Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Kevin Harvick using dominant Las Vegas chassis this week at Pocono

Kevin Harvick is the 5/2 co-favorite to win at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.
Chassis No. 4-1041: Kevin Harvick will pilot the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion built on Chassis No. 4-1041 in the Gander Outdoors 400 Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Built new in 2017, Chassis No. 4-1041 made its debut at Pocono in June, when it started 12th and finished second to race winner Ryan Blaney by .139 of a second. It made its second appearance in July at Pocono, where Harvick started sixth and finished runner-up to Kyle Busch by 6.178 seconds. It made its final appearance of 2017 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in October, when Harvick started third, led a race-high 149 laps and finished third. The chassis visited victory lane in its first start of 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, when Harvick started second and dominated by leading 214 of 267 laps and finishing 2.906 seconds ahead of runner-up Busch. In its most recent appearance Chassis No. 4-1041 started second, led 89 laps and finished fourth at Pocono in June.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

What are your thoughts on heading to Pocono this week? 
“As we go to Pocono, we obviously want to win there, especially since its one of the two tracks we haven’t won at. I know that Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and the organization itself has put a lot of effort into this particular weekend trying to get to victory lane and take that race off the list. It’s a place I enjoy going – not so much the place I enjoyed going in my previous life before I came to Stewart-Haas Racing. It was never a track we ran very well at, but we’ve come to find out that if you have the cars where they need to be and the people around you, things are much different. So, Pocono is a place that I’ve learned to enjoy more than I did in my previous life at RCR.” 

The group at Pocono has done so much to improve the infrastructure and fan experience. What does that mean for the racetrack? 
“Well, people see effort. When you go to Pocono, you see effort from the time you turn into the tunnel and see the waterfall – going through the tunnel to the guardrails all the way to the campgrounds. Everything there has been in a transition. You feel like you’re having more fun when you go to Pocono now than you did, say, six or seven years ago.”

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