Category: XFINITY Series

Kevin Harvick – No. 33 Rheem Tankless Water Heaters Chevrolet Impala

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race 13 of 34 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

HARVICK RETURNS: Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) co-owner Kevin Harvick returns to the driver’s seat of the No. 33 Rheem Tankless Water Heaters Chevrolet Impala this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion has 19 starts at the Concord, N.C. track, which most in the sport consider their “home track.” Harvick boasts a record with three poles, two top-five and 11 top-10 finishes, but is still searching for a win at the 1.5-mile facility. The driver has led 127 laps at Charlotte and has a best finish of third (2004).

KHI AT CHARLOTTE: The 1.5-mile Concord track remains one of 15 tracks on the Nationwide Series schedule at which KHI does not have a pole award. While Harvick has three poles to his credit, none have come behind the wheel of a KHI vehicle.

Charlotte also remains one of 17 tracks at which the organization has yet to score a victory in the series. KHI has scored two wins (2009, 2007) with driver Ron Hornaday in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

CHASSIS HISTORY: Crew chief David Hyder and the No. 33 team will unload chassis No. 071 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This chassis has competed in three events this season with top-10 results. Harvick piloted the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet to at third-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. back in March. Paul Menard brought the KHI team a back-to-back third-place finish the following week at Texas Motor Speedway. This chassis was also used at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway at the beginning of this month with Clint Bowyer behind the wheel. Bowyer collected a sixth-place finish.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Austin Dillon wheeled the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala to a 10th-place finish at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, May 22. Dillon, in his second start with the KHI team, started from the third position after NASCAR canceled qualifying for the third consecutive week due to inclement weather and set the field according to Owner’s Points. The young driver fought a loose-handling race car and battled his way to the top-10 result. Dillon has two additional races with the No. 33 team this season, Nashville Superspeedway and Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in July.

HARVICK’S THOUGHTS ON CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Charlotte is one of those places where I seem to run well, but haven’t had the finishes that I would like to have had. We’ve run well at the mile-and-a-half tracks so far this season. I’m really hoping we can get this Rheem Tankless Water Heater Chevrolet into victory lane on Saturday.”    About Rheem: Rheem Manufacturing Company (www.rheem.com) is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta. In its 86th year of operation, the company manufactures a full-line of eco-friendly, technologically advanced residential and commercial heating and cooling systems; tank, tankless, solar and hybrid heat pump water heaters; whole-home standby generators, controls, swimming pool and spa heaters; indoor air-purification products; and commercial boilers throughout North America and world markets. The company’s premium brands, including Raypak, Ruud and Rheem, have been recognized with countless industry and consumer awards for reliability, innovative design and high quality. Rheem is the official heating, cooling and water-heating supplier to Richard Childress Racing (RCR), Kevin Harvick, Inc. (KHI) and is a primary sponsor of RCR’s No. 29 Sprint Cup Series car and KHI’s No. 33 Nationwide Series car and Camping World Truck Series No. 2 truck.  Harvick was named Nationwide Series “Driver of the Decade” in 2010.

Fast Facts:

Kevin Harvick Nationwide Series Statistics at Charlotte Motor Speedway Starts: 19 Wins: 0 Poles: 3 Top 5: 2 Top 10: 11 Laps Led: 127 Average Start: 13.0 Average Finish: 12.2

Race Info: May 28, 2011 Charlotte Motor Speedway Top Gear 300 1.5-mile Quad-Oval 200 Laps/ 300 Miles

Broadcast Info: TV:ABC will broadcast live at 2:30 p.m. EST Radio:The Performance Racing Network (PRN) will broadcast live at 2:00 p.m. EST

CarSpecs: Chassis:071 Engine:Earnhardt-Childress Racing (ECR)

The Finish: Sunday afternoon, Michael McDowell made the most of his first start in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2011 and his first start in the No. 18 Pizza Ranch Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, leading laps and coming home with a strong seventh-place finish in the Iowa John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway.

The Race Recap: Michael and the No. 18 team started the day in the second-position after qualifying was rained out and the lineup set by owner’s points. After running in second to start the event, McDowell passed JGR teammate Drew Herring to grab the lead on lap 38. A strong stop by the No. 18 JGR team allowed Michael to hold onto the top spot following the lap 50 competition caution, a lead which he held until lap 57. However, the rest of the afternoon Michael and the team fought a tremendously loose racecar. Crew Chief Jason Ratcliff made a number of adjustments through the event to try and keep the No. 18 Pizza Ranch Toyota as competitive as he could near the front of the field. A late-race caution during a round of green flag pit stops caught the Michael a lap down, forcing the team to have to take the wave around rather than come in and pit to make final adjustments for the race’s final 40 laps. McDowell was able to overcome the loose condition and an overheating problem to pick up a number of positions in the race’s final laps, bringing the No. 18 Pizza Ranch Toyota home seventh. The finish allowed the No. 18 to hold onto its second-place standing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship. The team trails the No. 20 car by just 24 points.

Michael’s Quotes: “It was a good day for the Pizza Ranch Toyota. We led laps and brought the car home in one piece. That was one of the biggest things I wanted to get out of today; to log laps, to be competitive and to stay out of trouble. I don’t think we ended up where we wanted to, but that is the way things go sometimes. We had a car that could have finished a couple of spots higher than where we finished. It was a great first weekend with the No. 18 team, Jason (Ratcliff) and all of the guys. They worked hard this weekend with the position we were put in with little track time because of all of the rain.

“Our car wasn’t very good on restarts and on the short runs because we were just too loose. We were pretty good on the long run and we showed that during those couple of green-flag runs we had. The guys were making adjustments and I think, had we not got caught a lap down during those green flag stops and forced to take the wave around, we could have come in and made one more adjustment and been able to get a few more spots there at the end. I really think we could have gotten a top-five with just a little more adjusting. But it was a good start for my relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing and all of the guys on the No. 18.

“I’m very thankful to Joe Gibbs Racing and Pizza Ranch for giving me this opportunity. We came in with high expectations and we didn’t quite live up to them, but we have a good baseline now. After a weekend of working together, Jason knows more what I want out of a car and I know how to better communicate with Jason and get him the information he needs to make the car better. I’m looking forward to being back in the car for a few more races.”

What’s Next: The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will be back in action this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Kyle Busch behind the wheel in the Top Gear 300.

Camry driver Kenny Wallace (sixth) was the highest-finishing Toyota in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Iowa Speedway in his 500th career series start, marking his best finish of 2011.

Michael McDowell also earned a top-10 result with a seventh-place finish in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Camry.

Steve Wallace (11th), Drew Herring (12th) and Des Moines, Iowa-native Michael Annett (13th) also recorded top- 15 results for Toyota in the 250-lap event.

Camry drivers Joe Nemechek (16th), Brian Scott (27th) and Ryan Truex (34th) were also in the field.

Six Camry drivers are currently in the top-20 in the unofficial NNS point standings following 12 of 35 races in the 2011 season — K. Wallace (seventh), S. Wallace (eighth), Scott (ninth), Annett (11th), Nemechek (12th) and Truex (17th).

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 American Ethanol/Iowa Corn/G-Oil Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 6th Are you happy with your finish today? “I was just totally stunned. We had a good car in practice. They dropped the green flag and my left front tire just started bottoming out really bad and just really, really aggravating. I don’t know what happened overnight, but it was a big difference. My car didn’t handle good all day long, but my crew chief Scott Zipadelli worked really hard on the front end. Then, we got into a wreck and just destroyed the car. Because we were in the wreck we kept coming in and putting gas in it, but it was just never time for me to pit. And, then the 11 car, my Toyota teammate Brian Scott, wrecked and that was my gain. The caution came out and once you get upfront we pulled a straightaway on the guys in eight spots. It’s really just about track position. I’m happy with a sixth-place for as bad as we were.”

How tough were the track conditions today? “I was happy with the track, the tires. I just don’t know why my car bottomed out so bad. This was the same car we ran at Richmond, Phoenix. It hits the frontend every once and a while. It was a tough day, but my boys just kept adjusting. I wrecked it, I handled horrible, they kept fixing it and we got sixth.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 18 Pizza Ranch Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 7th How was your race today? “It was good. I’m still very thankful for the opportunity to drive the 18. We had high expectations and I don’t think we ended up where we all wanted to. The car was pretty good in the beginning. Not good on the short run, but pretty good on the long run. We were able to get the lead and then we just couldn’t get going on the restarts. Just kept getting loose and losing spots. We kept working on it and then I’m not sure what happened there at the end. I don’t know if some guys stayed out under green-flag stops, but we kind of got shuffled around there and down a lap so we couldn’t come in and work on it. We had to get the wave by. We kind of had what we had there at the end and we were able to make up some good spots at the end. I was hoping we could get a top five out of it, but it was a good start for Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and I working together on the Pizza Ranch Camry. I’ve just got to figure out what I need to be a little bit better, and I think we showed speed so we’ll just move forward and we’ll come back here in August. I’ve got a few more races in-between as well.”

Did you feel any pressure driving the 18 car this week? “It was a lot of fun. I didn’t really feel the pressure of getting in the 18, because I just felt like I have experience now and my ability is going to be what it’s going to be. I just wanted to go as hard as I could and enjoy every minute of it knowing that I had a good car.”

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 11th

DREW HERRING, No. 20 SportsClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 12th

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 62 Pilot Travel Centers/Flying J Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 13th How was your race? “In the first half of this race, I really thought we had a solid finish coming. My team worked really hard this weekend to get us back on track and where we needed to be, so a comeback finish would have been great here at my home track. We definitely had a top-10 car and were running lap times consistent with the leaders, but our 13th place finish doesn’t show for it. Thanks to my guys for all of their hard work this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting back here to Iowa Speedway in August.”

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 16th

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 27th

RYAN TRUEX, No. 99 Toyota Camry, Pastrana-Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 34th What happened to take you out of the race? “We blew a right front tire. There was no warning, there was no nothing. We had a really good car. The first run we were really good and we were a top-10, running top-10 times, catching those guys. We were just a little too tight in the center, a little free in so we came in to work on it and got up to fifth. My pit crew did a great job, but we just adjusted on it wrong and got the car really, really free in and off. We were kind of just holding on, waiting for another caution and the tire blew.”

Roush Fenway Dominates NASCAR Weekend; Posts Second Straight Sprint Cup/Nationwide Sweep

NEWTON, IOWA (May 22, 2011) – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took the lead from Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards on the restart with 18 laps to go and never looked back, powering his No. 6 Blackwell Angus Ford Mustang to his first career NASCAR victory in a solid performance at Iowa Speedway. The victory gave Roush Fenway a one-two finish, with Edwards finishing runner-up in the race.

The win capped off what might be the strongest weekend in Roush Fenway history, with Edwards winning the Sprint All-Star race on Saturday night, David Ragan winning the Sprint Showdown and all four Roush Fenway Fords finishing inside the top eight in the All-Star event.

“It means a lot,” said Stenhouse, who struggled heavily at Iowa in his rookie season. “That last caution I was doing some real praying for a good restart. Iowa was not my favorite place but it is now. We crashed three cars last year here and to come back this strong with these same No. 6 guys means a lot. We had Blackwell Angus on the car and that’s awesome. I just can’t thank Nationwide and this series and all the fans that came out here today enough for this opportunity.”

Stenhouse led 41 laps in the race, swapping the lead several times with Edwards, who led 33 laps on the day, but was unable to get around his teammate during the waning laps.

“That was as hard as I could drive,” said Edwards, who leads the Sprint Cup point standings. “The Ford Mustangs were fast today. I asked for an adjustment late that I should not have and I got really loose. Ricky was loose to, but he just did a really good job.

“Just awesome,” said team owner Jack Roush. “Ricky Stenhouse is going to be a factor in this stock car racing for many years to come; certainly long after I’m gone and I’m glad to be here for day one for him.”

Stenhouse’s win marked the second straight week that Roush Feneway has swept the NASCAR weekend in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. It is Roush Fenway’s fourth NNS win of the season and its seventh NASCAR win this season.

Stenhouse, Roush Fenway and the Nationwide Series return to action next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Roush Fenway boasts 10 victories in NNS action.

TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Kenny Wallace — Notes & Quotes Iowa Speedway — May 20, 2011

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 American Ethanol/Iowa Corn/G-Oil Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brad Maggard Can you put into perspective what it means to you to make your 500th Nationwide Series start on Sunday? “Making my 500th start here at Iowa is coincidental and I’m very lucky. My brother (Rusty Wallace) owns part of this race track, helped design it and it could’ve easily been my 500th start a week before or a week after. It means a lot because my brother Rusty got me started in NASCAR racing. He invited me down from St. Louis and he said, ‘Herm, come on down. We’re going to put you in a Nationwide car.’ So, I owe Rusty everything that I’ve got. Of course, we’ve worked hard for it but it’s very coincidental and a lot of fun to make my 500th start here in Iowa.”

How did you get to this point in your racing career? “855 NASCAR starts — that’s a lot of starts, a lot of years. Ten full-time in the Sprint Cup and 11 Truck races and 500 Nationwide races — it’s been a long road. If my dad would’ve told me growing up in St. Louis, if he would’ve said, ‘Son, you’re going to make 855 NASCAR starts and you’re going to do it for a living,’ I would’ve said it would’ve been a fantasy. It would’ve been a dream — there’s no way. So, here we are all these years later — and let’s not forget that in 1984 I was a crew chief on the Levi Garrett team for driver Joe Ruttman. So, very seldom do I see people in the garage area that’s been here as long as me, and when I see them I give them a nod. Nine Nationwide wins, I sure would’ve liked to have made it a lot more, but I spent a lot of time trying to be a winning Cup driver. Got close three times — obviously, three second-place finishes in the Cup Series. One at Talladega and the other one at Rockingham when Steve Park got hurt and the other one at New Hampshire. But, you know, it seems like the Nationwide Series has always been my home. Anytime I’ve run into trouble anywhere I’ve always been able to come back here — the second biggest national touring series in the United States — I would say that I’ve given it my all and I feel like I’m truly a comeback story this year. I called my shot after being embarrassed, humiliated for the last three or four years. I feel like people knew me as the ‘funny Wallace.’ They were making fun of me, ‘Oh, he’s so funny on TV.’ And, it really started bothering me because let’s face it, I’m a top- 10 driver. You don’t get to be 162 top-10s acting silly. So, I knew that, okay, people have wrote me off as a race car driver. They know me as a TV guy — I make their day. I have people all of the time say, ‘Man, we love you on that TV. You make me laugh. That’s the only reason I watch.’ But, I didn’t want that. That’s not what I wanted. I was grateful for that, but I wanted to be known as a race car driver. Sometimes being in the back in the points has its privileges. Car owner Robby Benton, who was within a couple of spots of us in the points last year, he ended up winning the road course race with driver Boris Said, and Robby Benton said, ‘Hey Herm, let’s see if we can put something together. I’m struggling, you’re struggling.’ So, we put it together and I don’t know. I don’t know the last comeback in this sport. I claim I’m the only one so I want somebody to challenge me and tell me of a driver who was as low as I was and then called his shot like I called mine. Like Babe Ruth, I said, ‘I’m going to come back,’ and everybody laughed at me. They didn’t mean nothing bad by it, they just wanted to see it. So, I’m still far away. I still have got to win my 10th win. Like I said, I’ve got nine wins and I want my 10th win. So, we’ve got three top-10s and the fourth one could easily have been a top-five at Richmond. We’ve had a couple of rough finishes at the speedways getting wrecked out. I think that pretty much sums it up. I was tired of being known as the silly TV guy. It’s fun to make people happy, but I tend to take things more in the negative tone than I do a positive tone. I’m funny and I like to make people happy, but when people say he’s the funny Wallace I take that as a criticism. I don’t take that as funny. So, that’s what this comeback is all about.”

What do the locals like Michael Annett and Brett Moffitt go through racing at their home tracks? “With the Iowa guys racing in their home state, they’re really excited to be here and they feel like they want to win in front of their home crowd. Michael Annett, Brett Moffit, these are good young race car drivers and what I’ve learned every time I go to St. Louis is you just really focus in. You try to, for that so many hours, just forget about your high school friends, your family and pretend that you’re at another NASCAR track. I’m excited that Michael Annett and Brett Moffitt are here in their hometowns and I’m very aware of how good they are. They are very talented drivers, but they’ve just got to focus in and get the tickets they can get for their family, but focus in on what’s at hand and that’s trying to win this race.” -more-

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 American Ethanol/Iowa Corn/G-Oil Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brad Maggard (cont.) Do you have in mind a retirement date or are you just riding this wave? “Here is what I say — I heard Mark Martin say it and now I know what they’re talking about. As long as it’s easy for me to acquire sponsorship and as long as I have a competitive team I will race, but I’ll never forget my brother Rusty (Wallace) last year. I was bummed out and he said something and when Rusty talks to me that means a lot, and when my brother Mike (Wallace) talks to me it means a lot. But, Rusty says, ‘Herm, I don’t want to hear you talking like that. Damn it, you’re a good driver.’ And he said, ‘Listen to me, I quit two years too early and don’t do that.’ He says, ‘You close your ears and don’t listen to nobody.’ He says, ‘You start getting up in your upper 40s and they want to write you off and they want to tell you when it’s time to quit.’ He said, ‘You get it out of your system. Don’t quit when people want you to quit. Quit on your own terms.’ I watched Brett Favre do it. I believe he’s quit on his own terms. He stretched it out. I’ve watched Mark Martin say I’m quitting and then come back because it was too hard on him. So, I think I’ve learned my lesson watching these guys. There was a time when I thought I’m going to be done at 45. When the world was beautiful, I thought, ‘Man, 45. That’s it.’ But, now I’ve watched all of these guys quit and then come back and it seems like everybody’s health is better nowadays. There’s better medicine. You’ve got John Force winning his 16th or whatever championship. He’s 61 years old. I think the society and medicine is better. I know that I’m in shape and I get a good NASCAR physical every year. I’m not old. So, I think as long as it’s easy to acquire sponsorship