Win Would Increase Harvick's Love For Martinsville

Kevin Harvick has finished every race he started at Martinsville.

Kevin Harvick loves Martinsville Speedway for a lot of reasons …the action, the excitement, his success on the tricky half-mile track…but none of those top his list.

“Anytime we can go to Martinsville, I love it because I get to drive home and that means I get to sleep in my own bed,” said Harvick, who lives just a little over 30 miles from the track.

As much as Harvick loves Martinsville Speedway – he calls it his “hometown track” – he hasn’t visited victory lane there in a Sprint Cup race, something he hopes to remedy on October 25 in the TUMS Fast Relief 500.

“We’ve been fortunate to win in the Nationwide (Series) and the trucks and run good in the Cup car at Martinsville,” said Harvick. “We’ve got to get that Cup win knocked out of the way, and being so close to home, obviously you’ve got a lot of friends and family who come to the race. So … for us, it basically is our home track and you always want to do good close to home.”

Harvick has 16 Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville Speedway and has been running at the end of all of them. Ten times he’s been on the lead lap at the finish with six top 10s.

He will again be doing double duty, running both the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Saturday and the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday. He comes into the Kroger 200 on a Martinsville roll, having won the Kroger 250 in the spring.

“I always like running the trucks,” said Harvick, who has a win, three top fives and four top 10s in eight Martinsville truck series starts. “We had good luck at the first Martinsville race this year winning that one, and hopefully we can do that again.”

It’s going to be a busy weekend for Harvick with Farm Bureau Insurance Pole Day on Friday, October 23, the Kroger 200 on October 24, with his annual fan club reunion at his Kernersville, NC, shop that night. And then of course, there’s the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, October 25.

“It’s just something about staying at home on a race weekend. We get to have a lot of our friends stay with us and we have our go-kart race on Thursday night and our fan club gathering Saturday night after the truck race,” said Harvick. “So a lot of things are going on with our race team that involve not only the race track, but the local community. Everybody supports us, so it’s nice to be able to give something back.”

Tickets for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, October 25, the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday, October 24 and the Farm Bureau Insurance Pole Day on Friday, October 23 are on sale and can be purchased by calling 1.877.RACE.TIX. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.racetickets.com.

Ticket prices range from $25 to $77 for the TUMS Fast Relief 500.