Kevin Harvick makes NASCAR Championship Four | Sports News

With the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff discipline now down to the ultimate eight forward of a journey to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 2014 champion Kevin Harvick has singled out the 4 stars he believes will stay within the hunt for silverware come the season finale at Phoenix.

The Round of 12 got here to a close on Sunday with the Bank of America Roval 400, through which Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, and Austin Cindric all noticed their hopes of a championship run come to an finish. It proved a notably dramatic ending for Chastain within the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, after he collided with Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota within the remaining nook, desperately seeking to keep his Playoff hopes alive.

Unfortunately for him, the conflict spun each him and Hamlin, as Team Penske’s Joey Logano secured his Round of 8 berth, passing them each within sight of the end line. As such, the ultimate eight within the hunt are Hamlin, Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott.

Appearing on the ‘Harvick’s Happy Hour’ podcast, its namesake stated he believed the ultimate 4 could be Hamlin, Blaney, Larson, and Bell. As for his co-hosts, Kaitlyn Vincie had Logano in place of Hamlin, whereas Mamba Smith shortlisted Blaney, Briscoe, Byron, and Bell.

Delving into more depth forward of the Round of 8, Harvick added that in relation to three-time champion Logano, he’s not assured that the 35-year-old has the pace needed this season. 

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“Vegas and Martinsville and Talladega are good tracks for them, but I don’t think they have the speed of the 12 (Blaney),” Harvick stated, though he nonetheless believes the No. 22 staff can’t be underestimated. “They have the ability to put themselves in front of them with executing on the restart. So, they’re dangerous from that standpoint. 

“Like I say, I don’t think they have the speed that they need, but they have the ability to make calls and make things happen that are better than everybody else.”

Elsewhere, Harvick admitted to having been underwhelmed by each Byron and Briscoe within the Round of 12. On Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron, Harvick stated he reckons that “Their speed has been off,” including, “We went to St. Louis, we were like, ‘Oh, maybe they’ve found something.’ But now it’s kind of flip-flopped. 

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“Now the 5 (Larson) seems to be the one that has more speed than the 24. They had the big miss at Kansas. They ground one out and were able to put themselves in a position to get a decent finish, but they had no speed at Kansas. It was a big flop at Kansas. 

“They might show up at Vegas. They might not. I don’t know because they were awful. They were awful at Kansas. So, I think Byron, I think that Briscoe was probably a little more off than what I thought they were going to be.”

As for one potential shock package deal, Harvick highlighted JGR’s Bell, noting that the important thing for him and the No. 20 staff is to keep away from pit highway errors. “The 20 car will have the speed, it’s going to come down to just the execution of the details, and the mistakes need to be small, they can’t be catastrophic,” he stated.

In reality, Harvick went on to select Bell as his favourite to take the checkered flag at Las Vegas, reiterating that “those guys have the speed and even at the places where you think somebody else is going to win, if they can keep themselves from having a catastrophic situation, they will have the speed.”