Kevin Harvick
No. 77 Dollar General Stores Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Team Report
NASCAR Busch Series Race 14 of 35—Dover (Del.) International Speedway
LOWE’S (N.C.) MOTOR SPEEDWAY RACE RECAP:
Bobby Labonte was behind the wheel of the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet at Lowe’s (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Busch Series race. After qualifying on the 17th row, Labonte battled a tight-handling race car throughout the entire event. The Dollar General stores team rallied to a 22nd-place finish.
DOVER (Del.) INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY FACTS & STATS:
11th START AT DOVER: Kevin Harvick will make his 11th NASCAR Busch Series start at Dover (Del.) International Speedway on June 2nd for the Dover 200.
3 of 4 BUSCH SERIES STARTS IN THE NO. 77: Kevin Harvick will make his third of four starts in the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet for the 2007 Busch Series season. Previously in 2007, Harvick raced to a ninth-place finish in the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway and to a fourth-place finish at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Harvick will make his fourth and final start in the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway.
NUMBER CRUNCHING: Harvick has earned two top-five and six top-10 Busch Series finishes in 10 races at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
LAP BY LAP…BY LAP…: Kevin Harvick has competed in 22 of NASCAR’s premier series events at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, racing in 12 NASCAR Nextel Cup events and 10 Busch Series events. Combining all the laps from the 22 races, Harvick has finished 98.9 percent of the scheduled laps. Between the Cup and Busch Series events, Harvick has led 423 laps but and has yet to conquer “The Monster Mile.”
HOMETOWN HERO: The crew chief of the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet grew up two-hours from Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Wally Rogers called Port Monmouth, New Jersey home and remembers visiting “The Monster Mile” when he was 14-years-old. “The first race that I remember going to was at Dover (Del.) as a kid. With it being as close as it was to home, I was about 14 or 15-years-old. I think it was still asphalt, I don’t remember it being concrete. My mom, dad and brother and my best friend and I stood on-top of my dad’s van in the infield. I remember we destroyed the top of the van. We didn’t have any plywood or anything to stand on. We just stood on the roof. I even think we stepped on it so bad the sun roof leaked after that.”
DEDICATION: Between being a crew chief for a Truck Series and a Busch Series team, Wally Rogers has earned six top-10 finishes out of nine starts at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Out of those nine races when Rogers was crew chief, he has only missed one. During the Dover Truck Series race in 2005, Rogers had to leave early after arriving into town for the weekend, due to the delivery of his twin daughters.
CREW CHIEF CORNER WITH WALLY ROGERS:
THOUGHTS ON DOVER AND KHI CO-OWNER KEVIN HARVICK IN THE CAR: “When Kevin drives, regardless of where we are, it is so important to me to have him win in his own car. For myself and [Jason] Meeks (car chief of the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet), because we’ve been here since the start, it means a lot to have him drive for us.
“When you show up, you want everything to be flawless. So if you combine that with going home and wanting to win at Dover so badly, you can’t imagine what it’s like. There are usually about 10 or 15 of my friends and family there. They don’t come in the pits, but will come and watch from the grandstands. That’s even more pressure than just having Kevin [Harvick] race and being at Dover. When you add your family to it, it all adds up.
“As far as my crew chief career record goes, I don’t know if there are very many races where I’ve finished outside the top-10. Dover (Del., International Speedway) is a track that I’m comfortable with.”
QUICK NOTES:
Race Info
Date: June 2, 2007
Track: Dover (Del.) International Speedway
Event Name: Dover 200
Race length: 200 laps / 200 miles
Banking/Turns: 24-degrees
Track layout: 1-mile
Shape: Oval
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice—Friday from 9:00 – 10:20 a.m., ET
Final Practice—Friday from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., ET
Qualifying—Saturday at 11:05 a.m., ET
Broadcast Times:
TV – NASCAR Countdown pre-race coverage can be seen live on ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. ET. Followed by the Dover 200 on ESPN2 at 3:00 p.m., ET.
Radio – The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will broadcast pre-race coverage at
2:30 p.m. ET.
No. 77 Dollar General stores Monte Carlo SS Specs
Chassis: 018
Car History: Previously raced in 2007 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway with KHI team co-owner Kevin Harvick behind the wheel. The No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet started 13th and finished fourth.
Engine: RCR
