Kevin Harvick believes Kyle Larson is a better all-around driver than Max Verstappen
Outside of the Austin Dillon drama from Richmond Raceway, the other main debate in NASCAR circles over the last week and change dealt with Kyle Larson and Max Verstappen of Formula 1.
As the two most talented wheelmen of their respective disciplines, Larson and Verstappen have been compared to each other for the past couple of years. However, Larson made waves when he claimed he was a better all-around driver than his Formula 1 counterpart.
“I know in my mind I am better than him as an all-around driver,” Larson said, putting it bluntly when asked by FloRacing if he would have to race and beat Verstappen to feel like the world’s best driver. “There’s no way (Verstappen) can get into a Sprint Car and win the Knoxville Nationals. There’s no way he can go win the Chili Bowl. There’s no way he can go win a Cup race at Bristol.
“There’s probably no way I can go win a Formula 1 race at Monaco, but I think I’d have a better shot at him (doing what he does than him doing what I do) just because of the car element. That’s what gives me ease and confidence that, like, I know I’m better than him. Maybe not in an open-wheel IndyCar or Formula 1 car, but that’s one discipline. I think I would beat him in everything else. You can quote that.”
Now, Kevin Harvick is weighing in on the debate, and during the latest edition of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, he left no room for error in choosing Larson over Verstappen.
“The thing that I can tell you, that if Kyle Larson went to drive Max Verstappen’s car, it wouldn’t be just one or two days and he would be damn close to being as fast as Max Verstappen. But there is no way that Max Verstappen comes over here and does that in a stock car,” Harvick said, regarding the debate between the two champions of their respective arenas. “So, I think Max has — you know, he’s extremely talented, and very, very, very good at what he does for his discipline. I’ve heard him talk about drivers being specialized in their discipline. That’s not Kyle Larson. Kyle Larson can go out and drive anything. He’s very good at his discipline, but he’s got multiple disciplines, and we saw what he did in an Indy car.
“I truly believe that Max would do okay, but he’s not going to do anything, anywhere close to what Kyle Larson does. Some of the arrogances that comes from the international crowd, on the media side, to just say, ‘Ah, you can’t do that. Kyle Larson, that’s not even a fair comparison,’ they just don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
The reality is, we’ll likely never have a formidable answer on the subject, but it’s easy to see why the world is strongly opinionated on the Kyle Larson-Max Verstappen debate. One thing is for sure, there’s a great deal of respect between the two racers, and that won’t change.