Kevin Harvick picks HMS driver as favorite to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Darlington playoff race

As the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule heads to Darlington Raceway for the first race of the playoffs, Kevin Harvick has shared his insights and predicted the winner of the 2025 Cook Out Southern 500, which is set to take place this weekend. He picked a Hendrick Motorsports driver to win Sunday’s (August 31) Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

On the latest episode of his ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’ podcast, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion and his co-hosts, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith, dropped their winner’s prediction for the season’s first Round of 16 event at Darlington.

Kevin Harvick picked Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron to win at Darlington Raceway. He has shown confidence in Byron to claim his second win of the season.

“First off, that's a great first week of followers for our little game here. Sick. The closers show up whenever called upon. We got our asses kicked by the fans this week picking Ryan Blaney. So, let's not do that again. I'm going to take William Byron,” Harvick said while picking the driver to win the Darlington playoff race [1:5:50].

Harvick’s co-host, Vincie, picked Kyle Larson to score his fourth win of the season.

“I'm going with the driver that won there in 2023. Kyle Larson. The person I think is going to win the championship.” Vincie said.

Meanwhile, co-host Mamba Smith picked Chase Briscoe to clinch his second win of the season this weekend. Briscoe is the defending winner of the event. Smith said:

“I wasn't ready for you to come to me so quick. I'm going to go Chase Briscoe. Well, he did good there last year. He won here last year.”

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How has Kevin Harvick’s top pick performed at Darlington?

Kevin Harvick’s pick, William Byron, has decent stats at Darlington’s 1.366-mile-long track. In 14 starts at this track, he has one win, five top-five finishes, and seven top-10 finishes with an average finish of 15.

After 26 races in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the #24 HMS driver has managed to score two wins, nine top-five, and 13 top-10 finishes and led 915 laps with an average finish of 13.8. He’s currently ranked second in the Cup Series playoff points table and has had a total of 2032 points.

It will be interesting to see how Harvick and his co-hosts' predictions fare at Darlington Raceway. Watch the 2025 Cook Out Southern 500 on NBC Sports at 6 p.m. ET. The Darlington playoff race radio coverage will be available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.