{"id":246876,"date":"2025-10-29T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/246876\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:00:08","slug":"harvick-expects-nuclear-meltdown-if-heim-and-zilisch-lose-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/246876\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvick expects \u2018nuclear meltdown\u2019 if Heim and Zilisch lose championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Harvick<\/a>, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion, and current NASCAR on FOX television analyst did not mince words about this weekend\u2019s championship races.<\/p>\n

He said it would be \u2018embarrassing\u2019 if Corey Heim and Connor Zilisch<\/a> did not win the Truck Series and Xfinity Series championships, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what I think is interesting,\u201d Harvick said on Kevin Harvick\u2019s Happy Hour. \u201cWhen you look at Corey Heim\u2019s stats compared to everybody else \u2014 if he doesn\u2019t win this championship, it\u2019s going to be a nuclear meltdown, if they don\u2019t change the points to the correct way at the end of the year. It shouldn\u2019t even be a question of who the champion is in the Truck Series. It shouldn\u2019t be a question of who the champion is in the Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim don\u2019t win these championships, it\u2019s exactly why we don\u2019t need the system we have. It\u2019s embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heim has set a NASCAR Truck Series record with 11 wins this season in 24 starts, with a 5.5 average finish. Similarly, Zilisch has 10 wins in 31 Xfinity Series starts and a 8.2 average finish, records for a rookie in the division.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

However, like the Cup Series, championships are currently decided in the final four \u2018best finisher take all\u2019 format and if Heim and Zilisch do not best their contemporaries, they don\u2019t get credit for a championship.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a format this is poised to change after this season after a year of a debate that included NASCAR forming a committee to debate what the Sanctioning Body should do next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right change is to make as many points matter as possible for as long as possible,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cMy opinion doesn\u2019t really matter to the committee. It\u2019s not going to be made by the masses, as far as how the point system is. It\u2019s just going to be laid out. I think that my biggest thing is if we\u2019re going to have a playoff, you better make the points matter as much as possible or these people are going to eat you up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But right now, he says the status quo doesn\u2019t work for him, just because it\u2019s possible that Heim and Zilisch could even lose it this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the biggest sample size that you can in those playoffs for the points, you better have that,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause if those two guys don\u2019t win the championship, it\u2019s an embarrassment. Corey Heim has a hundred more points than the next guy. \u2026 I can tell you, if Tyler Ankrum wins the championship and Corey Heim doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s embarrassing to the Truck Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvick said it would cause \u2018a nuclear meltdown\u2019 if someone else wins these two championships.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his co-host, Dylan Smith, does not agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every other form of sport, when an underdog beats a titan, everyone is so freaking excited,\u201d Mamba Smith said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this country is built on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvick\u2019s rebuttal was that NASCAR isn\u2019t a one-on-one sport like stick-and-ball contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to remember in sports, they don\u2019t play each other every week,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cYou all have an even chance against each other every week to gain as many points as possible. I think the sample size of what we have is much different than other sports. I think that you have good teams, and you have bad teams, but I just don\u2019t understand how you crown a champion that may not even win a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion, and current NASCAR on FOX television analyst did not mince…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,115602,115604,634,18242,6902,115603,82],"class_list":["post-246876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-harvick-expects-u2018nuclear-meltdownu2019-if-heim-and-zilisch-lose-championships","tag-ism-raceway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-truck","tag-nascar-xfinity","tag-phoenix-ii","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}