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BUSCH: Harvick Darlington previe

Kevin Harvick is looking forward to using some of the momentum he gained by winning the Winston Cup race at Atlanta last Sunday, the Cracker Barrel 500. "Sure this is going to give us a lot of confidence," Harvick said. "We're going to try to ...

Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM

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Kevin Harvick is looking forward to using some of the momentum he gained by winning the Winston Cup race at Atlanta last Sunday, the Cracker Barrel 500.

"Sure this is going to give us a lot of confidence," Harvick said. "We're going to try to capitalize as much on our success as possible in both the No. 2 ACDelco car and the No. 29 GM Goodwrench car. Running both series helps me because I try to transfer some of the things I've learned from one car to the other."

Interesting Notes:

* Harvick is the first NASCAR Truck Series regular to win a Winston Cup points race. Richard Childress Racing teammate and fellow Truck Series veteran, Mike Skinner, has won non-points races in the past including two exhibition races in Japan, but never a Winston Cup race.

* Harvick won the Cup race at Atlanta in just his third Winston Cup start. No Winston Cup race-winner has won sooner than Harvick in the modern era. He has impressive company on the list of early winners. Ron Bouchard and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are second and third fastest to win in their 10th and 12th starts, respectively.

* Harvick finished second twice in his NASCAR Truck Series career at Bakersfield and Memphis in 1999 in the No. 98 truck. If he were able to win either of those races he would now be the only driver ever to win a race in each of NASCAR's big three series, Truck, Busch and Winston Cup.

* The 2000 Busch Series Rookie of the Year will be competing in more races this season than any single driver in either the Busch or Winston Cup Series with 33 Busch and 36 Cup races for a total of 69 races. Currently it's 7 down, 62 to go.

Darlington ACDelco Busch Car: Kevin Harvick will be competing in RCR chassis No. 12 which is the same car that he raced to an eighth place finish last weekend in the Atlanta Busch race. He also ran the car at Rockingham to the second of two, second place finishes so far this season. He powered the car to a 20th place finish in last year's fall Busch race at Richmond. He grabbed his third Busch race win of last season in the car at Memphis after starting on the pole, going down a lap and coming all the way back to win the race.

Harvick on the "The Lady in Black": "I really like Darlington. It's tough and has a lot of character. The surface is really hard on tires and you begin to slide around a lot after 30 or so laps. You have to try to keep the car under control and can't run the car too hard so you conserve the tires. You need to run the car up near the wall to be competitive but you have to remember to race the racetrack not the other competitors." <pre> Harvick's Darlington Busch Stats Year Start Finish Laps Laps Led Status Money Points 2000 28th 15th 147/147 0 Running $11,875 118 </pre> Double Duty Doing Harvick Good: Kevin Harvick and RCR are committed to competing in both the Winston Cup and the Busch Series championship points races this year. It means a very busy year for the driver and the race teams. Even though many people find it to be a very daunting challenge that could be quite draining for the 25-year old, Harvick sees it as an advantage.

"I think running so many races is going to help us. I'm going to get a lot more experience on all of the racetracks than by running just one series. I'm going to see how the tracks change with the weather and the time of day. So far I've been able to apply a lot of the knowledge I gain from one car to another. At this stage in my career I really seeing it help us."

-DEI

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