KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (Feb. 10, 2015) – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, enters Budweiser Speedweeks at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway for the first time as the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.
As he heads to Daytona, Harvick will begin the defense of his title in earnest at the 2.5-mile superspeedway while also hoping to accomplish a feat not duplicated since 2007, which also happens to be the same year Harvick scored his first and only victory in the Daytona 500. Harvick wants to win three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points-paying races in a row.
Last season, the Bakersfield, California native won the final two Sprint Cup races – at Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway – en route to capturing his first Sprint Cup championship in his inaugural season with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).
As Harvick enters his 15th Sprint Cup season and his second at SHR with crew chief Rodney Childers at the helm, he is looking to extend that winning streak from two races to three races by winning his second Daytona 500.
Harvick’s attempt to extend that winning streak comes at a racetrack where he’s seen considerable success.
He won the famed Harley J. Earl trophy in 2007 when he beat Mark Martin to the Daytona 500 finish line by 0.020 of a second on the final green-white-checkered restart. It was the closest Daytona 500 finish since the start of computer scoring in 2003.
Harvick also has three wins in the Sprint Unlimited – 2009, 2010 and 2013 – tying him for second-most with owner and teammate Tony Stewart and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett.
In the 2009 Unlimited, Harvick survived an incident-filled race that saw a record eight caution periods and less than half the starting field make it to the checkered flag.
The following year, he joined Neil Bonnett, Ken Schrader and Stewart as the fourth driver in event history to win consecutive races, driving a backup car he never got to practice to pass Greg Biffle with two laps remaining in a green-white-checkered finish. He was declared the winner when a multicar incident ended the race under caution.
Then, in 2013, Harvick led 40 of 75 laps, dominating the second and third segments en route to his third Unlimited victory in five years.
If Harvick can make it three straight wins by winning the season-opening Daytona 500 Feb. 22 at “The World Center of Racing,” the No. 4 team would put itself in prime position to secure its 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup berth and defend its series title.