Kevin Harvick and Shell-Pennzoil Team Enjoy a Successful 2008 Season |
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Kevin Harvick and the Shell-Pennzoil team enjoyed a solid run in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Harvick scored seven top five and 19 top ten finishes on his way to a fourth-place overall finish for the season! In March, Richard Childress Racing (RCR) scored a first-ever one-two-three finish at Bristol Motor Speedway, making it the team’s best event of the year. Harvick finished a personal season-best in second place behind RCR teammate Jeff Burton who took the checkered flag. Finishing third, Clint Bowyer rounded out the podium for RCR. During the summer season the RCR team scored six top-10 finishes. Beginning in Pocono in August, these successes helped secure its spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and earned Harvick his third Chase appearance in three years. Building on the summer’s momentum, the No. 29 Harvick team scored top-10 finishes in the each of the first three events of the 10-race Chase! Seventh-place finishes at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway moved Harvick into the top five racers in total points just before final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite handling problems with the No. 29 car at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick was able to keep the Shell-Pennzoil Chevy in the top 10 for much of the 400-mile race. By taking longer intervals between refueling stops, Harvick made up some ground on the competition, propelling him to a second-place finish and landing him in fourth place for the season. In addition, Harvick extended his record of finishing every race by avoiding crashes or mechanical failure to 80 races. This is a record in the “Modern Era” of racing, which dates back to 1972, and is second all-time to Herman Beam’s 1961 record of 84 consecutive completed races. With the 2008 season complete, the Shell-Pennzoil race team heads into the off-season with high spirits and will look forward to carrying their recent momentum into the 2009 season in mid-February. To subscribe to weekly updates from Kevin Harvick and Shell Motorsports in the U.S., covering all the major motorsport partnerships in the Shell family, click here. |