Coming into 2026, Toyota cars have been exceptionally good when compared against the likes of Ford or Chevrolet. Toyota drivers have claimed seven wins out of nine races, while Ford and Chevrolet share one win each. While Toyota's performance has been praiseworthy, the decline of its counterparts has come to the forefront, a trend that former driver Kevin Harvick shed light on.

In the latest episode of the Happy Hour, the 2014 Cup Series champion highlighted how Toyota's operations differed from those of Ford and Chevrolet.

"The unique part about this whole scenario is those guys and the information sharing and the cars coming from Joe Gibbs Racing," Harvick said.

"[It] is going to be the little details that keep coming from, okay, well, why did Denny Hamlin run so well? Okay, well, why is Tyler Reddick so good? Okay, why did Ty Gibbs run so good? And then they keep stacking these little details of things that each team finds," Harvick further added.

Harvick explains how Toyota teams are learning and feeding information back into the same pool for each other. On the other hand, teams like Rick Hendrick's Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, and RFK Racing are more siloed. They are technically competitors within the same manufacturer, so their information sharing is limited.

Secondly, there is also the disparity factor within the Ford and Chevy camps, which isn't the case with Toyota. At Ford or Chevy, some get more manufacturer attention and resources than others, while Toyota's structure is more equal.

Notably, 23XI Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing have been the top teams in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. With five wins to its name, all claimed by Tyler Reddick, Michael Jordan's team has had a blistering start to its season.

JGR didn't have a bad start either, even though it wasn't ideal. Two of its drivers (Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs) won races, while teams like Team Penske (and Ford) or Hendrick Motorsports (and Chevy) struggled with performance.

Aside from the wins of Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott, the renowned names such as Kyle Larson, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski all suffered from a lack of performance.

While the drivers other than Toyota are facing issues, Harvick predicted a lackluster performance from one of the Chevy drivers.

Kevin Harvick Predicted Kyle Busch's Future

While the Chevrolet drivers have been suffering from a lack of performance, Kyle Busch's luck isn't going to improve, reckoned Kevin Harvick.

Speaking about him in the same podcast, the former driver said, "We want to see Kyle Busch win. Kyle Busch winning is good for the sport. Kyle Busch isn’t going to win right now, because the cars are not running good.”

Given Richard Childress Racing's performance graph, it is unlikely for him to win anything soon. Kyle Busch is currently winless over 100 races, and his last victory came on June 4, 2023, at the Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway.

Read more at RFK Racing Digest.

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason