Kevin Harvick has started six NASCAR Cup Series races in 2020 and has one win, four top-five finishes and six top-10s, which would explain why he leads the driver standings by 34 points over Joey Logano.
Harvick has a solid start to the season despite the 70-day break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of it has to do with the fact he is a veteran with 688 starts and has been with crew chief Rodney Childers for seven years, longer than any other active driver-crew chief combination.
And he should be good as the series moves to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600. Harvick has two career poles at Charlotte to go with three wins, four second-place finishes, eight top-threes, 17 top-10s, and has led a total of 542 laps in his 36 career NASCAR Cup Series points-paying starts on the 1.5-mile oval. His average start is 15.7, his average finish is 15.4 and he has a lap-completion rate of 94.4 percent, completing 12,263 of the 12,991 laps available.
Harvick will pilot the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) coming off the first Wednesday race in 36 years, which took place at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. And he’ll race the 600-mile race Sunday and then turn around and race a 310-mile race at Charlotte on Wednesday night.
While the return to racing has been on everyone’s mind, so are our nation’s heroes, especially on Memorial Day weekend.
Harvick will have the name of Army SSGT Kristofferson “Kris” Bernardo Lorenzo on the windshield of his No. 4 Ford Mustang for the Coca-Cola 600. Lorenzo was killed with three other soldiers on May 23, 2011, in Eastern Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.
The men were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. It was Lorenzo’s third deployment to a war zone.
He was born in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and moved to the United States and graduated from Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, California, just outside of San Diego.
Lorenzo loved cars and often helped his friends as a mechanic. He also enjoyed racing, but also took pride in his heritage, donning shirts decorated with the stars of the Filipino flag and striking up conversations with Filipino strangers.
He loved his family, friends and food, with pork sinigang soup being his favorite.
Lorenzo is buried at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.
He is survived by his wife, Leah Liza Lorenzo and sons Keane and Tristan, as well as his father and stepmother, Saturnino Lorenzo Jr., and Aurora Lorenzo, of San Diego; his sisters, Catherine Lorenzo-Ligason, of San Diego, and Charina Lorenzo-Dela Cruz, of Camarillo, and many relatives in San Marcos and the Philippines.
Harvick hopes to score career victory number 51 in honor of Lorenzo and all the fallen heroes.
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