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Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest:

• Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Designate a Driver Chevrolet team scored a third-place finish in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) and helped solidify their position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
• Harvick started the event from the third position and fought a loose-handling race car until the caution flag waved at lap 35. Crew chief Rodney Childers called for a two-tire stop with air pressure and track bar adjustments to help improve the car’s handling. Harvick restarted in the fourth position at lap 40.
• On the following run, Harvick radioed to the team that the changes had made the car’s handling better. And at lap 71, he went to the outside of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 car to take the lead.
• Harvick held the point position until Joey Logano gained the lead in a race off of pit road following pit stops at lap 171. Logano maintained the first position until the leaders hit pit road when the caution flag waved at lap 210. Due to a varying pit strategies that saw two teams stay out, some teams take fuel only, some opt for two tires and others take four tires, Childers’ call to take right-side tires put Harvick seventh for the lap 215 restart.
• Harvick slipped to ninth after the field took the green flag, and made his way back into the top five at lap 247 as several teams elected to pit under caution. Childers had Harvick stay out, maintain his track position and work on saving fuel to help the team make it to the end of the race without stopping again.
• At lap 268, Harvick restarted in the third position, went three wide with Brad Keselowski and Logano, and took over the lead the following lap. The No. 4 Budweiser Designate a Driver Chevrolet remained out front until Logano, on newer tires, passed Harvick following the lap 273 restart.
• A late-race caution sent the event past the scheduled distance, and set up the field for a green-white-checkered finish. Harvick restarted second and lost a spot to Kyle Larson in the No. 42 car before taking the checkered flag in the third position.
• Logano scored the win in Sunday’s race. Larson, Harvick, Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson completed the top-five positions.
• Keselowski continues to lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings following the race at NHMS. Logano is one point back in second. Harvick sits third, seven points behind the leader. Johnson and Kyle Busch round out the top-five spots. With one race to go in the Challenger round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, Harvick leaves NHMS 41 points ahead of the cut-off mark for making the Contender round. 

Harvick on the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway: 

You led more than 100 laps today, but didn’t get the victory you were looking for. However, you are in pretty good shape heading to Dover. "Yes, I have to thank everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet team. We had the Designate a Driver program on there this week, so everybody be sure to drink responsibly. It was just a good day for us. We had a fast car. Track position is tough and it wound up being really hard racing there and Brad (Keselowski) moved me out of the way and I got up out of the groove. And then at the end there, NASCAR must not be able to see the lines on the restart there and the No. 22 (Joey Logano) was way early all day. But all in all, we did what we had to do and I just enjoyed racing that hard.”

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

• Danica Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet team finished 19th.
• Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet team finished 30th.
• Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet team finished 36th. 

Coming Up:

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel to Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware, next weekend for the AAA 400. ESPN will have live coverage of the race at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday. MRN Radio radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast. 

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