Kevin Harvick: NASCAR race at Homestead comes down to these two drivers

Going into a mile-and-a-half track at Homestead, the racing for NASCAR will get a little more wide open once again. But who might that favor?

Kevin Harvick believes there are two drivers that are in prime position to capitalize. He highlighted them on an episode of the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast early this week.

“For me, this race is about two guys,” Harvick saaid. “45 and the 5. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick. And it’s going to come down to executing on pit road and track position and keeping yourself with that track position and not making any mistakes.”

Even before Homestead, both drivers have had some issues at various points, though both have also shown some competitive driving at times. Larson has both lost a wheel and been in contention down the stretch at different races this year.

Reddick has sprinkled in two top-five finishes, just like Larson. He’s also gotten caught in the chop a handful of times.

For Harvick, Homestead will be all about making as few mistakes as possible. Do that and you’ll have a chance.

“This happens a lot at the beginning of the year, we see a lot more mistakes on pit road than we do at the end of the year,” Harvick said. “But this is as many as I remember seeing in a long time. And I really think it’s just because of the tolerance level of the errors that you can make is much smaller. That time of the pit stop is so short that you’re just, you’re in disaster mode, on the verge of disaster all the time.”

As the field has pushed to shorten pit times and get back on the track quicker, every mistake has become magnified. Homestead can really underscore that, too.

But there’s a fine line there. Don’t push that hard and you may not end up in the race at all.

“If you’re not making those mistakes, you’re probably not fast enough to be honest with you,” Harvick said. “And when you’re that fast you’re going to make those mistakes. I just think these guys run that wall faster than anybody else, and I think that those will be the two guys to beat.”