Kevin Harvick predicts surprising winner at Atlanta in NASCAR Ambetter Health 400

The NASCAR season has officially begun, with William Byron taking home the Daytona 500 hardware. But who will step up to win the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta?

The Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast made its picks for the race after discussing all the latest action in NASCAR this week.

Harvick’s pick might just surprise you.

“Here’s my pick. We talked about the Fords. We talked about the advantages, not advantages, just things that they do better than the other makes right now,” Harvick said. “And I’m going with Austin Cindric. I’m going to pick the two car. He’s been up front at all the superspeedway races. I think this is a good week for them to have a chance to win.”

Cindric currently stands third on points in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after one week, finishing eighth at Daytona but leading 59 laps and acquiring 19 stage points.

He’s as good a choice as anyone to win, and he recently received some high praise from Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin, who was frustrated with drivers getting too antsy too early at Daytona and making contact when they didn’t need to, singled Cindric out from the pack for racing the right way.

“It seems like those that are participating in it would understand and see the results every time you choose to make contact,” Hamlin said. “You know what the end result is going to be. Like that’s what I don’t understand. It’s why, in my opinion, right now one of the greatest superspeedway drivers we’ve got is Austin Cindric. When I go to the outside of him he doesn’t try to block. He knows what the result of that is going to be. He wants to live to race it off of (Turn) 4. And he knows if I get beside him, his race is not over. It’s not over. So let’s play this thing out.”

Could Cindric see things play out at the NASCAR Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday? He placed fourth there this time last year, also finishing with a top-10 at Atlanta in September.

Kaitlyn Vincie, a cohost on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, had a different pick.

“I’m going with Joey Logano, he’s won two in the last four, including September,” she said.

Finally, Mamba Smith provided the final pick from the panel to win NASCAR’s Ambetter Health 400.

“My brain says YRB (Ryan Blaney), he’s always in the front of these,” Smith said. “My heart says Kyle Busch because I want redemption. But my gut is what I’m going with, I’m going with Bubba Wallace in the 23. They are up front a lot of times.”