Kevin Harvick: It's 'unfortunate' Kyle Busch didn't make NASCAR playoffs

Like many NASCAR fans, Kevin Harvick watched as Kyle Busch attempted to will himself into the playoffs with a walk-off win. It was not meant to be for Busch in the Southern 500 and that means no Rowdy in the postseason championship hunt.

Now that Kevin Harvick isn’t racing every week, he can be a bit of a fan. He would have liked to have seen Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Playoffs. Three straight top-5s, but it wasn’t enough.

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“When you look at Kyle Busch, kudos to RCR for what they’ve done since the Olympic break,” Harvick said on the latest episode of his Happy Hour podcast. “Those cars were not very good for the most part the first 26 weeks or first 20-whatever weeks. But since that Olympic break whatever they have done since that break, both of those cars of Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch have been capable of running up front and leading laps.

“I think it’s unfortunate that we don’t get to see Kyle make his way through the playoffs because I really do feel like he could make some noise and I feel like there’s a couple of guys who aren’t going to make much noise and get eliminated, but that’s part of it. But I was surprised he didn’t get to him because of the tires.”

Kyle Busch could have made a lot of noise. If there was one driver the other 15 drivers in the playoffs didn’t want to see, it was Rowdy.

Kyle Busch could play mega spoiler in NASCAR Playoffs

Here’s something I’m not sure has been talked about a ton, yet. But looking at the crop of drivers left out of the NASCAR Playoffs, we could have a postseason of spoilers. Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher, and Bubba Wallace are all threats to win in the playoffs.

In fact, Busch could be a spoiler as early as Week 1. Atlanta is a tough track now that it has been turned into a superspeedway like Daytona and Talladega. It might only be 1.5-miles in length, but the action is just as good, if not better, than those other drafting tracks.

Busch finished P3 in that amazing three-wide finish earlier this season. While that feels like a lifetime ago, there’s a trend here. In 2023, Busch finished P10 and P5 in the two Atlanta races. He’s coming off three top-5s, two of those being runner-ups.

Kyle Busch has unfinished business. He needs a win this season to keep his career streak going with at least one victory every single season. Busch knows he should be in the playoffs. He also wants another shot at Atlanta. The stars are aligning for the No. 8 to play spoiler in a big way this postseason.