Truckin’ no more

Kevin Harvick is lightening his workload.

On Wednesday, Harvick, driver of the #29 Budweiser Chevrolet, announced that he will merge his Nationwide Series operations with Richard Childress Racing. On Friday, he announced that he will no longer field teams in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

He had already suspended his truck manufacturing operation more than a month ago.

“It’s just a tough model business-wise,” Harvick said. “We have scrimped and scraped and got the sponsorship and things that you need. [General Motors] has been a great supporter of everything that we’ve done. But from a business standpoint, sometimes you just have to make the decisions as to what you want to do and for us it just didn’t make sense.”

He said he was trying to focus more on his Sprint Cup team and driving.

“On all of these decisions, still being involved with everything at RCR will allow me to spend more time on my Cup team,” Harvick said. “Takes an extreme amount of pressure off of me as a driver and an owner.”

Obama and the Bieb

Jeff Gordon has had quite a whirlwind of a week.

After earning his 85th victory – and claiming sole possession of third place on NASCAR’s all-time win list – in Atlanta on Tuesday, he has been busy flying up and down the East Coast.

His first stop was a trip to the White House Wednesday in a ceremony honoring last year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup participants.

Thursday, he had three stops: a kickoff event for Drive to End Hunger in Richmond, back to Washington for an event at the AARP headquarters. He had one more thing on his agenda that day.

“My lovely wife who loves fashion asked me a few weeks ago if I would make a trip up to New York,” Gordon said. “I ended up going up there. I didn’t know I was going to meet the Bieb.”

If NASCAR fans seem kind of wild, fans of the Bieb – aka Justin Bieber – are even wilder.

“I don’t know what it was like to be in close proximity to the Beatles back in the day, but that was about the only thing I could think of,” Gordon said. “We showed up at the Dolce & Gabbana store and it was like a rock concert for teenage girls.”

Gordon was still recovering Friday morning.

“You look at the win on Tuesday, the White House on Wednesday, the food drive and fashion week and now I’m back at the race track,” Gordon said. “So yeah, my head is still spinning.”

Gordon’s 85th impresses Busch

Kyle Busch is about as competitive a NASCAR driver as has ever has worn a fire suit, but he had good words for one of his colleagues – Jeff Gordon, whose 85th victory Tuesday in Atlanta puts him third on NASCAR’s career victory list behind Richard Petty, with 200 wins, and David Pearson, with 105.

“I think it’s awesome,” Busch said. “Jeff was always kind of my hero growing up and through the years, but for him to get win No. 85 and to get himself all the way up there to third on the all-time win list … Certainly he’s a tremendous asses to this sport and has done so much for the building of this sport.”

Busch said there aren’t many drivers who are in a position to match Gordon’s achievement. Jimmie Johnson is one of them.

“I think a lot of us would say that Jimmie’s probably the only other guy that can win that often,” Busch said, “but we’d certainly like to give it a try.”