The Southern 500 is one of the four “crown jewels” of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. And Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Big Buck Hunter Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is one of only four drivers to win all four crown jewels.
Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Harvick are the only drivers to see the checkered flag first at the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500.
Harvick is hoping he can score his second Southern 500 victory Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway after leading 238 laps in a dominating win in the 2014 Southern 500.
For this weekend’s Southern 500, Harvick and the No. 4 team will bring a special paint scheme reflecting the team’s race-day partnership with Busch Big Buck Hunter, which offers an exclusive chance for viewers to take home a Big Buck Hunter machine of their own just by tuning in to the race.
To learn more about the partnership between Busch and Big Buck Hunter, visit Busch.com or the Busch social media channels – @BuschBeer.
In addition to his 2014 Southern 500 victory at Darlington, Harvick has three poles, seven top-five finishes, 11 top-10s and has led a total of 581 laps in his 22 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. His average start there is 14.5, his average finish is 14.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 95.9 percent – 7,475 of the 7,792 laps available.
While they’re modest personal statistics, the combination of Harvick competing at Darlington in SHR equipment is impressive. In his last five NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington – all of which have come with SHR – he has finished inside of the top-10 in each of the five events, including four top-fives. He has an average finish of 4.2 during that span. And of the 581 laps Harvick has led at Darlington dating back to his rookie year in 2001, a total of 518, or more than 89 percent, have come with SHR despite only four, or 22 percent, of his 22 Darlington starts being with SHR.
Harvick has competed in 16 NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Darlington with three top-fives and nine top-10 finishes with one pole position in August 2003. He has driven in two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series events there with a best finish of fourth in March 2002.
Harvick has 47 career NASCAR Cup Series victories, which puts him 16th on the all-time list. He’s hoping he can score a win this weekend to put him in a tie with Herb Thomas for 15th place all time.
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