond and the upcoming AAA Texas 500 on Oct. 25 at Texas.
With more than 7,800 locations in 30 states, Hunt Brothers Pizza is the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry. Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin crust pizzas available as a grab-and-go Hunk perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle, or as a customizable whole pizza that is an exceptional value with All Toppings No Extra Charge®.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Hunt Brothers Pizza is family owned and operated with more than 25 years of experience serving great pizza to convenience store shoppers through its store partners. To find a Hunt Brothers Pizza location, download the Hunt Brothers Pizza app by visiting www.huntbrotherspizza.com/app/
FIELDS has sponsored Harvick in Xfinity Series races in August 2017 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, where he finished sixth, and in June 2018 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, where he scored an eighth-place result. Harvick took FIELDS to victory lane in 2017 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race.
FIELDS, one of the Sports Fields Inc., companies, is the preeminent builder of fields and sports parks in the country. FIELDS is committed to “Building Sports Parks of Distinction.” The fields produced facilitate peak team performance and are constructed using the industry’s best resources and embody the essence of durability, precision, technological innovation, service and quality.
By combining the premium quality of the fields with the best in customer care, FIELDS creates sports parks of distinction that wow teams, coaches and guests.
As both Hunt Brothers Pizza and FIELDS have won with Harvick, they’re now teaming up in hopes the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/FIELDS Ford Mustang will find victory lane at Richmond.
Harvick heads to the three-quarter-mile oval where he has been stellar over the years. He has three wins, three poles, 15 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s and has led a total of 1,139 laps in his 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond. The last time he finished outside the top-15 there was April 2012, and he’s finished in the top-five nine times in the 15 races since.
Even though Harvick is already locked into the Round of 12 of the playoffs thanks to Sunday night’s win at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, he really likes victories and the points they provide, and would love to take two longtime partners to victory lane at Richmond.
KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza / FIELDS Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
With your points total and everything, you were pretty much assured of going on to the second round, but you won Darlington. Does this change your outlook, your strategy, even in the slightest?
“We knew we had done a great job in the regular season and had built a buffer, and I think that – just like you saw Rodney (Childers, crew chief) call the race (at Darlington), I think there were several moments where we could have been a lap down and he called the race to win. I think he knows the importance of winning races. He also knows the importance of that cushion that’s sitting there. But the best way up is to have that cushion get bigger, and we were able to do that, and as you go into the next round, that cushion is going to be bigger than it was when we got here. That’s just because of the great spot we’re in that we can continue to be aggressive and make aggressive calls and do aggressive things to try to win. We were fortunate to be in the right spot, but we were fortunate that we were in the right spot because of great pit calls and all the things that were happening on the pit box and in the pit stall.”
At the end of the race at Darlington a young fan tried to hand you the checkered flag and you told him to keep it. What does that mean to you personally, to be able to bring something like that to the fans, especially young fans, knowing that you can’t have your son Keelan at the racetrack?
“Yeah, so I mean, I’m a little biased toward the kids. Seeing that young man standing up there with his 4 hat on and holding that flag, there was no way I was getting out of my car and taking that flag. Hopefully that’s something he can remember, and remember going forward, as he tells his friends and his family, and hopefully everybody remembers that and comes back again. That’s what it’s all about, right? Making sure that people have a great time. And we’re back with fans at the racetrack, and to see those kids back in the grandstands is a lot of fun.”
You broke the tie with Kyle Busch and are all alone at ninth in the all-time wins list. What does that mean to you?
“Yeah, I look at that list and I laugh, just because I think back to all the crazy situations and all the things we’ve been a part of throughout the years and just the highs and the lows. Look, I’ve been fortunate to be around a lot of great people and sit in great racecars, and these last seven years have just been unbelievable at Stewart-Haas Racing, and Rodney and the whole company is just – they put a ton of effort into trying to make sure we go to the racetrack and have a chance to win. From a driver standpoint, it’s a driver’s dream to have (co-owners) Tony (Stewart) and Gene (Haas), and all they want to do is race and win. And to be able to have those assets and have the resources we have with Ford. And so much has changed since I started at Stewart-Haas Racing – no Tony – we switched manufacturers, and there’s been a lot of change. But in the end, it’s all to try to win races and it’s just fun to be able to share that with a group of people who care so much about myself and the things that we do with this car and that company, and everybody is pulling the rope in the same direction, and when that’s happening, when you have great people, it just continues to get better.”
Hunt Brothers Pizza / FIELDS Racing Team Report
Rounds 28 of 36 – Federated Auto Parts 400 – Richmond
Car No.: 4 – Hunt Brothers Pizza / FIELDS Ford Mustang
Primary Team Members:
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Hometown: Bakersfield, California
Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Car Chief: Robert Smith
Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin
Engine Builder: Roush-Yates Engines
Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina
Engine Specialist: Robert Brandt
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama
Spotters: Tim Fedewa
Hometown: Holt, Michigan
Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois
Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Mike “Shrek” Morneau
Hometown: Oxford, Maine
Gas Man: Evan Marchal
Hometown: Westfield, Indiana
Jackman: Stan Dolittle
Hometown: Ninety Six, South Carolina
Windshield: Shawn Hopkins (also serves as interior mechanic)
Hometown: Chesterfield, Virginia
Richmond Notes of Interest:
· Dynamic Duo: While this is Harvick’s 20th year in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s his seventh with crew chief Rodney Childers, which is the longest pairing of any current driver-crew chief combination. Since joining forces at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014, Harvick and Childers have combined to produce 34 points-paying victories, a victory in the non-points 2018 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 25 Busch poles, 124 top-five finishes and 175 top-10s while leading 10,757 laps. They won the 2014 championship, finished runner-up in the 2015 title chase to champion Kyle Busch, finished eighth in 2016 and third in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
· Harvick has career totals of 57 wins, 31 poles, 224 top-fives, 384 top-10s and 15,183 laps led in 709 starts.
· His most recent Cup Series wins came on Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
· His most recent Busch Pole came in November 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (Poles have not been won since May 23 at Charlotte due to the abbreviated weekend schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
· Harvick is ninth on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list with 57 victories and is 19 wins behind the late Dale Earnhardt, who is eighth with 76 checkered flags. Harvick is second on the active driver list behind Jimmie Johnson, who has 83 victories.
· More than 15,000 Laps Led: On Aug. 23 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Harvick led the 15,000th lap of his NASCAR career. He is 11th all-time, has led 15,183 laps, and trails 10th-place Busch, who has led 17,676, and Johnson, who is ninth with 18,936 laps led. Harvick has led 10,757 laps as an SHR driver. He led his 10,000th lap as an SHR driver when he took the lead on lap 37 on June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
· Richmond Numbers: Harvick has three wins, three poles, 15 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s and has led a total of 1,139 laps in his 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond. His average start there is 13.1, his average finish is 9.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 99.2 percent, completing 15,104 of the 15,222 laps available.
· Harvick in the Xfinity Series at Richmond: Harvick has made 27 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond. He has seven wins, two poles, 18 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s. He has led 1,387 laps.
· Harvick in the Truck Series at Richmond: Harvick has started five NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races at Richmond and has three top-three finishes.
· Let’s Win Two: When Harvick won the doubleheader in August at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, he became the first driver in more than 50 years to win NASCAR Cup Series races on consecutive days. Richard Petty won the Albany-Saratoga 250 on July 14, 1971 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, New York, and the next day won the Islip 250 at Islip (N.Y.) Speedway. Islip closed in 1984, but Albany-Saratoga is still in operation.
· Points Position: Harvick arrives at Richmond first in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 2,106 points, and with his win at Darlington Sunday night, he automatically qualified for the Round of 12 of the Cup Series playoffs, which start Sept. 27 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s led the points since the conclusion of the March 8 race at Phoenix Raceway.
· Laps Completed: Harvick is 16th all-time in laps completed with 202,215 after Sunday’s race at Darlington. He reached 200,000 laps completed on lap 222 of the July 19 race at Texas. Harvick is the leader among active drivers and is closing in on Dale Earnhardt, who is 15th with 202,888.
· Second Place: By finishing second June 28 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Harvick now has 56 runner-up finishes and passed Buck Baker for ninth on the all-time list. He can tie Darrell Waltrip for eighth with another runner-up finish.
· 118 and Counting – Harvick scored his 100th career win in NASCAR’s top three series with his March 2018 Las Vegas win. He now has 118 total victories – 57 in the Cup Series, 47 in the Xfinity Series and 14 in the Truck Series. Only three other drivers in NASCAR history have passed 100 wins in NASCAR’s top three series: Busch (212), Petty (200) and David Pearson (106).
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
