Why Kevin Harvick Picks Corey LaJoie as NASCAR Dark Horse for Atlanta

Super-speedway races often produce results that aren’t what most people would predict initially. Things happen, strategies go down the drain and even the looming threat of being collected in someone else’s wreck can be the decider for who ends up winning the race. Looking at next week’s race at Atlanta, which again is a Superspeedway there’s a good chance the results might yield a surprise driver at victory lane. Hence, while recently speaking about his dark horse pick for the upcoming race, former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick shared his take.

The former Stewart Haas Racing driver mentioned, “My dark horse is Corey LaJoie. He ran well there last year, he led laps. He kind of crashed, was in the mix there in the end. Almost won in the end, had a great run at Daytona this week and raced in the front. I think that they’re hungry.”

“I think that they have the cars to be able to compete and do what they need to do with the experience and everything that they’ve had in those moments last year. But these Superspeedway races are… They are unpredictable and that’s why everyone thinks they can be successful at them. So it’ll be interesting,” he added.

The unpredictable nature of Superspeedway wins

Over the years we have seen several drivers that no one had fathomed to lift the trophy win at Superspeedway tracks like Daytona, Atlanta, or Talladega. But there have been many. Just last year we saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. win the Daytona 500 out of nowhere after the likes of Kyle Busch wrecked out on the closing stages of the race.

Even this year’s Daytona 500 last week saw carnage unfold right as the cars caught the white flag. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain almost made it to the front of the field before Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman made him disappear. At the end of the day, it was William Byron who took the win.

Interestingly heading into last weekend’s race the favorites were Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch. But ultimately none of them even managed to finish in the top 10. Having this unpredictable nature at these types of tracks often aids in building excitement for the viewers up until the last lap of the race. It also creates a window of opportunity for almost everyone on the racetrack to try their luck of grabbing the checkered flag.