Kevin Harvick picks winner, dark horse for GEICO 500 at Talladega

Kevin Harvick is locking in his prediction for this weekend’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, one of NASCAR’s most exciting dates.

On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick made his pick, and it’s evident he’s confident that Ford will have a strong day at Talladega, as that’s where he’s focusing at the moment.

“I have nothing but Ford’s on my list,” Harvick explained. “I’m going to go with Joey Logano. I think that he knows that this is his opportunity to win.

“I think he knows that he had that opportunity to win at Daytona. And it didn’t work out. Not by his doing, but I think that — I think that he is going to be super aggressive this weekend.”

Joey Logano is always a solid pick on these types of tracks. Although the No. 22 hasn’t had the best 2024, a win would change all of that, and he’ll certainly have a chance to grab one on Sunday.

As for Harvick’s co-host Mamba Smith, he’s rocking with a shocking pick, predicting the No. 21 of Harrison Burton to capture his first career victory.

“If it was if it was the fall race, I would just go with the No. 12, because it seems like he always wins the fall race at Talladega. But I’m gonna go with my boy HB, Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford,” Smith stated. “They’re going to win, win No. 100 this weekend, and Harrison’s gonna win. … That’s my pick to win the race. … Since this seventh generation car, they’ve been fast and super-speedways.”

That’s about as surprising of a pick as you can make, but Harvick doesn’t hate it. He also gave a dark-horse pick, and it’s someone who had a strong run at Daytona and NASCAR’s subsequent race at Atlanta earlier this season.

“My dark-horse? Todd Gilliland. I’m telling you, the Fords have to be all-in this weekend,” Harvick added. “They have to be all-in. … Those cars have been the best on the super-speedways. It doesn’t always work out, but there’s going to be some crashes and luck that go in with all this. Fords have to win.”

As is usually the deal with Talladega, there’s a chance we see some surprising names up front throughout the afternoon. We’ll see if either Kevin Harvick or Mamba Smith are right about Joey Logano and Harrison Burton, but one thing is for sure, it’s anyone’s guess who wins at Talladega.