Harvick is the first driver to ensure a spot among the 12 who will battle for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in the season's final 10 races. The win increased his “regular season” lead over second-place Jeff Gordon to 293 points.
In a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, Harvick led five times for 60 of the 200 laps on the 2-mile track in Michigan's Irish Hills.
“This has [traditionally] been a bad track for us, so today says a lot about RCR and our cars,” Harvick said. “Racing is a lot of fun right now, and I thank the crew for putting up with me. It's almost like being on vacation, but we'll be in the pressure cooker for the last 10 races.”
In a further endorsement of the current success of both Harvick and RCR, Budweiser announced on Tuesday that it will move sponsorship to support Harvick over three seasons, from 2011.
This support was echoed in a statement by Mark Wright, Budweiser / Anheuser-Busch vice president of media, sports and entertainment marketing:
"We wanted a guy with a proven track record, which Kevin has, a driver with the kind of personality and charisma that Budweiser was looking for and then you couple that with Richard Childress and what he means to the sport and what his organization can bring in terms of winning and that's what we're looking for,"
This exciting new partnership between RCR and Harvick and a high profile sponsor such as Budweiser, with their long NASCAR lineage and proven track record of innovative sponsorship activations provides an exciting pairing for fans everywhere, and also places RCR in a very strong position for 2011 and beyond!
