Victories, awards piling up for Harvick
NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick has been in the game for a while, and he knows how to keep the sponsors happy.
Kevin Harvick started the 2007 season with new sponsors on the hoods of both his Nextel Cup and Busch Series rides.
He provided an immediate return on the investment by putting both his Busch and Cup cars into victory lane as quickly as possible.
"Any time you can win it's special, but to win in the first race of the year in both cars at Daytona -- we broke our new sponsors in right, right off the bat," Kevin Harvick said. "It's something you couldn't do again if you had to."
Kevin Harvick was in Memphis on Wednesday to get kudos from his Busch Series sponsor, AutoZone.
In recognition of his early success, Kevin Harvick was given the company's Extra Miler award.
"I didn't know I was going to be an Extra Miler," Kevin Harvick said. "To be part of this club is pretty cool."
Being a Daytona 500 winner has its perks, too, but Kevin Harvick said the media blitz the week after Daytona is not one of them.
"Winning Daytona wore me out more than anything; it meant doing a lot of extra work. But I don't think I'd trade it for anything," Kevin Harvick said. "(Winning the Daytona 500) is something we work all winter for, and that's the race everybody wants to win."
Kevin Harvick's Busch win has been the high point of AutoZone's ever-increasing involvement with NASCAR.
It got its feet wet by sponsoring the NASCAR Elite Division in 2003, then escalated by sponsoring Kenny Wallace's Busch car starting late in the 2005 season.
Now AutoZone has joined forces with one of the best teams in NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, and it couldn't be happier.
"We had specific criteria as far as our involvement in NASCAR, we really were looking for a team that embodied our values and culture, as well," said Lisa Kranc, AutoZone's senior vice president of marketing. "AutoZone is about winning, and Kevin is about winning. We think that's a powerful combination."
Kranc said the car has also become a point of pride inside the company, which was on display when a couple of hundred red-and-gray-clad AutoZone employees enthusiastically greeted Kevin Harvick when he was presented with his award.
"Anywhere you come somewhere for the first time -- this is my first time at AutoZone in Memphis -- to see the enthusiasm and all the support that everyone gives you," Kevin Harvick said. "It gives you a good sense of security, and you know you have a lot of people that support you no matter what happens."
Kevin Harvick is off to a strong start in the Busch Series this year, despite running a partial schedule. He's started six of the eight Busch races this season, with the win at Daytona and five top-10 finishes.
On the Cup side, Kevin Harvick has encountered a string of bad finishes since winning the Daytona 500, and he's dropped to 14th in the points.
"We've had a lot of bad luck since Daytona. But you have your good streaks and your bad streaks," Kevin Harvick said. "But we're better than we were at this point last year."
From Memphis, Kevin Harvick hopped a plane bound for this week's race at Phoenix, where he is the defending event champ, and he's able to take a second to savor his win in his sport's biggest event.
"In the weeks after (Daytona), I realized what I've done and the magnitude of the race," Kevin Harvick said. "Just putting your name alongside all those other guys on the trophy is something not a lot of people get the opportunity to do. It elevates you to another level of history in the sport."
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