Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Fusion will have a fresh, new outdoors-inspired look this weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – completely covered in flannel, the unofficial uniform of the true outdoor enthusiast.

Busch Beer has embodied the spirit of the Great Outdoors since its inception in 1955. This weekend at Talladega, Busch will continue to honor its deep roots and celebrate those who are passionate about outdoor pursuits, in concert with the latest Busch Beer advertising campaign. The campaign features the “Busch Guy” in the outdoors, sporting his red-plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans – the inspiration for the livery of the No. 4 Ford Fusion.

When Harvick and the No. 4 Busch Beer team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) roll into Talladega for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500, the team will be draped in the red-checkered fabric. Harvick’s Busch Beer firesuit, the crew’s shirts, the fan display and even the paint scheme of the No. 4 Busch Beer Ford will all feature flannel.

In addition, the Busch Guy, decked out in flannel, will be on hand throughout the weekend to assist in the presentation of the Busch Pole Award Saturday afternoon, as well as to cheer on the Busch Flannel team to victory Sunday.

While Busch Beer has Talladega covered in the red-checkered fabric, its driver Harvick will be trying to score a black-and-white checkered flag during the race to add to his checkered collection.

Harvick has been a regular in victory lane by scoring three Cup Series wins through the first nine races of the 2018 season. He scored the three wins in consecutive weeks at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and ISM Raceway near Phoenix. He’s also led a series-best 528 laps and ranks second with six top-five finishes.

The Bakersfield, California, native will be looking to score his fourth win of the season this weekend at a track where he has visited victory lane in the past.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s lone Cup Series win at Talladega came in April 2010, when he started fourth and beat runner-up Jamie McMurray by .011 of a second – the 15^th-closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.

While Harvick has one win at Talladega, it has also proven to be a challenge for the team in recent years. He has scored four top-10 finishes in his last eight races there, and it remains one of only two racetracks where he has not scored a top-five finish since joining SHR at the beginning of 2014. Kentucky Speedway in Sparta is the other.

Heading into this weekend, the No. 4 team ranks fourth in the championship standings with 324 points, 91 behind series leader Kyle Busch. That number is significant considering Harvick and Busch have finished 1-2 in three of the first nine races this year and have scored three wins apiece. Busch holds the advantage in playoff points with 17, five more than Harvick’s 12 due to a post-race penalty at Las Vegas that cost him his five playoff points for that win.

This weekend at Talladega, Harvick will be looking to score his fourth Cup Series win of the season and his first for flannel-wearing, Busch Beer-drinking, outdoor enthusiasts.

The best outdoor pursuit this weekend will be Harvick driving his No. 4 Busch Beer Flannel Ford to victory lane.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Flannel Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How did racing for stage points and blocking change the dynamic of racing at Talladega and Daytona?

“I don’t like blocking, but it’s a necessity. Blocking is something that has evolved over the years as people have figured out trying to time the runs, and people have figured out when you can block and when you can’t. It’s just a matter of putting yourself in a position where you think you’re making the right move, and sometimes you make the wrong move, and that’s what happened to us at Daytona. Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott got together from what looked to be a block from Chase. It’s just a game of inches. It just really is a high-speed chess match that you have at 200 mph – and this week will be absolutely no different. There will be a big crash. There will be mistakes made. There will be pit errors made. There will be strategy played. But I can promise you we are all going to race in a pack – and that’s the way Talladega should be.”

What do you expect when you come to Talladega?

“As you look at it for me, personally, it’s been a destruction derby over the last couple of years. We’ve run really well at Talladega, but that’s just kind of the phases you go through when you go to Talladega. I’m doing worse than 50-50 on whether you crash or finish the last few years but, in my opinion, it’s one of those places where you want to race up front and race hard all day because you have to try to win stages. I believe you have better odds at the front of the pack when it comes to staying out of a wreck if you can keep that track position all day. You’re going to race in a pack, three wide at times, and you’re going to get pushed and have to push at times, and you just never know what’s going to happen because Talladega is its own animal. Restrictor-plate racing makes it hard to finish the race. As we’ve seen over the past however many years, you try to put yourself in the right position and hope you have a little bit of luck on your side that particular day. I know our cars will be fast enough to contend for the win, but you just have to get to the finish.”

Talladega compared to Daytona – what’s the difference for the spotter?

“Talladega is a lot bigger. It’s a lot wider. The track itself is bigger. The shape of Talladega is different than Daytona because of the track being wider and the way that the tri-oval is shaped. The start-finish line is almost all the way down into turn one, which seems to change some of the outcomes of the finishes, because you have to go all the way down the front straightaway before you get to the finish line. Talladega’s tri-oval is a little bit different than Daytona’s. That bottom groove of banking has a little less banking than the rest of the racetrack, so it’s almost like you’re dipping down into a hole. Sometimes you see guys get loose down into the tri-oval and spin out, so it ends up being where some of the wrecks are caused. It’s really hard to push through that tri-oval, especially as you are heading down into that bottom lane. It’s tough to know exactly where you need to be at the end of the race but, for me, I’ve only won one of them there, so in that particular race we were tandem racing and I was second coming into the tri-oval and was able to get past Jamie McMurray, but I would still rather be leading and in control. If I’ve made it to the white flag, then I’ve made it a lot farther than I’ve made it lately, so it’s a chess match all day. You have to have a little bit of luck on your side, but you can also put yourself in a good position by making the right moves, having a good day on pit road and not making any mistakes.”

Two of the last five races at Daytona and Talladega have been won with a last-lap pass. How do you make sure that doesn’t happen to you if you’re leading?

“I feel like my teammate Aric Almirola had a great shot at winning the Daytona 500, but he had contact down the back straightaway and the No. 3 spun the No. 10 out, or however you want to look at who was right and who was wrong. I think as you look at it, it’s all just a matter of how the moves shake out. As you look at the past several restrictor-plate races that we’ve gone to, the Fords have been really strong. Keselowski and Logano have been the dominant cars in my opinion and Rickey Stenhouse has snuck in there and won. I think as we go to Talladega this weekend, I think the Fords will be strong. As far as where you want to be, I think it depends on who is behind you, how many cars are left, how the lanes are formed. Are they two wide or three wide? Are they single file? You have to guess which lanes will have the biggest runs and you try to block them as they’re coming. As we saw at Daytona, Aric made a move, Austin made a move, Aric wound up wrecked and Austin won. Sometimes that’s just how it works out. But, we’ve also seen Brad and Joey be leading in a lot of these races and be able to hold them off, and Stenhouse did the same thing last year. So, circumstances will definitely play out. I think you adapt your strategy from there.”

Rodney Childers, Crew Chief of the No. 4 Busch Beer Flannel Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What makes the preparation for Talladega different than any other week?

“We always put every ounce of effort we have in preparing our No. 4 Busch Beer Ford to the racetrack each week, but Talladega and Daytona are different in terms of the attention to detail that goes into that preparation for the restrictor-plate tracks. The new rules package has really made us focus on the ride-height of the car and the aerodynamics to make sure it handles as well as it can, so Kevin can do what he does best behind the wheel. In addition to all of our people and the hard work and attention to detail they put forth, Mobil 1 deserves credit, too. Mobil 1 is more than just a sponsor – they’re a technical partner – and their technology under the hood and throughout our cars gives us an advantage over other teams. Their engine oil, chassis lubricants, gear oil – even their power steering fluid – helps us turn fast, consistent laps, and that attention to detail shows results each week, but especially at Talladega.”

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) continue the current 10-race stretch of the season this weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Talladega marks the second restrictor-plate track of the season, and Almirola’s third restrictor-plate race of the year after he competed in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway to open the season.

Almirola heads to Talladega after finishing 17th in the Smithfield Ford Fusion last Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The 34-year-old ran as high as second before several late-race cautions caused the field, including Almirola, to get shuffled around.

The Smithfield driver had a busy week leading into Talladega with a Goodyear tire test Tuesday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, as well as a comprehensive satellite media tour Wednesday with Smithfield and five-time world-champion barbecue pitmaster Tuffy Stone to kick off the summer grilling season. Almirola and Stone launched Smithfield’s “Hero of the Grill” campaign in which fans are encouraged to nominate their favorite grill hero by visiting SmithfieldGetGrilling.com. One “Hero of the Grill” nominee will win $5,000. Plus, the first 10,000 nominees will have the chance to see their name featured on Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford at Richmond (Va.) Raceway in September.

Talladega marks the ninth weekend the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Fusion. Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, which is based approximately five hours northeast of SHR headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, is in its seventh season with Almirola and its first with SHR. Founded in 1936, Smithfield is a leading provider of high-quality pork products, with a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts.

Once Almirola arrives at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway oval, he’ll be focused on one thing – winning. After a heartbreaking finish on the last lap of this season’s Daytona 500, Almirola is looking for redemption. The superspeedways have generally been kind to the native of Tampa, Florida. However, Talladega hasn’t been so generous to SHR. The championship-winning organization is still looking to capture its first win at the track. Talladega is one of only two tracks, with Kentucky Speedway in Sparta being the other, where the Kannapolis, North Carolina-based team is still looking for its first win as an organization.

In Almirola’s 17 Talladega starts, he’s collected two top-five finishes and four top-10s. He’s put together a string of strong results in his last three starts there with finishes of eighth, fourth and fifth, respectively. Additionally, he earned the pole position for the October 2013 race and has led 15 laps.

Almirola has completed five Xfinity Series starts at the Alabama track. His most recent – in May 2017 – resulted in a trip to victory lane while driving the No. 98 Ford Mustang owned by Fred Biagi and Bill DenBeste. Almirola has been successful in his Xfinity starts at Talladega with only one finish outside of the top-10, and he’s completed every lap. Almirola has also accrued four Camping World Truck Series starts with a pair of runner-up finishes – in October 2009 and 2010.

Talladega has been strong for the Ford family of drivers with 26 all-time Cup Series wins at the superspeedway. The manufacturer has also captured eight of the last 11 victories at Talladega. The blue oval has dominated superspeedway races at both Talladega and Daytona with 16 victories in the last 29 events at both venues combined. Ford also swept all four superspeedway races last year and just missed capturing the victory in this year’s Daytona 500 by half a lap after Almirola was powering his way to the start-finish line on the final lap when contact from behind by another competitor resulted in an 11th-place finish.

Aric Almirola: Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How great is it to know that Daytona and Talladega aren’t the only places where you have a realistic shot of winning?

“That’s been the most fun and exciting part of Stewart-Haas Racing. Each and every racetrack that we go to I get on the airplane on Thursday and fly to whatever track and I feel like I have a shot to win that weekend. As a company, SHR doesn’t have any weaknesses. They have good speedway cars, short-track cars, good mile-and-a-half cars – good cars for every track. Every track we go to is another opportunity for us to go have a good run and maybe even win.”

Has the move to Stewart-Haas Racing been everything you’ve expected?

“It has been everything I expected and more. I knew that when I was going to join Stewart-Haas Racing it was going to be an opportunity for me to go and prove that I can drive a racecar, and be competitive and run up front. I knew SHR was an incredible organization, I just didn’t know how incredible. Showing up and seeing all 380 employees work so well together, and everybody pulls the rope together in the same direction, and I feel like that makes SHR such a successful place and great place to work at. The work environment is such an incredible place. The people who go to work there wake up every morning and get in their car to go to work and all they care about is building fast racecars that we can go to the track and win in every week.”

How do you exploit every aspect of the racecar at a superspeedway?

“We have a technical partner in Mobil 1 that plays an integral role in our success as Stewart-Haas Racing. More than ever, the under-the-hood temperatures have increased this year at Talladega and Daytona because NASCAR has allowed us to run our cars sealed off at much lower ride heights. Mobil 1’s technology and field testing gives us the protection of our engine and drivetrain components when the temperature demands rise. At these restrictor-plate tracks, the drivers are wide open on the throttle the entire lap, so any gain in engine horsepower or friction decrease equates directly to a faster lap time. Mobil 1’s trackside engineers are the liaisons between their labs and the racetrack, helping us optimize the efficiency in our drivetrains in a short lead time. Dating back to winning the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500, there have been many times when lubricants are shipped to the track within a day of their chemists concocting a new blend. That commitment to responding rapidly, coupled with quality, wins races at this level.”

Kurt Busch won the Daytona 500 in February 2017 on the high banks of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. And, he has won at just about every other type of racetrack on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

From the shortest racetrack – Martinsville (Va.) Speedway – to a road-course victory at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, to Daytona, Busch has found victory. He’s won on racetracks ranging in length from .526 of a mile, .533 of a mile, .75 of a mile, 1 mile, 1.5 miles, 1.99 miles and 2 miles. He’s celebrated in victory lane at the high-banked ovals and flat tracks. He even won the championship in 2004.

Busch has won at 15 of the 23 racetracks on the Cup Series schedule and can now shift his focus to checking another box. He’ll head to Talladega this weekend looking to return to his winning ways by putting a check in the win column there for the first time.

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has finished third at Talladega four times – in April 2001, 2002 and 2007, and October 2006.

Talladega is one of only two racetracks on the NASCAR circuit where restrictor plates are used. By definition, a restrictor plate is a device installed at the air intake of an engine to limit its power. The use of a restrictor plate is intended to both limit speed and increase safety with an eye toward equaling the level of competition.

Races at Talladega and its sister track at Daytona are ones literally anyone can win. Horsepower-choked engines require drivers to draft together, side-by-side, at speeds approaching 200 mph.

The key point for Busch’s crew chief Billy Scott is to give his driver a good-handling racecar, while Roush-Yates Engines must give Busch a Ford engine with a lot of horsepower. And both Scott and Roush-Yates trust a key technical partner, Mobil 1, to give them a unique advantage.

This weekend, Busch would like nothing more than to add another win to his already impressive resume and win the second restrictor-plate race his career.

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Talk a little bit about racing at Talladega.

“It’s so difficult to predict Talladega. You can ride around in the back or charge up front all day and, either way, your day can end with your car on the hook. You just hope to have Lady Luck guide you to a good finish. Restrictor-plate races have turned into this pattern that it is hard to have any type of advantage over any other team. It just comes down to being in the right place at the right time.”

Restrictor-plate racing has been described as a 200-mph chess match. How would you describe it?

“That’s pretty much it. You’ve got to be able to know the draft, understand the draft, use the draft, block other guys, find holes, make holes. It’s definitely a chess game because you’re always thinking three or four steps ahead. It’s tough to get caught up when you make a mistake. You’ve got to quickly get rid of that and put together a new plan. At the end of the race, everybody is saving their best for the end. Cars are just going everywhere. The plan you thought you had, you’ve got to make a new one. You’ve got to go on the fly.”

In order to be successful in a restrictor-plate race, you need some assistance from other drivers. How do you get that assistance when every driver out there is trying to beat one another?

“Cash? I don’t know. There are certain guys you know to draft with. There are certain guys you know they’re going to be tough. There are certain guys you might see work their way up, like the Fords always come in strong with Front Row Motorsports. The Roush cars are always there. The Penske cars have been tough the last five, six years at the restrictor-plate races. So, you just get a gauge as the race goes on who’s been up front all day. But you’ve got to keep track of the guys who have been hanging out in the back and they’re going to show up at the end.”

BILLY SCOTT, Crew Chief of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are the keys to setting up a car for Talladega?

“It’s all about getting that higher terminal velocity. Aero is a huge part, but so are all the driveline components. A lot of work goes into not just engine oil, but gear lubes and bearings. We’ve partnered with Mobil 1 and that has been a huge help to have them on board and all their research and development to get that stuff more and more efficient.”

It seems like Mobil 1 is more of a technical partner than a sponsor. Is that true?

“Oh yeah, absolutely. And those are the best kind to have. They’re not there just to have their name on the car, but to bring a product to us that can help us perform better each and every week.”

This week’s NFL player draft and Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway are special events for Shannon Myers, the rear tire changer for Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford Fusion driven by Clint Bowyer.

The Miami Dolphins drafted Myers in the seventh round of the 1995 draft. After a professional football career hampered by injury, the speedy wide receiver out of NCAA Division II Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina joined the NASCAR circuit in 2001 as a tire changer. Sunday afternoon, he’ll change tires for Bowyer as the veteran driver seeks his second win of the season and his third career NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega.

The soft spoken Myers knows the importance this week holds for college football players and their families.

“All your life you worked and hoped that one day you would be drafted, and it all comes down to this day,” he said. “I didn’t care who took me. I just wanted to be drafted and get a shot to make the team. You have your family and friends around. They are probably even more excited for you than you are.”

Myers played American Legion baseball the day he was drafted, but after the game joined the well-wishers at his mother’s North Carolina home. With shot nerves from answering plenty of “false-alarm” calls from friends, Myers waited by the telephone and television.

“I went outside by myself so I could get some privacy and got a call from Tom Bratz of the Miami Dolphins,” Myers said. “He asked me, ‘How would you feel about playing for coach Don Shula?’ I said I would be honored. A few minutes later, he called back. He said, ‘Congratulations, son, we just drafted you. You are now a Miami Dolphin.’”

Myers walked back inside the house and gave everyone the thumbs up, cueing smiles and tears of joy. Within minutes, he gave interviews with the Miami media.

“You wait and wonder for so long that day and it’s agony,” said the now 44-year-old Myers, who was the final draft pick of Shula’s NFL Hall of Fame coaching career. “When you get that call, you go from deflated to winning the Super Bowl. It was an eruption.”

Myers learned the plays and caught passes thrown by quarterback Dan Marino. He even spent Thanksgiving at the Hall of Fame quarterback’s house. His tenure with the Dolphins ended with a kidney injury during minicamp, but perseverance led to stints in Oakland, Tampa, Seattle and the New York Jets, along with teams in Canada and Europe.

His travels enabled him to learn from some of the sport’s Super Bowl-winning coaches like Shula, Jimmy Johnson, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren, Bill Parcells and Tony Dungy.

He brought lessons from those coaches to NASCAR after following a doctor’s suggestion to enter a pit crew developmental program at Petty Enterprises. He progressed through the NASCAR world changing tires on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2004 Daytona 500-winning pit crew and won two Xfinity Series titles with Martin Truex Jr. He also worked at Michael Waltrip Racing and Wood Brothers Racing in recent years.

“Obviously, you have to have the physical ability but, from those guys, I learned how to be a teammate,” Myers said. “It’s knowing when to speak up, when to take coaching, learning to succeed as a team.”

Myers feels the similarities between football and NASCAR are many.

“When you get to the top of any sport, everything gets faster,” he said. “Failure isn’t an option – you fight through failure, whether it’s in football or running in the top-three at a race. It’s the hours that lead up to kickoff or the drop of the green flag that are the most nerve-wracking. In football, once you take that first hit, it rings that bell inside and you are trained to do your job. In racing, once you hit that first lug nut, you know it’s game time and you get into a grind and training takes over.”

Myers said he expects more professional athletes to join over-the-wall NASCAR pit crews. A few tenths of a second saved in the pits can be the difference between winning and losing races.

“I have to admit I didn’t know what to think about pit-crew guys and NASCAR when I first considered the idea,” he said. “But these guys are the top of the line. To go over the wall and change a tire with 40 cars running inches from you takes incredible concentration. It’s all about training and performance, so it’s not really much different than the NFL.”

Myers and his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team know the risks and rewards of restrictor-plate racing at Talladega and its sister track Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, where the difference between victory and defeat is quite small.

“Talladega – it’s been good to us, but I know you have to respect these racetracks and you’ve got to get to the end of them,” said Bowyer, who won at the 2.66-mile oval in 2010 and 2011. “Obviously, you’ve got to have a little bit of luck not to get caught up in things and, more importantly, be careful not to cause them yourself.”

Bowyer plans to drive his No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford into the SHR history book this weekend. Talladega and Kentucky Speedway in Sparta are the only two active tracks where SHR has yet to win. History says Bowyer could change that Sunday. In addition to two victories at Talladega, he’s posted six top-five finishes and 12 top-10s.

He’s been part of a dominant four-driver SHR contingent that has won four of the season’s first nine races. Bowyer is third in points and coming off a ninth-place finish at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, where his No. 14 Ford led 45 laps. He has six top-10 finishes in the season’s nine races, including four consecutive top-10s. Those results include Bowyer’s first win at SHR and ninth career victory March 26 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Bowyer thinks a victory party at Talladega would surpass one at just about any other track.

“There are a hell of a lot of fans there,” said Bowyer about Talladega. “It is fun winning in front a packed house like that in the grandstand. When you do a burnout, it’s pretty cool. You look up and see all those fans. This is a track you want to win at.”

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Is it difficult to hold back at Talladega?

“You get a little bit excited and antsy to get up into the pack, and even with 50, 60 laps to go because you’re like, ‘How am I going to get up there?’ They get three-wide and there’s just literally no place to go. At Talladega, you can go four-wide, and I’ve seen when it goes five-wide you get into a wreck. We see that quite a bit there – somebody attempting it – and that’s when it gets this place exciting. Looking forward to hopefully getting to the end and, more importantly, getting a win.”

Mike Bugarewicz, Crew Chief for Bowyer and the No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

How important is qualifying at Talladega?

“Talladega qualifying boils down to just tenths of a second between a good run and a decent run. In October, we were only two tenths of a second off the pole and still started seventh. We think we can make that up this weekend. With times that close, even the smallest advantages help. At SHR, we know our Mobil 1 engine oil, chassis lubricants, gear oil – even power-steering fluid – can help get us a few tenths. That can be the difference between a pole and starting midpack. That’s the difference between picking a good pit stall and potentially missing an early-lap wreck.”