Greg Zipadelli is slated to serve as an interim crew chief for Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang team for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series Playoff event at Talladega Superspeedway.
Zipadelli, a two-time Cup championship-winning crew chief with 34 career victories, serves as competition director for Stewart-Haas Racing. He will be filling in for Rodney Childers, who will not be participating this weekend at Talladega after Harvick’s car was found with two lug nuts not secured following last weekend’s Playoff event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In addition to serving his one-race suspension, Childers is anticipated to be fined $20,000 from NASCAR.
With Zipadelli serving as Harvick’s crew chief, veteran Tony Gibson will be serving as competition director for all SHR operations this weekend.
Talladega will mark Zipadelli’s first time serving as an interim crew chief this season. The previous season, he served as an interim crew chief for six NASCAR national touring series events (four with Chase Briscoe in the Xfinity Series and two with Clint Bowyer in the Cup Series). During the six-race schedule, Zipadelli guided Briscoe and the No. 98 SHR Ford Mustang team to three victories (Homestead-Miami Speedway and Pocono Raceway in June along with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in July).
Currently, Harvick, who finished ninth in the previous Cup event at Las Vegas, is ranked in 10th place in the Cup Playoff standings and is seven points below the top-eight cutline. While he has yet to record his first victory of this season, he has achieved eight top-five results and 20 top-10 results as he is nearing 750 Cup career starts.
The upcoming Cup Playoff event at Talladega is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 3, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
