"They're in a bad spot": Kevin Harvick highlights Alex Bowman's playoff situation ahead of 'tall task' at Daytona

At Richmond, Alex Bowman earned his sixth top 5 finish of the season. But heading into Daytona, the final race of the regular season, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is still in a tricky spot on the points table.

With one race left in the regular season, Alex Bowman is 16th in the standings with only a +60 margin.

With 14 drivers already making their way into the playoffs with a win, Alex Bowman would be in a not-so-ideal spot at Daytona. This was something which Kevin Harvick talked about on his podcast. Talking about Alex Bowman following his second-place finish at Richmond, the former NASCAR driver said:

"I feel like they're in a bad spot now. I think with Austin Dillon winning this race and I look at Alex Bowman +60, I just don't think that spot's going to be there after this week. I think there's a good possibility that we see somebody else outside of those 14 guys that are locked in win at Daytona. We've been talking about this for months and I think that a lot of those guys that have been counting points and not won a race, you just had the feeling that it was coming down to this 14-15 winners." [10:40]

Harvick claimed that going into Daytona, drivers like Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Chris Buescher can be brave and take chances to make it to the playoffs. The former SHR driver said that with Dillon's win, RCR would focus all their resources on the #8 car's chances.

"I don't know, it just has that feeling that there has a high possibility of an outside those top 14 guy winning these points and I think that puts Alex Bowman in a bad spot and having to try to figure out how to gain those points on Tyler Reddick is going to be a tall task," Kevin Harvick added.

Kevin Harvick outlines what Alex Bowman has to do at Daytona to secure his playoff berth.

Further sharing his thoughts on Alex Bowman and other playoff hopeful drivers, Kevin Harvick claimed that Tyler Reddick is on defence. He suggested the #45 driver races on defence with an attempt at minimising the points off.

As for Alex Bowman, Harvick said he'd have to win 'both stages' to gain the crucial stage points up to 15-20.

"That changes the game if you can get some stage points across those first two stages. If you can get 14-15 stage points and you knock that gap down, to 14-15 points, just enough, then it's a real situation. But if Bowman doesn't score stage points, he's done," Harvick added. [13:50]

Having said that, he claimed that in reality, every driver would have a shot to win at Daytona. Harvick predicted that the final race of the regular season would be a wreck-fest, and one would have to be lucky and take chances on the pit road.