Kevin Harvick responds to Ty Gibbs’ potential for multi-win NASCAR season in 2026

Ty Gibbs finally broke through this past Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning first career NASCAR Cup Series race. Gibbs’ parked his No. 54 Toyota in Victory Lane in career start No. 131 in Cup.

It had been coming for Gibbs, who entered Bristol having compiled five consecutive finishes of sixth or better. Now that he’s got that first win, Kevin Harvick wouldn’t be surprised to see Gibbs win multiple races in 2026.

“I think so,” Harvick said on the latest Happy Hour podcast. “You just can’t continuously run in the top-five like that and not win. I mean, you can, but the odds of you winning more races when you’re putting yourself in the front of the field like that are — just like this week — it gives you the opportunity to pick the right strategy, it gives you an opportunity to make the move.”

This is just the beginning for Ty Gibbs

Gibbs beat Ryan Blaney to the start-finish line in overtime by 0.055 seconds, making it the closest margin of victory at Bristol since April 1991. Gibbs moved up to fourth in the points standings with the win, one spot behind Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.

The 23-year-old looks every bit the part of a championship contender. At the very least, 2026 could be a big year for him in the wins department.

“I think for them the potential is a multi-win season, and I think that right now, he’s arguably been one of the best two cars to start the season with Tyler Reddick as far as week in, week out everything they’ve done from a consistency standpoint,” Harvick said. “The sky’s the limit, now it’s all about managing the expectations and the expectation is to win.

“But also, making yourself do the things that you did to get to this point, right? We talk so many times about winning your first race and not letting your guard down and continuously trying to push things forward, not being comfortable that you just got your first win and letting your guard down and not being able to put that high-level effort in that it takes to win these races every week.”