FONTANA, Calif. – Following Coor’s Light pole qualifying Friday afternoon at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway, Kevin Harvick said that running double-duty this weekend should pay off in Sunday’s Auto Club 400.
Harvick enters the third and final round of the West Coast swing gunning for a complete sweep, but after qualifying second Friday, Harvick looks towards Saturday’s DRIVE4CLOTS.com 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race to aid him in those efforts.
“This is definitely a rhythm racetrack and this is definitely one that I would circle every time to run both days just for the fact that the seams are kinda tricky,” Harvick said. “It seems like there is going to be a ton of falloff in the tires.
“Those XFINITY cars had fallen off quite a bit in a matter of 10 laps, so I think when you look at the falloff and the things that you have going on at this particular track I wanna be in the race car. Just because there are so many bumps, there’s so many seams, so many things that have been sealed and patched and places you can slide into to have grip, not have grip. The more laps that you can make, I believe the better off you’re gonna be.”
Goodyear has elected to bring the same tire compound for both XFINITY and Sprint Cup teams this weekend in Fontana, but Harvick said that even if Goodyear decided not to bring the same tires, he would opt towards running the XFINTIY Series race because of the advantages it could create in the fifth race of the season.
“Even if the tire was different, I’d probably still vote to race, just for the fact that this is such a technique-rhythm type of racetrack.”
In XFINITY practice Friday, Harvick fueled by JR Motorsports was first and fourth respectively driving the No. 88 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet Camaro. Last March, Harvick finished second to first time XFINITY winner Kyle Larson.
With Harvick’s dominance and confidence on the Cup side transpiring into similar results across the fence for his limited schedule for JRM, it would be no surprise if Harvick closes out this
stretch of races with not only a West Coast sweep, but a weekend sweep too.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
