While most Ford teams have struggled to keep pace with Toyota and Chevrolet in 2026, RFK Racing is the recent exception. Brad Keselowski and Co. have lately shown some signs of resurgence, and Kevin Harvick believes they should capitalize on a key advantage that worked for them recently at Darlington.

Kevin Harvick on RFK’s rise

In the recent Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Harvick shed light on how qualifying has to be given the utmost importance to run and finish in front of the pack. He mentioned that the RFK cars have speed but they lacked in qualifying all this while, and that’s why their results weren’t good.

“He’s been in the trunk every week in qualifying and if you don’t qualify in the front of these races, you don’t get to make adjustments leading the pack, running in the front of the pack. Your car handles differently in the middle of the pack in the back of the pack, which is where they’ve been starting and it takes them all day to get to the front of the pack.”

Following this, Harvick further emphasized how Ford cars are inferior when running in the middle of the pack or in the dirty air when compared to Toyota or Chevrolet. But since the Keselowski’s and Chris Buescher’s cars qualified better at Darlington, they ran well there with cleaner air.

“This week he started up front one of his best race tracks. RFK has run good there in the past and both he and Chris Buscher were really fast race cars. I think that Brad took advantage of Tyler having to go to the back of the field to, to make his pit stop for all the battery issues and, had going on and things that he had going on. But Brad was fast and, I think that the key for the six car is qualifying.”

Notably, Kevin Harvick‘s concern about Brad Keselowski and other Ford drivers comes amid the recent struggles that Ford customers have faced in 2026. From Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, Team Penske, to Wood Brothers Racing, there has not been anything exceptional on the part of Ford drivers except for Ryan Blaney’s victory at Phoenix and Keselowski’s P2 at Darlington.

This adds on to the manufacturing style of Ford, which makes its cars suited to straight-line speed, and this is why they perform better at tracks like Phoenix. In return, they struggle at road courses and short tracks, which brings more woes.

However, Darlington, where Keselowski finished second and Buescher ninth, showed a positive sign for RFK Racing, and Ford. However, it is still not as optimal as Toyota teams, something Harvick reckoned.

Kevin Harvick lauds Toyota amid Ford’s rise

Kevin Harvick, a driver who has driven for both Ford and Toyota during his racing career, has highlighted how Toyota has left everyone behind and improved drastically on all fronts. Speaking about it in the SPEED With Harvick And Buxton show, he said of 23XI Racing drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick:

“They have hit the balance at Darlington a little better than everybody else. But we’ve had a sample size — we’ve had a road course, two superspeedway races with Dayton and Atlanta, and our new short track package — and they’ve been good at all of them. I think that 23XI just has less going on this year. They’re still a pretty young team. I think that when you have that stability of everything that’s going on, and I think that Toyota has the best car right now.”

Harvick’s comment comes amid Tyler Reddick’s astonishing rise in the Cup Series, where he won four out of six races, claimed four top fives, and five top 10s. Currently, he is leading the championship with 325 points.

Meanwhile, his teammate, Bubba Wallace, isn’t far either. With 205 points to his name and four top 10s, he is currently in third place in the standings.

Besides them, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin (a race win) and Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe have also shown sparks of brilliance from time to time. All in all, the Toyota drivers have been in a better place than Ford when it comes to the first six races of the season.