Kevin Harvick has surprising vote for NASCAR driver of the year

As the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign comes to a close, Kevin Harvick chose which wheelman he believes is deserving of being named the 2024 NASCAR Driver of the Year.

During the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith decided to look back at the season that was in 2024, dishing out some serious honors via the first Happy Hour Awards Show. Which driver was the best this past season was one of the categories, and all three had to make their selections.

“We have the final category, which is Driver of the Year,” Harvick prefaced. “We have what we think are the top four nominees for the Driver of the Year. Our first one is Kyle Larson. Had a fantastic season in pretty much everything that he drove. Tyler Reddick had a great year, regular season champion. Joey Logano was our season-ending champion, and with what I would consider a great comeback to the way that they started the season, to wind up in Victory Lane at the last race and as a NASCAR Cup Series champion. And Ryan Blaney.

“Had the momentum, won the penultimate race at Martinsville leading into the championship race, had the fastest car, had the championship race and in a position to become a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. He came up a little bit short to his teammates. So, good choices there.”

While Harvick’s co-hosts decided to roll with Kyle Larson, due to his season-long dominance, Harvick believed there was only one choice, and it was the man who ended the year on top in the Cup Series in Joey Logano.

“I did not pick Kyle Larson. I picked Joey Logano,” Harvick responded. “I picked Joey Logano because I thought Joey Logano was the best driver over the last 10 weeks. In the end, Joey Logano was the best driver of the year, because he took a complete crap car with his team and turned it into a championship-winning car by the time they got to the end of the year. Every moment that they had, they capitalized on to put themselves in position to win a championship and left with the trophy, the check, everything that they had. That’s hard to do.

“When your team is off, the best drivers shine. They get back to the top quicker than the guys who don’t know anything about their car and can’t communicate with their team well. You heard him get out of that car at the end of the year and he said, ‘I may not be the best driver, but I have the best team,’ and sometimes the best team is better than the best driver.”

Some believe Joey Logano was far from the best driver in 2024, and didn’t deserve the championship he earned at Phoenix Raceway. Evidently, Kevin Harvick isn’t in that boat, as he named Joey Logano as the 2024 NASCAR Driver of the Year.