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GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest:

• Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet team earned a ninth-place finish in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Harvick started the race from the 39th position and was scored 23rd when the field completed the first lap. He cracked the top 20 for the first time at lap 11 and found himself inside the top 10 just four laps later. Harvick ran as high as fifth before dropping back to the tail of the field as oil from a competitor’s car had covered the windshield of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet and obscured his view of the track.
• Crew chief Rodney Childers called Harvick to pit road under green-flag conditions at lap 39 for right-side tires and fuel. The pit crew also pulled an oil-covered tear-off from the windshield.
• Harvick ran between 15-20th once the field cycled through pit stops and was scored in the 15th position when the caution flag waved for the first time at lap 60. The No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet sustained minor damage from on-track contact, so the team pitted for four tires, fuel and to make repairs at lap 62. Harvick restarted in the 21st position at lap 65 and was back inside the top 10 by lap 78.
• Harvick took the lead at lap 112 for two laps before dropping back to fifth. The solid run continued for the No. 4 team until Childers called Harvick to pit road for a green-flag stop at lap 174. The No. 7 car made contact with the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet at the entrance to pit road and spun Harvick in front of a number of other competitors that were making their way onto pit road. Harvick avoided further damage and was about to get the car turned around and to the attention of the No. 4 team at the other end of pit road. The pit crew completed a four-tire stop and got Harvick back on track.
• The caution flag waved two laps later and Harvick was able to get back on the lead lap. He was scored in the 18th position with six laps to go and was ninth when the caution flag waved at lap 185. The field lined up for the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish and a number of cars wrecked before the field made it back to the white flag, setting field up for a second-attempt at the finish.
• Harvick took the green flag at lap 192 in the sixth position and was running third when the field took the white flag. He lost drafting help on the final lap and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet dropped back to ninth before taking the checkered flag.
• Brad Keselowski scored the win at Talladega Superspeedway. Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill and Ryan Newman completed the top-five positions.
• Sunday’s race at Talladega marked the cut-off point for the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. The point standings for the eight drivers still eligible to compete for the championship were reset and each has 4,000 points going into the Eliminator Round. The eight drivers who advanced to the next round are: Joey Logano, Harvick, Keselowski, Newman, Denny Hamlin, Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon. 

The following is the finishing position of the other SHR teams in Sunday's race:

• Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet team finished seventh.
• Danica Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet team finished 19th.
• Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet team finished 34th. 

Coming Up:

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Martinsville Speedway next weekend for the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500. ESPN will have live coverage of the race at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. MRN Radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast. 

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