Kevin Harvick is 5/1 co-favorite to win at Michigan

KEVIN HARVICK Batting .500 Kevin Harvick has two wins at Michigan. KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Aug. 7, 2019) – No Major League Baseball player has ever hit .500 at season’s end, and the last one to hit .400 was Ted Williams for the Boston Red Sox in 1941. Ford, which is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, is batting .500 at Michigan International Speedway in nearby Brooklyn, site of Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.    The Blue Oval has a long history at Michigan, winning half the races run there since the track opened in 1969. Of the 100 Cup Series races contested at Michigan, Ford and its Mercury brand have combined for 50 wins – 38 by Ford and 12 by Mercury. So Kevin Harvick is happy that his No. 4 Mobil 1 racecar for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has a Ford engine underneath the hood. In last year’s August race at Michigan, Harvick helped Ford by driving the No. 4 Busch Light/Mobil 1 Ford Fusion to victory lane. He started third and led 108 of 200 laps.  All told, Harvick has two wins, one pole, seven second-place finishes, 12 top-fives, 18 top-10s and has led a total of 495 laps in his 37 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Michigan. His average start is 14.7, his average finish is 11.9 and he has a lap-completion rate of 99.4 percent – 7,135 of the 7,177 laps available. The combination of Harvick competing at Michigan in SHR equipment is impressive, as well. In his last 11 NASCAR Cup Series starts at there – all of which have come with SHR – Harvick has one win and four runner-up finishes and only one finish worse than 14th – 29th in June 2015. And of the 495 total laps Harvick has led at Michigan dating back to his rookie year in 2001, 346, or 69.8 percent, have come with SHR despite only 11 of his 37 Michigan starts, 29.7 percent, being with SHR. Harvick will have the Roush-Yates Ford engines powering him at Michigan and he’ll also have the support of Mobil 1 technology on board as a sponsor and technical partner. Mobil 1 isn’t just the world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand, it also provides the entire SHR organization with leading lubricant technology, ensuring that all SHR Mustangs have a competitive edge over the competition on the track. In its 17th consecutive season as the “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR,” Mobil 1 is used by more than 50 percent of teams throughout NASCAR’s top three series. Harvick is hoping that he can lead Mobil 1 and Ford to another victory as the NASCAR playoffs are fast approaching.

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

Why do your prefer Mobil 1 synthetic? “I’m a synthetic guy because, in 1993 when we were sitting in the engine shop, we dumped Mobil 1 synthetic in and that’s all we did and gained seven horsepower. From that day on, we would actually save our money and then go to the local auto parts store because, at that time, it was like $5.50 a quart and the conventional and other oils were like $3.50. At the big races, we would put the Mobil 1 in the car and the regular races would put the regular oil in there. You know I’m going to say synthetic.” What does it take to have a good finish at Michigan? “How you finish at Michigan depends on how your day is going. If you’re having a good day, it’s not really hard to tell your guys what you need and everyone is in a good mood. If you’re having a bad day, you can get behind at Michigan really fast. You’re going to end up with a green-flag pit stop and a whole bunch of green-flag laps. You just have to be going from the time the green flag drops and keep yourself in position at the end.”