Busch Grand National Series

Home | Winston Cup | Grand National | Bill Elliott Racing | Raycefan's Rave In-Car Radios | Silly Season | Forum | Photo Gallery | Newsletter | In the Pits News and Results | Point Standings | 2001 Schedule | 2000 Schedule and Results   Hills Brothers Coffee 300 - Kevin Harvick Notes BOTH GOODWRENCH & ACDELCO TEAMS HEAD TO THE WINDY CITY WITH CONFIDENCE Heading into the first of two races at new facilities for the Winston Cup Series for 2001 and the third of four new venues for the NASCAR Busch Series, both the ACDelco and GM Goodwrench teams with Kevin Harvick are eagerly anticipating this weekend races at Chicagoland Speedway. Todd Berrier, the crew chief of the No. 2 ACDelco entry on the Busch Series driven by the points leader, will be competing in both races this weekend. In addition to his regular responsibilities with the No. 2 car, Berrier will be serving as crew chief for the third RCR entry, Jeff Green’s No. 30 American Online car in Sunday’s Cup race. Berrier, Green and the rest of the No. 30 team tested several weeks ago at Chicagoland and despite them starting slow, they gradually got faster and gathered valuable information that they will share with Harvick to help him in both his Cup and Busch efforts. “With the new engine package on the Busch Series this year, “ Berrier said, “we really can use very similar setups in Cup and Busch. We can start from similar baseline setups and adjust from there. At Dover earlier this year, Harvick had no track time in Busch because of rain, but we took Kevin Hamlin’s notes (crew chief of the No. 29 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet) and raced and qualified their setup in Busch. So we expect to be able to take what we learned with Jeff and apply it to the ACDelco car.” BERRIER ON CHICAGOLAND: “Chicago is a lot like Vegas, but with more banking. It’s really smooth and very fast. There should be more than one groove as the rubber builds up on the racing surface, but we expect just one early on.” “The track was tough to get a handle on while we were testing. It took us a while to figure it out. You’re going 200 mph going into the corners and that’s a challenge all by itself.” WILL HARVICK BE AT A DISADVANTAGE BECAUSE OF NOT HAVING TESTED AT CHICAGOLAND? “I don’t think so,” Berrier said. “It’s so much like Kentucky and Texas and other places that he’s been so much, that I think he’ll be fine. Harvick and Green are similar in what they like in the car so a lot of the information is going to be relevant. Harvick’s been really strong at the fast 1.5-mile tracks and we expect him to be competitive in both cars this weekend.” KEYS TO CHICAGOLAND: “Fuel mileage could come into play because it’s such a long race (200 laps) and engine life is going to be important. There isn’t much RPM drop going in and through the corners so it’s going to be hard on the motors.” DOUBLE DUTY: Kevin Harvick will be attempting to run full schedules on both the NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup Series this season. All told, Harvick will be participating in 70 races total, 36 in Cup, 33 in Busch and one NASCAR Truck race. Harvick is the first driver in the modern era to attempt to do so. There six weekends this season where Busch and Winston Cup are at different tracks, in different states and Harvick will be competing in both. Harvick’s Race Odyssey we have dubbed, “Happy’s Big Adventure.” It will require a great deal of coordination on behalf of Richard Childress Racing, a private airplane, two pilots and lots of luck with Mother Nature. HAPPY’S BIG ADVENTURE The Double-duty weekends are: 1. The Winston, Winston Cup, May 19th (finished 21st) & Nazareth, Busch May 20th (2nd) 2. Kentucky Busch, June 16th (finished 1st) & Pocono, Winston Cup June 17th (finished 15th) 3. Daytona Winston Cup, July 7th (finished 25th) & Watkins Glen, Busch, July 8th (finished 3rd) 4. Gateway, Busch, July 21st & New Hampshire, Winston Cup, July 22nd 5. Pikes Peak, Busch, July 28th & Pocono, Winston Cup, July 29th 6. Memphis, Busch, October 13th & Martinsville, Winston Cup, October 14th Harvick is not the only RCR employee that will be doing double duty this weekend. Berrier will also be serve as crew chief for Jeff Green’s No. 30 America Online entry in the Winston Cup race on Sunday. Also, the Harvick’s ACDelco team will pit the No. 30 car during the race. BUSCH SERIES POINTS CHASE: Kevin Harvick maintains the lead in the Busch points lead after his third place finish at Watkins Glen last weekend. Greg Biffle, second place in the Busch points, finished directly ahead of Harvick in second place. Biffle gained just 10 points on the series points leader. Busch Series Points 1. Kevin Harvick 2,751 2. Greg Biffle 2,649 3. Jason Keller 2,515 4. Jeff Green 2,449 Harvick has led the Busch points for four consecutive weeks starting after he finished third (3rd) at Dover on June 2nd. Harvick has led the Busch points after 12 of the 18 races so far this year and has dropped no further than third in standings which occurred just twice after Atlanta and Darlington. WINSTON CUP POINTS BATTLE: Harvick dropped one position to (10th) in Winston Cup points as a result of his 25th place finish at Daytona for last week’s Pepsi 400. He sits just 197 points out of fifth and 23 out of ninth. He has a commanding lead in the Rookie of the Year standings with 202 points to 175 over Kurt Busch. HARVICK’S 1.5-Mile Track Record in 2001 Harvick has had some of his most impressive performances on 1.5-mile tracks, the same length as this weekend’s Chicagoland Speedway. Here are Harvick’s performances on 1.5-mile circuits on both Winston Cup and Busch Series Date Track Start Finish Laps Laps Led Status Money BGN Mar. 3 Vegas 16th 12th 199/200 0 Running $28,150 Cup Mar. 4 Vegas 20th 8th 267/267 0 Running $122,927 BGN Mar. 10 Atlanta 2nd 8th 202/203 0 Running $21,850 Cup Mar. 11 Atlanta 5th 1st 325/325 24 Running $158,427 BGN Mar. 31 Texas 7th 1st 200/200 114 Running $66,800 Cup Apr. 1 Texas 33rd 7th 334/334 0 Running $137,777 BGN May 26 Char. 1st 26th 198/200 1 Running $12,980 Cup May 27 Char. 6th 2nd 400/400 1 Running $189,827 BGN Jun. 16 Kent. 11th 1st 200/200 165 Running $85,600 Averages: 11.2 7.33 $591,593 Harvick’s average finish in the 1.5-mile superspeedway races this season is 7.31, that is better than his series leading average finishing position in Busch which is 7.61. LAP COUNT Kevin Harvick will be logging more laps and miles, by far, than any other NASCAR driver this season. Here is the total to date. Busch Cup Daytona 300 miles --- Rockingham 200.94 miles 399.84 miles Las Vegas 298.5 miles 400.5 miles Atlanta 311.08 miles 500.5 miles Darlington 201.39 miles 401.41 miles Bristol 132.5 miles 265miles Texas 300 miles 501 miles Martinsville ---- 240.62 miles Nashville 299.25 miles ---- Talladega 170.24 miles 497.42 miles California 300 miles 500 miles Richmond 187.5 miles 299.25 miles Loudon 212miles ---- The Winston ---- 28.5 miles Nazareth 200 miles ---- Charlotte 297 miles 600 miles Dover 200 miles 400 miles Michigan ---- 400 miles Kentucky 300 miles ---- Pocono ----- 497.5 miles Sears Point ---- 224 miles Milwaukee 250 miles ---- Daytona ---- 400 miles Watkins Glen 201 miles ---- SUB TOTAL 4,361.4 miles 6,555.54 miles GRAND TOTAL Harvick has run 10,916.94 miles this season in both the Winston Cup and Busch Series. In NASCAR Busch, Harvick has completed 3,334 out of a possible 3,387 laps for a 98.43% completed lap percentage. In Winston Cup, Harvick has completed 4,891 out of 4,991 possible laps for a 98.0% completed lap percentage.   News and Results | Point Standings | 2001 Schedule | 2000 Schedule and Results   Home | Winston Cup | Grand National | Bill Elliott Racing | Raycefan's Rave In-Car Radios | Silly Season | Forum | Photo Gallery | Newsletter | In the Pits ©Copyright 2001 Race 2 Win