Your Home For Racing News
Posts tagged Coke Zero
Harvick Returning To Daytona Atop Series Standings
Jun 30th
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kevin Harvick started the
season by rolling into Daytona International Speedway’s
Victory Lane. Granted, his repeat victory in the Budweiser
Shootout back in February awarded no points in the NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series standings.
But there was another benefit.
The win branded Harvick (No. 29 Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet)
as a potential championship contender, while serving
notice that the slump experienced by Richard Childress
Racing teams in 2009 was very old news.
Coming into Saturday night’s return to Daytona, the
Coke Zero 400, Harvick has plenty of points, enough to be
leading the series standings. He also has plenty of confidence
when it comes to racing on the 2.5-mile Daytona high
banks. In addition to winning the Budweiser Shootout the last
two years, he also captured the sport’s biggest prize, the
Daytona 500, in 2007.
Harvick leads four-time defending series champion
Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) by 105 points
coming into Saturday night’s event, which is the 18th race of
the season and the second in the “Race to the Chase” — the
10-race stretch that precedes the “Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup.”
Harvick’s lead carries a surprising footnote: he has battled
to the top of the points while winning only one race other
than the shootout — at Talladega Superspeedway in April.
Consistency has carried him thus far. He has a serieshigh
12 top-10 finishes. His seven top fives are tied for second-
best this season. The points-paying highlights in addition
to his Talladega win: runner-up finishes at Auto Club Speedway
and Las Vegas Motor Speedway and third-place runs at
Richmond International Raceway and Infineon Raceway.
Last year at this juncture in the season, Harvick was
27th in the series standings. Now he comes to Daytona’s
annual summer classics as one of three RCR drivers in the
top 15. (Jeff Burton is eighth, Clint Bowyer 15th).
“It’s awesome to see the 180‑degree turn that the whole
organization has taken,” Harvick said, “and that credit has to go to Richard for making the management
changes and the structure changes throughout the organization to use the tools that we have correctly.
And he kind of stepped back and really just let everybody do their job …. let all of the crew chiefs really
work on the competition side of it. Really, it’s just Richard making the key moves towards the end of last
year to get everybody headed in the right direction.”
NASCAR Media Group And Turner Sports To Offer The Coke Zero 400 In 3D Through NASCAR.COM And DirecTV
Jun 21st
NASCAR Sprint Cup Race From Daytona International Speedway On July 3rd Will Be Presented In 3D For The First Time in NASCAR’s Storied History
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (June 21, 2010) – NASCAR Media Group, a media, marketing and entertainment company, and Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., announced today that NASCAR’s first foray into 3D programming will take place on July 3, 2010 with a special presentation of the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola (TNT, 7:30 p.m. ET). The 3D production, NASCAR’s first ever, will be made available through TNT RaceBuddy on NASCAR.COM (NASCAR.COM/RaceBuddy3D) as well as through DIRECTV, and will complement a special television presentation on TNT, highlighted by the network’s groundbreaking signature Wide Open format.
NASCAR.COM will feature 3D feeds for the Daytona race in addition to the mosaic of HD-quality complementary unique camera angles available on TNT RaceBuddy on NASCAR.COM (NASCAR.COM/RaceBuddy) throughout the six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races televised on TNT. Turner, which manages NASCAR.COM, will also make the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from Daytona International Speedway available in 3D through DIRECTV. In order to experience the event in 3D, viewers will need a 3D TV or PC display with matching 3D glasses. Fans can go to www.nascar.com/racebuddy3D to get more information about the hardware and software used to view the 3D production online.
“One of our goals here at NASCAR is to continuously explore ways to improve the viewing experience for our fans,” said Jay Abraham, chief operating officer of NASCAR Media Group. “Offering the Coke Zero 400 in 3D on NASCAR.COM and select television distributors is a great example of that consistent exploration. Our fans have been asking us about 3D for several months, so we’re excited to deliver that to them for the first time ever in what will likely change how NASCAR is consumed moving forward.”
The 3D production on NASCAR.COM and DIRECTV will feature two custom racing feeds produced specifically for 3D. The first will provide a unique look at the racing action from strategically placed cameras around the track designed to maximize the effect of 3D. The second stream will bring the mayhem of pit row into the third dimension creating a one-of-a-kind visual experience.
“At Turner Sports we pride ourselves on innovation through testing, learning and exploring new products and technologies that can better serve our audiences on a multitude of platforms,” said Lenny Daniels, Turner Sports executive vice president and COO. “We see this as an opportunity to showcase our marquee primetime race in Daytona through our signature Wide Open format on TNT, as well as to learn more about 3D through this unique presentation online at NASCAR.COM and through DIRECTV.”
TNT’s televised coverage of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 3 begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with Countdown to Green, and continues with live race coverage in its groundbreaking signature Wide Open format beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. This format is a television presentation in which the network provides continuous race coverage free of national commercial breaks and features more unobstructed race action than that of a standard telecast by using a letterbox widescreen format. Along with title sponsor Coke Zero, featured sponsors-to-date are Burger King, Coors Light, Dimension Films’ Piranha 3D, Goodyear, Sprint, Subway and Toyota.
NASCAR Media Group is the exclusive rights holder of NASCAR event footage, race data and content and its credits include Dale and The Ride of Their Lives, NASCAR-themed movies for Viacom distributed on TV and via DVD.