Kevin Harvick Demands Honda Enter NASCAR, Recalls Chevrolet’s Tactics to Counter Toyota’s Rise

The 2024 NASCAR Cup season is finally over, and all eyes are shifting towards 2025. Of course, in the build-up to the new campaign, silly season is in full swing. Almost all Cup seats are filled, barring the two Rick Ware Racing berths. However, there are plenty of other bits and pieces of news and rumors floating around the paddock. Recently, Kevin Harvick addressed one such rumor of NASCAR potentially adding a fourth new manufacturer.

Most of the signs are pointing to the Japanese giant, Honda. Admittedly, this is unlikely to happen in 2025, as the timeline is far too soon for such an event. However, it is clear that NASCAR wants to include another manufacturer to the Cup Series grid.

Kevin Harvick compared the Honda rumours to Toyota’s NASCAR debut

For several years, Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota have ruled the roost, though the latter was a newer addition. Now, another manufacturer might join the party very soon. NASCAR higher-ups confirmed that talks are in place to add a fourth manufacturer, but played coy on the identity. However, it doesn’t seem to have worked, because speculation is rife about the new manufacturer’s identity.

Harvick said on his podcast, “Yeah, I mean we’ve heard a lot of rumours about Honda coming into the sport. Whether it’s them or not, I don’t know that to be true. They keep bringing up the fact that there’s a new manufacturer coming into the sport. I want to see it, I want to think that if we can get another manufacturer to come into the sport. It just opens up opportunities for so many different teams. When Toyota came into the sport, the CEO of General Motors was talking at a group. Somebody asked, ‘What are we going to do about Toyota coming into Truck racing.’”

Again, while NASCAR has been cagey about the new manufacturer’s identity, many believe that it will be Honda. The Japanese giants are no strangers to the American motorsport arena, having competed in IndyCar. However, NASCAR is a completely different kettle of fish. In IndyCar, Honda simply has to contribute engines, while NASCAR requires a car in production along with the engine. This practice isn’t completely strange to Honda, since it follows a similar model of partnership when it came to its Formula 1 project.

If Honda does join the premier stock-racing league, they go up against their decades-old rivals Toyota. Both Japanese giants competed with each other over the last few decades. Honda could field the Civic or the Accord to go up against Chevy, Toyota, and Ford. The entry of a fourth manufacturer may just be the change NASCAR needs after the Martinsville weekend.

Then, Harvick compared it to how Toyota entered the sport. Truthfully, NASCAR primarily caters to American manufacturers, like Chevrolet and Ford. Even in the past, there were the likes of Dodge, Hudson, Chrysler, Plymouth, Buick, Cadillac and many more. However, the stock car racing series was no stranger to foreign manufacturers. Top manufacturers like Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Citroen, Jaguar, Porsche, Renault and Volkswagen also competed. Toyota is just the latest foreign manufacturer to join the fray, but may not be the youngest manufacturer for long.

When Toyota entered, the other manufacturers declared war

Harvick narrated, “He said, ‘Well, we’re going to make them see our back bumper.’ On the flip side of that, they had to go out and start finding Truck teams. I wound up with a Truck team that General Motors started with us. To go out and compete against the Toyotas, and that’s how full-time KHI Truck racing started. Bringing another manufacturer in, opens up the competition between the manufacturers. It also opens the pocket book between the manufacturers to spend more money. Maybe with less teams. Then you have a new manufacturer coming in, it’s going to change the scope of that particular team that they choose to be their lead team. We saw what it did with Joe Gibbs Racing when Toyota came in. You had Bill Davis Racing on the Truck side. It changed a lot for KHI, just because Chevrolet didn’t want to get beat by Toyota.”

It was natural that when Toyota came in, the existing manufacturer would see them as a threat. Chevrolet was among the first to declare that they would take the fight to the Japanese giants. Kevin Harvick was right in the thick of it, as his Truck team Kevin Harvick Inc, was involved. Back then, they used to race for Chevrolet and tried their hardest to give Toyota a trial by fire. Chevy had their pride that they did not want to get shown up by an upstart manufacturer like Toyota.

All that being said, Harvick insisted that if a new manufacturer entered the sport, it would change everything. Existing manufacturers would lose some teams to the newcomers. On the other end of the scale is that they have more money to spend with less number of teams, so those teams would be funded better. The positive would be that the teams would be much more competitive.