Kevin Harvick makes his concern about Kyle Larson and William Byron crystal clear despite being top championship contenders

Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron have secured the top two spots for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. However, Kevin Harvick raised concerns about their lack of consistency and how it is crucial for the playoffs.

The two drivers had a contrasting Coke Zero Sugar 400 race held at Daytona International Speedway. William Byron finished the race in 19th place, while Kyle Larson finished the race in 6th place. Despite being on top of the points table and securing a spot in the playoffs, Kevin Harvick has highlighted his concerns about the two drivers, as they haven't put up great performances in the past few weeks.

While talking about the same on his Happy Hour podcast, the NASCAR Veteran said:

“I still look at the playoff standings and I look at Larson and Byron concerned, because they started the year off so well. More for Larson. He’s had some decent finishes lately, but not that ground-pounding speed that he had at the beginning of the year. Byron’s been hit or miss,” Harvick said. “They’ve continued to have speed. Made some mistakes. And this is going to come down to mistakes, right? It’s going to come down to mistakes on pit road, it’s going to come down to wrecks, it’s going to come down to who makes less mistakes.” (9:29 onwards)

Harvick further pointed out how consistency also plays a major role in the playoffs. He said:

“When I look at a Christopher Bell, for instance, right there, can they just show up and put together 10 weeks? I hope so, that was my championship pick at the beginning of the year. I think they can do it but it’s so hard to just show back up and put yourself in a position for 10 weeks and start to try to have a different mindset. I know that they don’t intentionally do that, but you can see the flaws in what they do from the inconsistency of things happening. It’ll be interesting.”

The NASCAR Cup Series will be back in action with the first round of playoffs on 31 August 2025 with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Kyle Larson and William Byron will both be looking to put up a strong performance and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

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Kyle Larson speaks about the future NASCAR Cup Series at Texas

Earlier this year, Kyle Larson spoke about racing at Texas and the difference between the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series. The Hendrick Motorsports driver had substituted for the injured Connor Zilisch, and he went on to win the race at Texas Motor Speedway in the Xfinity Series.

While attending to post-race media interviews, the 33-year-old was questioned whether the track widening could help the drivers go higher up the order during the race. Kyle Larson, who was one of the drivers who made up places during the race restart, stated:

"I think each time we come here, the color is lighter but the grip in it and the lanes that we run have been the same for the past, I don't know, six years. At least (turns) three and four I feel like it got pretty rough there early on after the repave and it's kind of maintained. I don't think that the Cup cars are able to run as high as the Xfinity cars in three and four because the higher you run over there, there's that one little bump, bigger bump just past the center and I feel like the Cup cars, bumps kind of upset us a lot. We get into the stop and that's why you see people crash over there often."

The Texas Motor Speedway was repaved and underwent reconfiguration in 2017.