Greg Zipadelli to fill in for Rodney Childers as Kevin Harvick's crew chief

Greg Zipadelli to fill in for Rodney Childers as Kevin Harvick's crew chief
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Greg Zipadelli is on the entry list as the crew chief of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for Monday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Zipadelli will fill in for Rodney Childers, who is serving a one-race suspension for the No. 4 car having two lug nuts not secure in post-race inspection at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A $20,000 fine will also accompany that penalty when those announcements are made by NASCAR later.

Longtime SHR hand Tony Gibson shifts over to competition director for the weekend on all four cars for the organization.

RELATED: Talladega schedule | Full playoff standings

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4, finished ninth at Las Vegas and is currently 10th in the standings for the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Harvick is seven points below the elimination line, but he has two more chances — at Talladega and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval — to advance to the Round of 8.

Harvick, the 2014 champion, has yet to win this season after getting nine victories last year, but he has top-10 finishes in four straight races in 2021 entering Talladega, where has one career victory (in the 2010 spring race).

Zipadelli has 34 career Cup Series victories and two championships as a crew chief, all but one of those coming with three-time champion Tony Stewart. Zipadelli’s most recent crew-chief experience came last season as a fill-in on the No. 14 team of Clint Bowyer, who finished 19th and 10th in those races. He also worked with Chase Briscoe in the Xfinity Series for four races in 2020 and helped guide him to three wins last year.