Kevin Harvick and the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour crew are locking in their predictions for this weekend’s race at Darlington Raceway. It’ll mark the beginning of the playoffs in the NASCAR Cup Series, following a thrilling weekend at Daytona.
First, Harvick is riding with the regular season champion to start his chase for a championship with a bang: “I’m going to take William Byron,” he stated.
As for last weekend, Byron didn’t have much to race for at Daytona. As mentioned, the Hendrick Motorsports star already locked up the regular season title. He ended up finishing P19 when the checkered flag waved in Florida.
Looking ahead to this weekend, the reigning, back-to-back Daytona 500 winner has one win at Darlington, and that came in 2023. He’s usually more than solid in South Carolina, like when he finished as the runner-up back in April. So, expect Harvick’s pick to be a factor.
In 2024, Chase Briscoe was victorious at Darlington, sending his team to the playoffs with a walk-off win. That has Harvick’s co-host Mamba Smith picking the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman to win at the track once again.
It’s easy to see why Briscoe’s one of the favorites this time around. While he wanted to notch another win before the regular season came to a close, Briscoe couldn’t get the job done at Daytona. He came home P23 when the checkered flag waved, but he’ll be a threat at Darlington this weekend.
Finally, Kaitlyn Vincie is riding with one of Byron’s teammates at Hendrick Motorsports: “I’m going with the driver that won here in 2023, Kyle Larson,” she stated. “The person that I think is going to win the championship.”
While Daytona is usually pretty unkind to Larson, it wasn’t too bad to him this past weekend. He notched a top-ten, finishing P6 in Florida.
Over the course of his Cup Series career, the Hendrick star has found immense success at Darlington. He has three runner-up finishes, but those all came before his first win at the track in September of 2023. We’ll see if win No. 2 is on the docket this time around, as Vincie predicted.
As you can tell, it’s almost impossible to predict the winner at Darlington, but the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour crew tried anyway. They made some great choices, but whether or not they win in South Carolina remains to be seen. It should be a doozy of a race.
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