"What do we got to do to get there?" Kevin Harvick questions NASCAR EVP's approach to fill the present "hole" of the sport's market

Former driver and 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick recently invited NASCAR's new Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy to his Happy Hour Podcast. As the conversation between the two NASCAR dignitaries continued, Harvick asked Kennedy what the latter thought NASCAR could do to expand its market further.

Since retiring last year, Harvick has been an analyst and race commentator for NASCAR on FOX. However, he still competes in select Pro Late Model races in the CARS Tour, a Late Model racing series that he owns alongside two-time Xfinity Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hall of Famer Jeff Burton, and Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks.

Harvick asked Kennedy about the "hole" in the current NASCAR market as far as expanding to new locations is concerned and inquired, "what do we got to do to get there?" The latter replied,

"I would say there's probably a few things. One is obviously Southern California. We've had The Clash here for the past few years. We've had Fontana for a number of years. We're not gonna have a Southern California race on the schedule in 2025. That's a massive opportunity because it's a massive market. So we need to find a way to have a presence in Southern California somehow."

"We've talked about the Pacific Northwest a lot," Kennedy continued. "We've had the Xfinity Series of Portland (for) the past two or three years. I think that's another market we'd eventually like to be in. And then I would just say the North-East in general."

"If you look at the amount of racing that we had four or five years ago in the Northeast relative to where we're at today, we have a lot less inventory," he added.

However, for Kennedy, the good news is that fans have been showing up lately at racetracks like Dover Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway, both located in the Northeast. According to Blackbook Motorsport, July's race at the 'Tricky Triangle' witnessed the highest attendance for over a decade. Reports say that NASCAR had sold around 50,000 grandstand tickets and 3,300 camping spots.

Kevin Harvick picks favorite for upcoming NASCAR race

NASCAR is all set to kick off the 2024 playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway in less than three days. Kevin Harvick named his top pick to win the Round of 16 opener at the 1.540-mile racetrack in Hampton, Georgia.

"I think it needs to go right for William Byron," Kevin Harvick said in his podcast. "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 drives the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Per Hendrick Motorsports, the 26-year-old speedster has run 668 laps in the top 10 and 38 laps in the top 5 at Atlanta since 2022. He has two wins here (2022 and 2023) besides a top-10 performance back in 2021.

Currently, Byron sits 17 points ahead of the provisional Round of 12 cutline. Will he win the Quaker State 400 on 8 September? Only time will tell.