Tag: Manteca

Driver Scott Speed will join the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) team this weekend as the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads north to Canada. Speed will pilot the Rheem Chevrolet Impala at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, the third and final road-course event of the season. The California native has 13 starts in the series with one pole (Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 2009) and eight top-10 finishes. This will be his first Nationwide Series start since the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2009.

FIRST TIME: Speed will sport yellow rookie stripes on the back on the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet this weekend marking the driver’s first Nationwide Series start at the 15-turn road course. Speed has two starts in Formula One at Montreal with a best finish of 10th in 2006.

KHI AT MONTREAL: KHI has made a total of five starts at the Montreal, Canada track since the inaugural event in 2007 with three top-five finishes. Max Papis earned the highest-finishing spot for the organization in 2010 with a second-place finish.

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 33 Rheem team will utilize chassis No. 077 for this weekend’s race in Montreal. This chassis is new to competition this season, but it was previously prepared as the back-up car for this season’s road-course events at Road America and Watkins Glen International.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Paul Menard returned to the driver’s seat of the No. 33 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet Impala for the Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen International. Menard put the KHI Chevrolet in the seventh position to start the road-course event. The driver remained in the top 10 throughout the race to bring home a sixth-place finish.

COMMENTS FROM THE DRIVER: SCOTT SPEED

“I am super excited to get back to Montreal. It has always been one of my favorite cities in the world. It is going to be very interesting to run on a track in a stock car where I’ve run in a Formula One car, I look forward to it though. We are going there with one goal, and that is to win for KHI and Rheem. I’m thankful for this opportunity and I hope to make them proud.”

About Rheem:

Rheem Manufacturing Company (www.rheem.com) is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta. In its 86th year of operation, the company manufactures a full-line of eco-friendly, technologically advanced residential and commercial heating and cooling systems; tank, tankless, solar and hybrid heat pump water heaters; whole-home standby generators, controls, swimming pool and spa heaters; indoor air-purification products; and commercial boilers throughout North America and world markets. The company’s premium brands, including Raypak, Ruud and Rheem, have been recognized with countless industry and consumer awards for reliability, innovative design and high quality. Rheem is the official heating, cooling and water-heating supplier to Richard Childress Racing (RCR), Kevin Harvick, Inc. (KHI) and is a primary sponsor of RCR’s No. 29 Sprint Cup Series car and KHI’s No. 33 Nationwide Series car and Camping World Truck Series No. 2 truck. Harvick was named Nationwide Series “Driver of the Decade” in 2010.

Scott Speed, the former Formula One driver, was back racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last Sunday. The 28-year-old from Manteca, California signed a 3 race deal to drive the No. 37 Ford for Max Q Motorsports at Indianapolis, Pocono, and Watkins Glen. The team will be running a Ford Fusion with the FR9 Roush Yates engines. They will have to qualify on speed as the team is out of the top 35 in points. In the Brickyard 400, last Sunday, Scott qualified in the 34th spot and was only able to complete 19 laps before have rear gear problems and finishing in the 39th position.

“The plan is to run full races, and hopefully find some sponsorship along the way,” Speed said. “It’s a tough road, but at least I’m with a group of guys that works really hard. We unloaded terrible. There’s only a handful of us over there, and we fixed the thing and made it a lot better. So hats off to all those guys.”

“We are excited to have Scott Speed join us,” said Larry Gunselman, Max Q Motorsports owner. “He has shown great talent in a small period of time in stock cars and with the right operation I think things can really take off. We will start by focusing on qualifying and go from there.”

Scott had spent the last 2 years racing in the Sprint Cup Series for the Red Bull Racing team before being released at the end of 2010. Now, Red Bull has decided to pull out of Sprint Cup entirely.

“I am excited to get back to the track,” said Speed. “Max Q Motorsports seem to have a good operation and a great group of guys working on the 37. Ford has a great engine package so I’m hopeful that we can get the ball rolling quickly and be competitive out the gate.”

Scott has recorded one top-five and three top-10s in Cup. He has eight top-10s in 13 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and one win, four top-fives and nine top-10s in 16 career starts in the Camping World Truck Series.

Scott spent most of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway attempting to qualify for the Indy 500. The Dragon Racing car never had the speed necessary to qualify. Teammate Patrick Carpentier, who took the car out for some laps trying to help with the adjustments, slammed hard into the wall ending Scott’s hopes of making the race.

The Brickyard 400 last Sunday, included for the first time this year, five Northern California race car drivers. They were: A.J. Allmendinger from Los Gatos, Jeff Gordon from Vallejo, Mike Skinner from Susanville, T.J. Bell from Sparks, NV and Scott Speed from Manteca.

To view Scott Speed’s race results please visit his page at www.racing-reference.info.