Why Kevin Harvick Snubbed Kyle Larson for NASCAR ‘Driver of the Year’ for Joey Logano in 2024

NASCAR icon Kevin Harvick has been a strong advocate for Joey Logano over the past couple of weeks. Choosing to be in the minority by doing so, he has continually expressed his belief that the Team Penske driver fully deserves his third championship and that he cannot be discredited for it. He has now gone a step ahead and chosen him as his Driver of the Year.

Harvick was in front of the mic recently alongside his Harvick Happy Hour podcast crew for a new segment that was titled Happy Hour Awards Show.

They revealed the winners of awards across six categories and the biggest of them was Driver of the Year. Discussing their personal choices for the title, Harvick picked Logano over Kyle Larson without hesitation.

He reasoned, “Joey Logano was the best driver of the year because he took a complete crap car with his team and turned it into a championship-winning car by the time they got to the end of the year. Every moment they had they capitalized on to put themselves in position to win a championship.”

The turnaround that Logano and his team displayed appears to have left a strong impression on him.

The No. 22 crew were among the worst for the larger part of the regular season. They barely managed to make the playoffs. However, their fortunes changed once they did. They played the long game and ended up collecting the championship.

But how does the collective effort of the team translate to Logano being the best driver of the year in Harvick’s eyes?

“There are more layers to winning championships”

Larson won six races in 2024. He almost won the regular season championship despite missing out on one of the 26 races. No driver comes close to matching the dominance of his numbers on the statistics board. But all this doesn’t mean a lot without a championship to show for them. That’s what Harvick believes as well.

He noted, “We believe he [Larson] is the best driver in the world, right? But there’s just more layers to winning championships than just being the best driver.”

What are those layers? The ability to be a good communicator, the resilience to work on a bad car and make it good, and more. Everything that Logano excelled at.

Not every driver in the sport is capable of perfecting these layers. Harvick concluded by stating that drivers who know how to problem solve are always going to be better in his books than those who are just fast.