Kevin Harvick weighs in on NASCAR Hall of Fame debate

Kevin Harvick had some interesting things to say about which drivers should be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, co-host Mamba Smith asked Kevin Harvick whether a driver like O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Justin Allgaier should be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, despite not having a lot of success in the Cup Series.

“That’s a tough conversation because it definitely is the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Kevin Harvick said. “You’ve got Ron Hornaday Jr., who’s a four-time Truck Series champion. It’s really got to be defined appropriately. I think it’s going to be difficult for a Justin Allgaier of the world that is successful in the O’Reilly Series but wasn’t successful in the Cup Series. So, where do you draw that line of having the conversation of well, he didn’t make it in Cup, he did really good in Xfinity, so is that good enough to go into the Hall of Fame?”

Allgaier has won 31 O’Reilly Series races and has earned 308 top-10 finishes in 511 starts. He won the series title in 2024 and the regular-season championship in 2018. Allgaier holds the NASCAR record for top-10 finishes in O’Reilly Series history and was named the series’ most popular driver from 2019 to 2021 and again from 2023 to 2025.

Kevin Harvick is inching closer to reaching NASCAR Hall of Fame

If Allgaier continues to have success in the O’Reilly Series, there will be more conversations about him being in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. But as for what’s currently going on in the Hall of Fame, NASCAR recently announced the 15 nominees for the Class of 2027, and Harvick made the list.

Harvick, who’s in his third season as an analyst for FOX Sports, has won 60 Cup Series races, including the 2007 Daytona 500, and was the winner of the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship. He also won 47 races in the O’Reilly series.

“That’s a lot of fun,” Harvick said when he learned of the news, per FOX Sports. “These guys always set me up for stuff like that, but it means a lot. You know I love this sport, and everything that I got to go through was up and down. But it’s what I love, and to be a part of that is something special.”