As the NASCAR regular season quickly trickles down to the second half and as it approaches the playoffs, everyone is out to bite. The competition is more fierce than ever, especially for those who haven’t made it to the playoffs yet. And there are plenty of good drivers from Kyle Busch to Michael McDowell to Bubba Wallace and more looking for that win. Kevin Harvick, in particular, is closely watching two drivers and is highly concerned that they might struggle to make it through this fierce battle.

Harvick feels Ross Chastain and Buescher are the drivers most in danger! And he has a wild guess of why so and from whom, which he talks about in his podcast.

Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher might be in deep water

Kevin Harvick in his podcast said that he is most concerned about two drivers who are in the 15th and 16th spot, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher. And he has a wild guess as to why! According to him, someone outside that top 16 is going to win Daytona. He said at the Happy Hour podcast, “And they’re 15th and 16th in the points. And I just have this feeling that somebody outside of that top 16 is going to win Daytona. I think that’s the wild card in this thing. I think when you look at Pocono and you look at Indy, you look at Michigan, I think you’re going to have your guys that have been good on the bigger racetracks be the guys that can win.”

This makes sense also, given that plenty of talented drivers like Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, and Michael McDowell are still in the hunt for the win. As such, it makes it even tougher for Ross Chastain and Buescher. RCR has been making changes and their recent races show promise. McDowell came close to winning in Indianapolis last season out of nowhere and one cannot discount the SHR drivers, especially Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe. Moreover, Alex Bowman winning in Chicago just has added more troubles for them.

Kevin Harvick in fact said there are several races set that could help other drivers make their mark and ride off to the playoffs. He said, “Look at Michigan, Bubba Wallace has been great there. Kyle Busch has been good there. And even at that particular track, I think you could go there and see someone outside of the top 16 winning races.” Hence, given that level of competition,

Chastain relying on points might not be a smart thing to do. Right now Buescher has two top-five finishes in the last three weeks and Chastain is only three weeks removed from a top-10 finish—so clearly neither has been performing poorly as of late. But Harvick isn’t convinced. Harvick feels that the “fire” in them is just missing. He thinks that other drivers possibly will move past them. He said, “I’m just concerned with the 17 not having that speed that they had, and I’m concerned with the 1 that they have the speed that they need to do what they need to do on a weekly basis. We haven’t seen the laps led and things that you would expect from them.”

Well, it remains to see what is to happen in the Cup race. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain aka Melon Man tried his stint in the truck race, and even that didn’t end up as he imagined. 

Ross Chastain’s crew chief slapped with a hefty fine by the NASCAR

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When the going gets tough, everything gets tougher might be the right adage for Ross Chastain! Before kicking off the cup series race at Pocono, Chastain decided to race in the CRC Brakleen 175 Truck Series Race. However, the start and qualifying were disappointing, as he showed no signs of speed and settled for a 27th-place finish.

In the main race, he finished Stage 1 in 15th position and climbed into the top 10 during Stage 2. By the 48th restart; he was running behind Heim in second place. But he couldn’t hold on to that and lost to Enfinger. And when three laps were left, Eckes overtook him and Taylor Gary also crossed him and he could end up finishing only 5th. Nobody could keep up with Corey Heim at the race and he just zoomed past everyone to clench his fifth win of the season.  

He did struggle, but at least he finished in a decent place. But his problems were far from over. Because there was a glaring issue found post-race. The post-inspection found that his truck had one unsecured lug nut and hence, as per the rule book, the crew chief Phil Goulf was set to receive a $5000 fine for omission. A similar case happened in Sonoma with SVG and Ryan Seig, and both their crew chiefs were fined. Speedway Digest posted about the penalty, “Inspection in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series garage is complete. Heim is the winner. The 45 truck had one lug not secured. No other issues.”

The 31-year-old is now gearing toward the cup race. Do you think it will be better than his stint at the Truck Series?