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As the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway, former driver-tuned commentator Kevin Harvick shared his insights and predicted the winner for the first playoff race of the season. Harvick went with Hendrick Motorsports star driver to win Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
On his eponymous “Happy Hour” podcast, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion shared a detailed analysis of the driver he believes would be a strong contender to win the first race of the playoffs on Sunday (September 8).
According to Kevin Harvick, the #24 HMS Chevrolet driver William Byron is going to win the Quaker State 400 this weekend. Harvick believes that the outcome at Atlanta could be extreme for Byron — either very successful, reaching victory lane, or highly disappointing. Byron is the defending winner of the event.
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Picking Byron as his favorite to win the playoff race of the season at Atlanta, Harvick said:
“I think it needs to go right for William Byron. I'm going to go with him two weeks in a row, and they ran well there before, but they're like, I think it's either going to go super good or it's going to go super bad for them, and it's going to be right here.”
William Byron has had success at Atlanta. He has collected two wins, two top-five finishes and three top-10 finishes, with an average finish of 17.7 in 10 starts at this track. Byron is fourth in the Cup Series playoffs points table with 2022 points.
Kevin Harvick’s co-host, Kaitlyn Vincie, picked two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano as her favorite to win this week, while Mamba Smith picked Chase Elliott.
Kevin Harvick explains why Chevrolet has an edge over Ford at Atlanta
In the aforementioned podcast, Kevin Harvick discussed the performance characteristics between Chevrolet and Ford cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Harvick said that Ford cars are going to be the fastest but believes Chevrolet cars will have an edge in handling, which will be crucial for success at the 1.54-mile-long track.
“I just think that those cars, those the Chevrolets, they handle. Yeah, they handle good. And I think that the handling is going to be of essence. The Fords are going to be the fastest. Yeah, they will be.
"They will be the fastest. But it's that balance of downforce versus speed. And I just think that the Chevrolet seems to have a better handling versus speed scenario,” Harvick said.
Watch the NASCAR playoff race at the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday (September 8) at 3 p.m. ET.
