No driver has been officially announced as a replacement for the retiring Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing. The potential replacements for the seat are the subject of much speculation. Who are the candidates for this seat?
Josh Berry has impressed in limited Cup Series seat time this season filling in for Alex Bowman and Chase Elliot. The short track ace finished an impressive second at Richmond back in April, and he even raced his way into the NASCAR All-Star Race last weekend by winning the Open.
Berry has the fewest hurdles keeping him from the Cup Series. He has no Cup Series obligations scheduled for next year, and Hendrick Motorsports does not have a place for him. If Berry wants to go to Cup, this may be his chance.
Denny Hamlin expressed optimism before the season that he would re-sign with Joe Gibbs Racing. However, it is almost the summer and nothing has advanced across that front. This is getting eerily similar to Kyle Busch and his contract issues last year.
Busch is now at Richard Childress Racing winning races. Could Denny Hamlin do the same? FedEx has remained loyal to Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing since the beginning of his career, but so was Mars and M&M’s to Kyle Busch before last year. The 4 car is an open seat capable of winning if Hamlin cannot re-sign.
However, there is one major hurdle. 23XI Racing is a Toyota team and Stewart-Haas Racing is a Ford team. I doubt Toyota or Ford would be happy with splitting Hamlin, so something has to give.
No one really knows what Martin Truex Jr could do following this season. His contract is up at the end of 2023, and he went winless last season for the first time since 2014 missing the playoffs. Some people theorize that this could be Truex Jr’s final season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
However, Truex has had a bit of a resurgence this season winning at Dover. Could Stewart-Haas sign Truex to a short 2-3 year contract while they work another Ford prospect through the pipeline? Then they keep the same veteran presence that Harvick offers to the team currently.
This is definitely the more unlikely of the scenarios. However, Truex is a dark horse candidate for the 4 car at the end of the season. Especially considering that Stewart-Haas Racing’s lower series candidates are…not great.
Smith once had a Cup contract in place with Chip Ganassi before Trackhouse Racing happened. Since then, he has done nothing but impress in a Ford in the Craftsman Truck Series. Smith is definitely owed a full-time shot in the Cup Series from somebody.
However, jumping up from the Truck Series straight to the Cup Series seems like a too-good-to-be-true proposition. Plus with Stewart-Haas already having an Xfinity Series program, jumping the guys already there could cause some tension in that shop.
Another dark horse for the seat, Todd Gilliland has quietly put together a solid season thus far for Front Row Motorsports. He currently sits only 35 points below the Playoff cut line halfway to the playoffs with three top-10s. Gilliland also has two career Truck Series wins.
Sure his resume is not incredible, but he is a young driver with Cup Series experience that has shown some solid promise. If other drivers do not work out, could Stewart-Haas go for a younger guy to build the team around?
Since Herbst is a Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series driver, he has to be in the conversation for the 4 car. He has struggled as of late, but he buy and large has been solid in the Xfinity Series and even earned a 10th place finish in the Daytona 500 back in February.
However, he has yet to win in the Xfinity Series. He is far from a bad driver, but is he a Cup Series level talent that can win races in top equipment? There are some serious doubts there.
Cole Custer is probably Stewart-Haas Racing’s last resort for the 4 car. He has been solid thus far in a full-time Xfinity Series schedule this season currently sitting fifth in the standings. However, he has failed to win as of yet.
Add to that an unimpressive Cup Series resume in the same equipment. He only has 12 Cup Series top-10s in 111 starts and finished 26th and 25th in the standings respectively in his last two seasons in the Cup Series. He might come back, but it is highly unlikely.
The free agent class this year in NASCAR may not be the best free agent class ever seen. However, Stewart-Haas Racing does have options to replace Kevin Harvick in the 4 car. Could it be one of these guys?
Where do all the drivers stand after the first official points race in the standings table?
After winning the opening points race of the season at Daytona by leading one lap, Tyler Reddick made it to the top of the standings. Under the new rules, he managed to pull up 58 points. He pocketed 55 for the win and added three more by finishing Stage 2 in P8. He may have squeezed out at least one more had he landed inside the top 10 in Stage 1, but after getting swept into a Lap 5 crash, Reddick limped the Stage 1 in P20, giving him no extra points.
Rounding out the top 10 are Brad Keselowski with 39 points in sixth despite a P5 finish, followed by his driver, Chris Buescher, in seventh with 39, Bubba Wallace in eighth with 37, Carson Hocevar in ninth with 36, and Ryan Blaney in 10th with 36.
Atlanta could be a springboard for Elliott, who owns an average finish of 11.4 across 14 starts there, with two wins, including one in last year’s fall race, plus three top fives and nine top 10s. The track could also pull Kyle Busch back into contention. Having already shown his speed at Daytona by winning the pole, he may potentially pull it off at the 1.54-mile track. The RCR driver sits P14 in the standings, but with an average finish of 8.8 at Atlanta since 2023 across six starts, the place might finally snap his 94-race drought.
Then again, Connor Zilisch has only one start at the track and came home P11 last year when he made his third Cup start there, making Atlanta a stage where he could stamp his mark.
Ryan Blaney will also have a better chance than anyone else to climb through a win or even points alone at Atlanta. The No. 12 Team Penske driver has one win there from 2021, but consistency has been his strong suit, with seven top fives and nine top 10s in 15 starts. And that puts him in a position to move the needle when the field rumbles into Atlanta.
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The Daytona 500 and Speedweeks may be over, but that doesn’t mean the chaos will cool off for the stars of NASCAR’s three National Series, as they roll into Hampton, Georgia, to the high banks of EchoPark Speedway for one of the schedule’s most unique race weekends.
Note: This article will be updated as more information about the weekend comes out.
One race weekend is in the books, and a 36-week march back to Florida is underway for the three NASCAR National Series. Whether you are going to be at the track or home, what does the forecast look like for the race weekend in Hampton, Georgia?
Before the Races (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
During the Truck Race (2:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
During the OAP Series Race (5:00 PM – 8:00 PM)
After the Race (8:00 PM – 11:00 PM)
Before the Race (11:00 AM – 3:00 PM)
During the Race (3:00 PM – 7:00 PM)
After the Race (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM)
NASCAR got lucky at EchoPark in 2025, and, as a matter of fact, everywhere else, but that doesn’t mean weather hasn’t affected the track’s races in the past with spot showers and major showers taking on race weekends. Take the summer of 2023, when the race took on a large rain shower that resulted in the race ending after just 185 laps, with race winner William Byron the leader at the time of caution.
Note: This article will be updated with a more accurate and detailed forecast as the race weekend nears.
