Casey Mears and Germain Racing have agreed to a three-year contract extension that will keep Mears in the No. 13 Chevrolet through 2018, the team announced Thursday. GEICO also extended its relationship with Germain Racing to be the vehicle’s primary sponsor through 2018.

GEICO has been a primary sponsor with the team since its inception in 2009.

“This is great news for our Germain Racing team because everyone has worked so hard to build this GEICO program and people in the garage are taking notice of what we’re accomplishing,” Mears said in a team release. “GEICO is such a great partner and they not only support our team, but the sport in general, which makes me even prouder to have the opportunity to drive the GEICO Chevy. We appreciate their belief in us and have enjoyed our relationship with everyone at the corporate office, as well as the GEICO associates that we get to interface with each week at the race track.”

Mears has piloted the car full time since the 2011 season, notching one top five and five top 10s during that span. He currently sits 22nd in the points standings with two races remaining in the 2015 season. If it holds, it would be his best finish with Germain Racing.

RELATED: See the current standings

Drivers who are eliminated from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup still have something to race for. Fifth place in the final standings, specifically.

Any of the 12 drivers who do not advance to the four-driver Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway are eligible to finish fifth in the current Chase configuration.

Here’s how:

When the Chase Grid is set after Richmond, all postseason drivers have their point totals set to 2,000. Drivers with victories get an extra three points per win applied to their total. Points are then reset in the ensuing rounds, so the 12 Contender Round drivers are reset to 3,000 points, the eight Eliminator Round drivers are reset to 4,000 points and the four Championship Round drivers are reset to 5,000 points. There are no bonus points for these rounds.

As drivers are eliminated from the postseason, their point totals default back to their total when the Chase Grid was initially set. The points accrued during the postseason are then added retroactively to that figure to arrive at the new total. For example, Joey Logano currently has 4,013 points. If he does not win at Phoenix, he will be eliminated from the postseason. His points total would reset to 2,009, the figure he had after the Chase Grid was set. The points he earned from Chicagoland to Phoenix, nine races in total, would then be applied to that 2,009 total and give Logano his new points total.

So a driver eliminated after the opening round (say, Jamie McMurray this season) can still finish above one of the four drivers eliminated after Phoenix under this format. The driver-initiated suggestion ensures that all Chase drivers have plenty to race for throughout the postseason — as Jimmie Johnson proved with his win at Texas Motor Speedway last week.

“Driver code” has been a hot issue lately, but it isn’t the only set of unwritten rules in NASCAR. Pit road has its own code.

Drivers and crew members can do several things during a pit stop to hinder other teams on pit road: positioning cars, tire rolls and hoses can all come into play. Each can be — and has been — used to make tasks harder for other teams during pit stops. When this happens, crew members have been known to enforce their own code.  

This is an excerpt from the book “Money Stop” about an incident years ago involving a driver and front tire changer:

“The year was ’93-’94, somewhere in there, when Geoff Bodine drove the QVC car. Bodine came in the pits and ran over my shoe and knocked over my carrier. I told myself, ‘If I get done with this stop, and that car is still in the pits, I’m going down there.’ We ended up getting our stop done before they did and I went down there to the window and started pounding him in the head. It wasn’t something I was proud of but it happened. It cost me $2,500 bucks, but it was worth it.”

Stewart-Haas Racing pit coach Joe Piette helps explain pit road code and what exactly it means. 

“Is it in writing? Hell, no!” Piette said. “It’s just something that you learn as you pit week in and week out. Back in the day, if you were pitted next to a team you didn’t care for or had issues with, you did everything you could during a race to mess them up. 

“Leaving your sign board down to prevent the car in front of you from getting in their pit stall clean, leaving tires on pit road in the best location to be a nuisance to the team around you, not helping the team around you catch tires, it just goes on and on. 

“Heck, I’ve grabbed a sign board back when we ran glass windshields hoping to damage/crack the windshield of another team’s car because they cut us off, blocked us in, or just weren’t playing nice! Pit road is tight and teams can help or hurt each other.” 

But pit road code also allows for forgiveness when it’s followed properly, Piette explained. 

“This past weekend one of our SHR cars had two pit stops where a tire from another team rolled into our pit stall during our stops,” Piette recounted. “The first time it didn’t slow our stop down, but the second time it cost our team about 2 extra seconds. There were no post-pit stop altercations, no equipment or fists flying. Why? Because the team that made the mistakes admitted to it and apologized for what happened, both during the race and after the race.  

“I received a lengthy text message on Monday morning from one of the other team’s over-the-wall guys simply apologizing and taking full responsibility for the mistake. No doubt there was nothing intentional on their part. Hey, we are all human and we make mistakes. I appreciate the other team members reaching out to us and clearing the air. They are class acts. 

“If we end up pitted next to them again next week, there is no doubt they would help us however they can and we will do the same for them. Why do I know this, because they understand the unwritten pit crew code!”

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.