Kevin Harvick Bets on Christopher Bell to Win Bristol Night Race

The NASCAR garage is at Bristol this week for the third race of the 2026 chase, hosted at the iconic Bristol Motor Speedway. Fans so far has witnessed two first times winners in Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson since the start of the championship round. 2012 champion Kevin Hravick expect this streak come to an end these weeks.

With just a 30 points difference among the top-3 drivers, the fight for the tiles is intensifying, among Larson, Bell and Denny Hamlin. The ex-SHR drivers sees the No:20 Toyota securing the race win, potentially earning him enough points to dethrone his teammate as the leader for the first time since he took over P1 slot from Tyler Reddick.

I think I’m gonna take the week off to give you guys a chance. I’m gonna take Christopher Bell.

Kevin Harvick said on his podcast.

The co-host of the show, Kaitlyn Vincie also shared her prediction for the winner and is backing No:54 Toyota driver Ty Gibbs. She just didn’t pick Kevin Harvick’s pick Christopher Bell’s teammate not just because the pace but also because of the solid paint-scheme he is running in. They are paying tribute to late Kyle Busch, with an M&M car featuring multiple images of the legend.

I had kind of already told you guys I had it written down before you talked about the paint scheme was Ty Gibbs. And I mean, I think he’s actually a good pick outside the paint scheme as well.

Kaitlyn Vincie asserted via Happy Hour podcast.

Mamba Smith backs Kyle Larson to win at Bristol

The third co-host of the show Mamba Smith also shared his thoughts on who might win the race as well. He initially wanted to pick 2022 second division champion, but went a different route seeing his co-host picking the JGR driver.

Yeah, I’m really glad you did that because I wanted to pick Ty. Really, I’ve been thinking about Ty.

Mamba Smith said.

He is backing the No:5 team of Kyle Larson to secure back-to-back wins, taking advantage of the 50+ race winless streak ending triumph last week at Gateway. He believes this week’s performance will prove if the HMS drivers are actually back or last week was just a fluke.

No, I’m not gonna because now that Larson and the five-train is rolling, it’s gonna be hard to stop that thing. Give me Kyle Larson, because this is gonna be how we know if they’re really back or not.

Mamba Smith added.

The comments from the veteran broadcaster are on point and all three hosts of the show made solid picks. The TRD drivers do have an advantage and it would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star drivers in the coming days.

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