Stewart-Haas Racing and Harvick launched on Thursday that Harvick will power a No. 29 Ford within the Would possibly moreover 21 inaugural NASCAR All-Extensive title Flee at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.
The automobile will characteristic a “throwback” paint draw paying homage to the invent which adorned Harvick’s then-No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet when he obtained his first Cup plod on March 11, 2001 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
On the time, it change into lawful Harvick’s third sequence delivery with RCR’s No. 3 crew which had been rebranded as the No. 29 following driver Dale Earnhardt’s loss of life in a closing-lap fracture within the season-opening Daytona 500 two weeks earlier.
On the closing lap, Harvick ended up racing facet-by-facet with Jeff Gordon exiting Flip 4 and to the checkered flag at Atlanta with the rookie edging the now Hall of Famer by a scant 0.006 seconds.
“When I sat within the No. 29 for the main time, it with out a doubt wasn’t by want, however I indisputably wouldn’t maintain performed it any in a different device,” Harvick, 47, acknowledged. “Dale’s passing changed our sport forever, and it changed my life forever and the course it took.
“Attempting aid on it now, I designate the significance of coming into into the Cup automobile, and then I bother up winning my first plod at Atlanta within the No. 29 automobile after Dale’s loss of life. The significance and the significance of maintaining that automobile on the plod observe and winning that plod early at Atlanta – shiny now what it supposed to the game, and lawful that 2nd in new of being in a situation to construct it up – change into so fundamental.”
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Busch Gentle Ford
Photo by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Photography
The choice to slay the many of the No. 29 in a plod is allotment of Harvick’s want highlight many of particular moments of his NASCAR profession.
“I had a colossal 13 years at RCR and with out a doubt realized a lot by the approach on epic of of being thrown into Dale’s automobile, where my first press convention as a Cup Sequence driver change into the ideal press convention I’d ever maintain in my profession, where my first moments maintain been my ideal moments,” he acknowledged.
“With the All-Extensive title Flee going to North Wilkesboro – a chain with a ton of historical past – we thought it made sense in a year fleshy of milestones and moments to highlight where it all started.”
Harvick’s Ford for the All-Extensive title Flee will be white and characteristic the crimson stylized No. 29 that he drove all over 2001 when he finished ninth within the sequence standings.
Busch Gentle, the main associate for Harvick within the All-Extensive title Flee, will elevate aid its emblems from that period as neatly.
Harvick has competed in each All-Extensive title Flee since joining the Cup Sequence in 2001. In 38 begins, he has been on the starting grid for 22 of them, winning twice (2007 and 2018).
This year’s All-Extensive title Flee returns to North Wilkesboro – a observe that first appeared on the Cup Sequence schedule in 1949 however has no longer hosted NASCAR national sequence opponents since 1996.
“I don’t know the closing time the All-Extensive title Flee change into some of the anticipated match of the season,” Harvick acknowledged. “Fans are going to prove up in droves.
“North Wilkesboro is a colossal brief observe, the asphalt’s used out, and I comprise it’s going to be a improbable match.”
