Kevin Harvick predicts Hendrick Motorsports outlook for Martinsville, championship hopes

Heading into this weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway, Kevin Harvick recognizes Hendrick Motorsports is in a precarious position.

The team entered the Round of 8 with three drivers in the mix for the Championship 4, and they could end up being shut out of racing for the 2024 Cup Series title at Phoenix if the cards fall a certain way on Sunday afternoon. Kyle Larson, William Byron and Chase Elliott will have a ton of pressure on them in Virginia, that’s for sure.

Ahead of the highly-anticipated short-track race, the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour crew tried to make sense of the situation that arguably NASCAR’s top team finds itself in, and where Hendrick Motorsports will end up after Martinsville.

“I don’t even know right now,” Harvick’s co-host Mamba Smith said, regarding whether one or two Hendrick cars will make the Championship 4. “I’m looking at the No. 20 (Christopher Bell). A lot of that is based off of the No. 20. Like, if the No. 20 lays an egg and they struggle, or they break something early and that points cushion goes away, that just throws everything up in the air, and then they could have two. But the way it lays out right now, if the No. 20 just does a mediocre job, if Bell is mediocre, which all signs kind of have, in the past, have pointed to that, somewhat mediocre, if he just stays where he’s been averaging out at Martinsville, they’ll make their way in via points.

“Then, that means only one more guy can win. You know what I mean? You’re not going to knock them all the way out. He has to struggle and like, be bad for them both to make it. That’s the only way that they can have 2 Hendrick cars in.”

Evidently, Harvick agrees with Smith, believing only one Hendrick car will make it to the Championship 4, which is a far cry from what we could’ve seen at the start of the Round of 8.

“I mean, realistically, it looks like 1 Hendrick car, which I would have bet against that. I would have bet against that week after week after week after week up until right now, because of the racetracks that we were going to, the performance that they had all year, and it’s just hard to make it all line up,” Harvick stated. “I mean, based upon past history, I would predict that Byron outruns Larson. Based upon past Martinsville history. But these are not normal moments.

“These are not normal moments, where guys can step up and teams can step up and you can put all that past history behind you. So, if I had to pick, I would pick the 24 over the No. 5.”

While Kyle Larson has six wins on the season, Kevin Harvick believes William Byron will out-run him at Martinsville and be the lone representative of Hendrick Motorsports in the Championship 4. Time will tell if he’s right, but a ton of eyes will be on their three drivers in Virginia this weekend.