Kevin Harvick recalls dramatic victory after long-time sponsor's exit ahead of Talladega Cup race

Kevin Harvick has recollected his notably close victory on the Talladega Superspeedway back in 2010.

The #29 Chevrolet driver then had to brush past the #1 car of Jamie McMurray on 88th lead change of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron's 499 race to end his winless streak.

In a recent episode of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, Harvick said that his main sponsor Shell had decided to back out on the day of the race. Harvick said:

"Shell had told us that day that they were not coming back. They were out as the sponsor and then we go out.

"And in that fashion we went out as we typically did at that time to just really show them how we really felt about it, and went out to race so that we could get a new sponsor."

Happy Harvick talked about his last lap strategy to the finish line. He also spoke about the "Tandem Drafting" and how he did the exact same move in his practice session which he ended up doing on McMurray #1 car. This technique made the front car wiggle, making space for Harvick's #29 to get underneath him, according to Harvick.

This led the #29 team of Richard Childress Racing to prove their worth and to achieve a win on the Superspeedway. The win eventually landed Budweiser as their new sponsor.

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Kevin Harvick's expectations of GEICO 500 at Talladega

The Talladega Superspeedway has seen consistent victories from Ford but it is yet to win a single race this season.

Fox Sports NASCAR analyst, Kevin Harvick, shared the importance of the race for Ford at Talladega. Harvick, who drove #4 Ford Mustang in his final years at Stewart-Haas Racing, said this is a great opportunity for the Ford drivers to secure a win before the playoffs.

In the podcast, Harvick picked his favorite as well for Sunday's race. He believes #22 Team Penske Ford driver Joey Logano has the best chance of securing the win.

"I have nothing but Fords on my list, and I'm going to go with Joey Logano. I think that he knows that this is his opportunity to win," he said. [51:36]

Harvick also picked Todd Gilliland as the second favorite and called him the 'dark horse". He added:

"My Dark Horse, Todd Gilliland I’m telling you the Fords have to be all in this weekend; they have to be all in... there's going to be some crashes and luck that go with all this, but the Fords have to win."

The NASCAR legend believes that to keep up their mark in Talladega, Ford has to maintain the teamwork and get back the momentum to end their winless streak of the season.