NASCAR: Kevin Harvick unveils special paint scheme for COTA

Kevin Harvick will be running a special Mobil 1 paint scheme in this Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas.

The inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix, is scheduled to take place Sunday afternoon, and Kevin Harvick is set to run a special paint scheme on his #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in it.

Harvick is set to run this golden paint scheme to promote Mobil 1 Thousand, which Mobil 1 launched earlier today.

This initiative gives fans who sign up here a chance to win $1,000 or more in cash, as well as other racing collectibles and experiences, if a Mobil 1 driver takes the checkered flag in any of the 23 races throughout the rest of the season. One lucky winner will receive the first prize pot if a Mobil 1 driver should find victory lane.

Here’s a look at the scheme Harvick is set to run in this 68-lap race around the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) road course in Austin, Texas.

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The “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR” is used by Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Live Fast Motorsports, Gaunt Brothers Racing and decade-long partner Stewart-Haas Racing. These teams have secured six of the 13 race wins so far this year.

To ensure that fans aren’t shortchanged by these six wins, Mobil 1 has added an extra $6,000 bonus to the prize pot, meaning the first winning fan could walk away with a $7,000 prize if a Mobil 1 driver wins this Sunday’s race. But if a non-Mobil 1 driver should win, the prize will roll over to the following week, and the amount will accumulate until a Mobil 1 driver does manage to win again.

Stewart-Haas Racing are still seeking their first win of the 2021 season. Harvick’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway last September is their most recent triumph, and 20 races have come and gone since then.

We had the chance to speak to Harvick about this initiative and this paint scheme.

“Going to COTA this weekend, we have a great looking Mobil 1 Ford Mustang with the Mobil 1 Thousand sweepstakes on the side of the car,” Harvick told Beyond the Flag. “Anything that’s painted gold and has money all over it, you have to like, right?

“This weekend, a fan can walk away winning $7,000, knowing that hopefully a Mobil 1 car will go to victory lane — any Mobil 1 that goes to victory lane. So hopefully it’s ours, but hopefully if not, we can get one of those other Mobil 1 cars into victory lane and give somebody some money.”

Harvick has run several unique one-off paint schemes over the years to promote various initiatives by his primary sponsors, and this Mobil 1 scheme is the latest. He believes that the strategy is working.

“Any time you’re going to give away money, you always get a little more focus from the fan side of things,” he said. “So I think as you look at the interaction, I think that’s really one side of the sponsorship world that has definitely changed. Having to have that continuity with the standard paint scheme has kind of gone away. It’s really ‘How do you activate that particular brand?’ and tie it into the race weekend or the race in general with not just sticker slapping.

“There has to be an element to it that draws the fans’ attention. Any time you can create that interaction before the race weekend or during the race is always unique.”

Even if fans don’t win this week or don’t win the grand prize, they can still win other prizes throughout the season. In addition to the cash prizes, Stewart-Haas Racing and Mobil 1 will be providing extra prizes triggered by wins by the four-car Ford team, including meet-and-greets with their drivers, the chance to design a paint scheme, exclusive signed swag and much more.

“There’s going to be a ton of giveaways that we have through the team and through Mobil1thousand.com, and it’s not just this week,” he said. “You can win $1,000 each and every week, and if a Mobil 1 driver doesn’t win, then it will stack up and — hopefully we don’t have that problem, but if we do — then we’ll stack that up and let it build.”

Harvick has long been a user of Mobil 1 lubricant technology in the Cup Series, and he is proud of it.

“I think when you look at Mobil 1 in general from the performance side, they’re so involved with our team and the things that we do with Roush Yates and the oil development and the things that they do in the engine shop, and we’re always developing something, which, from a driver’s standpoint and a team standpoint, is always good, because you know that there’s that — it’s not free — but there is free speed in the car because of the fact of what you’re pouring in the engine and transmission and rear end gear and hubs and all the things that come with making the car go fast,” he stated.

With the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix being the first ever Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, Harvick discussed some of the challenges that the unique road course will present.

“With all the simulator prep and videos and all the things that we’ve done to kind of try to wrap our arms around what type of race track that we’re going to, it’s obviously very unique,” he said. “There are some unique braking zones, unique corners, long straightaways, sharp corners. Turns from one to six are very unique just from a rhythm standpoint. So I think it’s going to be a challenging situation to really go out and grab all the speed and details of the race track that you need to right off the bat.”

Fortunately, practice, which has been featured for just two of the season’s first 13 races, is set to return ahead of this Sunday’s race.

“Hopefully making laps and being able to practice on the race track and being able to apply the things that we’ve done so far to the race track in practice is going to be good just because of the fact that you think you know what you want to do, but it’s never the same until you actually get out there at full speed in real life,” he explained. “It’s a difficult race track, and I think everybody’s looking forward to something new and the challenge that goes with it.”

Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix live from Circuit of the Americas beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 23.