Kevin Harvick predicts winner of Nashville NASCAR race

This Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to “Music City.” It’s the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, the 14th points race of the 2025 season.

FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick submitted his pick to win during this week’s “Happy Hour” podcast. Harvick is going with Denny Hamlin to end up in Victory Lane.

Hamlin has shown speed in four starts at Nashville. He qualified on the pole this past season and in 2022 and has two top 10s at the 1.33-mile oval. It would be a good time for Hamlin to win, coming off a string of disappointing results. Despite having two victories this season, he’s gone five consecutive races without a top 10 finish.

Hamlin had a fast car in last Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But during the Lap 348 pit stop, Hamlin’s team failed to get enough fuel into his No. 11 Toyota, meaning he had to come back down pit road on Lap 389, forfeiting his P3 position. That was it for Hamlin. All that speed and nothing to show for it. He finished 16th.

NASCAR heads to Nashville; who will win?

Will his fortune turn around in Nashville? Harvick thinks so, though his co-hosts are thinking different. Kaitlyn Vincie is betting on Chase Elliott. The 2020 Cup champion hasn’t won since last spring at Texas Motor Speedway. Elliott, however, continues to grind his way to top-10 finishes. He’s got seven this season, despite leading only 76 laps. Elliott won at Nashville in 2022.

Mamba Smith‘s selection is a bit bolder. He believes Nashville will be the site of Carson Hocevar‘s first career Cup win.

“I’m going with Carson Hocevar,” Smith said. “I kind of talked myself into it because Spire was good there last year, he’s been on a heater, coming off a blown engine on probably his best race of his career. Things are going right.”

Hocevar has speed in his No. 77 Chevrolet. He ran up front with Hamlin and William Byron at Charlotte before blowing up on Lap 308. If Hocevar continues to be fast, a win will come eventually.