Kevin Harvick, Bob Pockrass make bold 2025 NASCAR season predictions

With the NASCAR season set to crank up, analysts are getting their predictions in for the 2025 season. Some are making bold predictions, too.

On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass joined Kevin Harvick to discuss the upcoming season and provide some of those bold predictions.

Harvick led off picking an interesting one.

“I think the Larson-Bell rivalry is something that we all hope for but has a lot more opportunity to be in more places than just NASCAR,” Harvick said. “Like the Chili Bowl already had that micros and everything that they raced, already has a little bit of that spice that I think is the ability to see that on the racetrack. We’ve seen it in the past a little bit.

“But I think that that rivalry spices up because we see it in more places than just on the NASCAR track.”

Two of the hottest drivers on the circuit — Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell — firing up a little rivalry that extends to multiple racing disciplines? Yeah, that’ll play.

However, much of Harvick’s prediction centers around Christopher Bell really starting to take NASCAR by storm.

“They’re both racers, right? And they’re going to race a lot and have a lot of opportunities to do that,” Harvick said. “And I truly believe that Christopher Bell is on the path to being the leader at Joe Gibbs, because they don’t have any changes with their team at the top.

“Christopher, I think he gets more and more comfortable every year talking on the mic and being up front and being that leader. I know they didn’t win as much in the second half of the year, but the expectation is to win that championship and I think ultimately the path going forward for Joe Gibbs Racing is Christopher Bell as the leader.”

Pockrass had a very different bold prediction for the 2025 NASCAR season.

Could a NASCAR Cup Series rookie make a mark?

The FOX Sports analyst wasted little time making his bold prediction, almost having to defend it from Harvick on the podcast.

“I’m going to say that Connor Zilisch is going to win a Cup race,” Pockrass said. “I think the way he won Watkins Glen in his first Xfinity race, and I know it’s a huge jump from Xfinity to Cup. This is what we call bold, OK? That was the assignment: bold.”

Zilisch is certainly one of the most intriguing elements of the 2025 NASCAR season. At just 18 years old, he’s already become one of the top names in the sport.

A win in the Cup Series would only further cement that, giving NASCAR a new young star to cheer for.

“He’s really good on road courses,” Pockrass said. “I’m not going to say he’s going to go out and win COTA, his first one, but I think that he will win a Cup race.”