"A little short on the speed": Kevin Harvick snubs Chase Elliott for JGR veteran as potential Homestead winner

Kevin Harvick has shared why he believes Chase Elliott wouldn't find himself in the victory lane at Homestead in the next NASCAR playoff race. Elliott, who has won only twice in the last 54 Cup races, finds himself in a tricky situation ahead of the upcoming Round-of-8 race.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver is in the last spot on the 2024 playoff standings with a 53-point deficit. This means that to make his way to the final four, Elliott would have to do so with a win, an idea that Harvick's Happy Hour co-host Katelyn Vincie proposed to the host recently.

However, Harvick didn't believe the 2020 Cup champion could win at Homestead.

"I don't think so. (...) The #9 has done a good job, they've been very consistent, they've just been a little short on the speed they need to go out there and dominate a race. I don't know, I'm not saying it can't happen, but I don't think the #9's going to go out there and just dominate the race," Kevin Harvick said. [37:59]

Instead of Elliott, Harvick named a driver from the Joe Gibbs Racing stable who could get his first win of the season if things fell in his favor:

"I think for me the guy that is not in the playoffs, I think this could be the place that Martin Truex Jr. could possibly put it all together."

Speaking on his picks for the more likely winners in Sunday's Homestead playoff race, Harvick discussed Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, and Elliott's teammate Kyle Larson.

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Kevin Harvick names the three likely candidates for Homestead winners but singles out HMS star

Former SHR driver Kevin Harvick said Christopher Bell and the #20 team are currently "on kill" while Kyle Larson is "just so good" at the Florida racetrack. In 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick's case, his time to do it could be this weekend, as per Harvick.

Later in the Happy Hour podcast, Harvick went with Kyle Larson as his pick for the Homestead winner.

"I'm going to keep riding that Larson train. Yeah, it worked out well for me last week, but it seems like every time they have a terrible week, they have a great week," Harvick said. [53:23]

As Harvick also predicted, the winner could be Martin Truex Jr., the about-to-retire JGR veteran hunting for his first win of the season in his final year in NASCAR.