Kevin Harvick picks Team Penske’s driver as favorite to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Gateway playoff race

As the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule heads to World Wide Technology Raceway for the second race of the playoffs, Kevin Harvick has shared his insights and predicted the winner of the 2025 Enjoy Illinois 300, which is set to take place this weekend. He picked a Team Penske driver to win Sunday’s (September 7) Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology 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 second Round of 16 event at Gateway.

Kevin Harvick picked Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney to win at World Wide Technology Raceway. He has shown confidence in Blaney to claim his third win of the season.

“I'm going to go with old faithful Ryan Blaney,” Harvick said while picking the driver to win the Gateway playoff race [58:46].

Harvick’s co-host, Vincie, picked 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick to score his first win of the season.

“I'm going to stick by my selection of Tyler Reddick. He was top five at Gateway last year. I think we've been ramping him up on this show today. He goes to victory lane,” Vincie said.

Meanwhile, co-host Mamba Smith also picked Ryan Blaney to win this weekend. However, his teammate Austi Cindric is the defending winner of the event. Smith said:

“You know what's crazy? What is I was going to go with Ryan Blaney, and I'm going to go with Ryan Blaney”

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How has Kevin Harvick’s top pick performed at World Wide Technology Raceway?

Kevin Harvick’s pick, Ryan Blaney, has decent stats at Gateway’s 1.25-mile-long track. He has one win in the Truck Series. In three Cup starts at this track, he has scored finishes of 24th, sixth, and fourth in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively, with an average finish of 11.3.

After 27 races in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the #12 Team Penske Ford driver has managed to score two wins, 10 top-five, and 14 top-10 finishes and led 496 laps with an average finish of 15.4. He’s currently ranked seventh in the Cup Series playoff points table and has had a total of 2046 points.

It will be interesting to see how Harvick and his co-hosts' predicted winners fare at World Wide Technology Raceway. Watch the 2025 Enjoy Illinois 300 on NBC Sports at 3 p.m. ET. The radio coverage for the Gateway playoff race will be available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.