Kevin Harvick is 5/1 favorite to win at Atlanta

KEVIN HARVICK For The Farmers KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (June 4, 2020) – Kevin Harvick will drive a bit of a different-looking car this week. Busch Light, the beer brewed for America’s heartland and a longtime supporter of agricultural communities, will clad Harvick’s car in a corn-themed, Farm Rescue paint scheme for this Sunday’s Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. His Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate Clint Bowyer will have a similar-looking scheme. Busch announced last week it will provide funds for the nonprofit Farm Rescue to begin harvest assistance operations in Kansas immediately. The expansion will allow Farm Rescue to provide free harvest assistance to farm families experiencing a major illness, injury or natural disaster. Since its inception in 2005, Farm Rescue has helped nearly 700 family farms sustain operations in times of crisis. These efforts are made possible through a network of volunteers from across the United States. Busch has been a partner of Farm Rescue since early 2019 and played an instrumental role in facilitating Farm Rescue’s entry into Kansas with a mix of financial support, public affairs assistance and more. Kansas is the first new state to be added to Farm Rescue’s support network since 2017 and will be the seventh state supported overall. Busch recently teased the news of this partnership with the release of its special-edition Busch Light Corn Cans, a remixed edition of the classic Busch Light can and packaging. Consumers nationwide can support Farm Rescue with every purchase of the new limited-edition Busch Light corn packs in select states. For each pack purchased in these states between May 18 and July 5, 2020, $1 will be donated by Busch, up to $100,000, to benefit Farm Rescue’s ongoing efforts. Throughout the race, fans will have the chance to win a suite of farm-related prizes. More information can be found at @BuschBeer on Twitter ahead of June 7. Fans can head to ForTheFarmers.org to learn more and to stay informed as race day approaches. Harvick has only two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins at Atlanta, but has been strong there since 2008, with 12 top-10 finishes in 15 races. He’s led a series-high 1,197 laps and has led 100 laps in six of the last eight races. He’s also won four of his last six NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the 1.54-mile oval. Atlanta has always been a special place for Harvick as he scored his first career Cup Series victory there in 2001. Following Dale Earnhardt’s death on the final lap of that year’s Daytona 500, Harvick was named the driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing and made his series debut the following weekend at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway, where he finished 14th. On March 11, less than one month since his debut in NASCAR’s top series and in just his third start, Harvick won his first Cup Series race at Atlanta. Harvick is hoping that he can take the Busch Light For the Farmers Ford Mustang to victory lane in Atlanta. And, as a bonus, it would become the site of his first and 51st NASCAR Cup Series wins.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You’ve had a solid start to the year so far. What are your thoughts going to Atlanta? “I don’t know. As you go there, Atlanta is a place where you expect to run well. As you look at all the differences in cars and changes in tires and the differences we’ve had to face this year, you’ve got to go run the race and wrap your arms around where everything is.” What do you like about the Atlanta Motor Speedway layout? “I just love the abrasiveness of the racetrack. It still has a lot of speed for the first three or four laps, but then it has a lot of fall-off and a lot of bumps that give it character. As a driver, you just love the challenge that comes with racing at Atlanta. This is always one that I circle on my calendar as a favorite and I look forward to racing in Atlanta this weekend.”  You were a rookie in 2001 and won your first race at Atlanta. What do you remember about your rookie year? “Well, it wasn’t supposed to be my rookie year. We didn’t run the Daytona 500, obviously. And then, you know, Dale Earnhardt died, (I) got in the car the next week, I got married. I think 70 or 71 races between the Cup Series and the Busch Series that year. Raced for both championships. Won my first Cup race, we won a Busch Series championship, we won the Cup rookie of the year. But I was so sheltered from everything that was going on. The only real taste I got of the magnitude of the Earnhardt situation, really, I can think back to and say, ‘You know, that was a massive situation.’ Obviously, I know it was, now. But when I think back to that first press conference that we had in Rockingham and the magnitude and the reach of what was in that tent that day, that was really the only thing I was exposed to that year was, ‘Um, wow, this is a huge moment.’ Even winning that first race, and I’m not one to go back and just watch the videos and listen to the chatter of the media and the things that are happening. And we were testing, either the Busch car or the Cup car, or we were racing. We built our first truck that year. I ran that at Richmond. So there were so many things that were moving around that I honestly don’t remember really anything from that year. Other than, you know, I remember building that truck in Ed Berrier’s garage with my Busch team – with Todd Berrier and those guys. After we would get done at work, they’d come over and help me build the truck. But really, everything else is kind of a blur because there was so much happening. And it wound up being a good thing to be sheltered from what was going on and all the talk and all the hype and everything.”