The NASCAR Cup grid is set to tackle the Kansas Cup race this weekend. The 12th race of the 2024 season is expected to see the battle upfront between the Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports drivers, alongside the Bubba Wallace – Tyler Reddick duo of 23XI Racing. Now ex-Cup champion Kevin Harvick has made his pick to win the race.
Kevin Harvick in his Happy Hour podcast pointed out that he expects Kyle Larson of HMS to score his second win of the year this Sunday at Kansas. He backed his claim by highlighting how impressive the No:5 car has been so far this season. It would be redemption for Larson as he lost at Dover last Sunday to Denny Hamlin despite having the fastest car at the end.
I don’t think we have to go too far outside of the box of where we’ve been. So, I’m going to stick with Kyle Larson. I think they were good there last year and I think they’re going to be good everywhere and hard to beat. Kevin Harvick said via Happy Hour Podcast.
The 23XI Racing duo of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick would be Larson’s biggest challengers. Both of them have won races at Kansas in the Next-Gen era and 23XI Racing has won three of the four races the track has hosted in the last two seasons. So it would be interesting to see how Larson would tackle this challenge.
Kevin Harvick is set to drive Kyle Larson’s car at North Wilkesboro
The 2014 Cup champion is set to make his NASCAR Cup series return this season. He will drive the No:5 car in the upcoming All-Star race practice session. This a cleaver PR move by Hendrick Motorsports to accommodate Larson’s Indy 500 responsibilities.
Kyle Larson has to qualify for the Indy 500 with Arrow McLaren during the same race week, hence the decision to give the session to Harvick was made. They will get both the media eyes and some solid feedback for the race from the veteran.
The announcement was made last week at the Dover race by none other than Kyle Larson during his interview with the Fox broadcasting crew including Harvick. It would be interesting to see how both the racers would perform in their respective task during the All-Star week.
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