STEWART-HAAS RACING
GEICO 500
Date: April 23, 2023
Event: GEICO 500 (Round 10 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
Format: 188 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/68 laps)
Note: Race extended eight laps past its scheduled 188-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Aric Almirola of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 4th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 2nd, Finished 20th / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 11th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 16th, Finished 34th / Accident, completed 189 of 196 laps)
SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (3rd with 311 points, 20 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (15th with 243 points, 88 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (24th with 170 points, 161 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (28th with 149 points, 182 out of first)
Briscoe Notes:
● Briscoe earned his third top-five and his fourth top-10 of the season. It was also his first top-five and second top-10 in five career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.
● This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was a pair of fifth-place finishes – April 9 on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
● This was Briscoe’s fifth straight top-15. He finished 15th March 26 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, 12th April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, fifth April 9 on the dirt at Bristol and fifth last Sunday at Martinsville.
● Briscoe led one lap, increasing his laps-led total at Talladega to two.
Almirola Notes:
● Almirola won Stage 2 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point.
● Almirola led three times for 11 laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to 118.
Harvick Notes:
● The GEICO 500 marked Harvick’s 800th career NASCAR Cup Series start. He is the 10th driver in NASCAR’s 75-year history to reach this milestone and, at age 47, the fifth-youngest driver to make 800 starts. Harvick joins an impressive lineup that includes Richard Petty (1,185 starts), Ricky Rudd (906), Terry Labonte (890), Dave Marcis (883), Mark Martin (882), Kyle Petty (829), Bill Elliott (828), Darrell Waltrip (809) and Jeff Gordon (805). Harvick is on track to finish the year with 826 career starts, which would put him eighth all-time.
● Harvick finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.
● Harvick led twice for 11 laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to 303.
● Harvick has now led 11,560 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,975 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
Preece Notes:
● Preece finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.
● Preece led once for two laps, increasing his laps-led total at Talladega to 14.
Race Notes:
● Kyle Busch won the GEICO 500 to score his 62nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his second at Talladega. Ryan Blaney finished in the runner-up position as the race ended under caution.
● Twenty-seven of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● There were eight cautions for a total of 34 laps.
● Christopher Bell remains the championship leader after Talladega with an 11-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain.
Sound Bites:
“Wild day. I made a huge mistake coming to pit road. We’re two laps down, and then we were one and was going to get the Lucky Dog at the end of Stage 2, and then (Joey) Logano had that speeding penalty and barely got us for the Lucky Dog. It was a battle all day long – very similar to how we kind of were at the end of last year, just continuing to fight and keep doing everything we could to try to maximize our day. At the end, found ourselves up there and in the top-five. I would’ve loved to have a little bit more, but if you told me we were going to finish fourth there – at any point of the race really, even there with 20 (laps) to go. We were so stuck in the back and couldn’t really do anything. So, cool to get this Mahindra ‘Old Goat’ Ford Mustang in the top-five and looking forward to next week.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang
“There’s so much to be proud of. We had a great racecar and ran up-front, led, was in position all day, and then just Ross (Chastain) doing Ross things on that restart. Wiped out the right side of our car, and either broke something in the right-front suspension or had the right-front tire go flat. So, it took a racecar that had a great shot to win and crashed. That part is frustrating, but we have a lot to be proud of. Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and these guys gave us an unbelievable speedway car again, and we keep showing up to these places with an opportunity to win. The last few weeks we’ve had really fast racecars and run up front, so at some point we’re going to convert and win us one.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 on Sunday, April 30 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
