Kevin Harvick picks Team Penske driver as favorite to win the 2024 Talladega NASCAR playoff race

Former driver-turned-commentator Kevin Harvick shared his insights and predicted the winner for the second playoff race of Round of 12. Harvick went with the Team Penske driver to win Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

As the 2024 Playoff season heads to Talladega, Harvick and his co-hosts on the latest episode of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast shared their detailed analysis of the driver they believe would be a strong contender to reach victory lane this weekend.

According to Kevin Harvick, reigning NASCAR Cup champion Ryan Blaney is going to win Sunday’s (October 6) YellaWood 500 at Talladega. Blaney is coming off a top-5 finish. He is also the defending winner of the event.

Picking the winner for the fifth playoff race at Talladega, Kevin Harvick said:

“It's so hard at this point, because it's just so wide open. And I think this week was a great example of what I thought was a dead William Byron to a revived William Byron. We had it in one week. So, I'm going to go with Blaney [Ryan].” [50:15]

Harvick’s co-host, Kaitlyn Vincie, picked Joey Logano to win this week.

Meanwhile, co-host Mamba Smith picked Todd Gilliland to win his first win of his career, saying:

“I'm going with the guy. There was a couple guys that sat around a table a couple weeks ago that said, the winner of Daytona is coming from this table. That was Harrison Burton, Austin Cindric, and Todd Gilliland. Harrison won Daytona. I'm going with Todd Gilliland. They've been fast at the super speedways. Got nothing to lose. And I think he's going to be aggressive.”

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How has Kevin Harvick’s favorite Kyle Larson performed at Talladega Superspeedway?

The #12 Team Penske Ford driver has had outstanding numbers at Talladega Superspeedway. He has three wins, six top-five finishes, and eight top-10 finishes, with an average finish of 14.8 in 20 starts at NASCAR’s longest track on the schedule.

Blaney won the Talladega playoff race last year in a thrilling fashion and finished 20th in this year’s GEICO 500 in April. He will look to replicate his strong performance on superspeedways to successfully defend his Talladega title on Sunday. He's currently placed second in the Cup Series playoffs points table, eight points behind points leader William Byron.

Watch the NASCAR playoff race at the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday (October 6) at 2 p.m. ET.