NASCAR great defends Larson in ongoing 'greatest' Verstappen debate

NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick has waded into the ongoing Kyle Larson vs Max Verstappen debate as to who is the better racing driver. 

After winning the Knoxville Nationals sprint title for the third time last week, 2021 Cup champion Larson declared that: "I know in my mind I am better than him as an all-around driver" when asked if he had to beat Verstappen to be considered the best driver in the world.

That has prompted debate on both sides of the Atlantic, with Verstappen being heavily- defended in some quarters and on social media. 

Harvick, who was propelled into the Cup Series in 2001 as the replacement for Dale Earnhardt after he was killed, called time on his career at the end of 2023, raced against Larson for the best part of a decade and feels the driver known as 'Yung Money' would come out on top.

"The thing I can tell you is that if Kyle Larson went to drive Max Verstappen's car, in one or two days, he'd be damn close to being as fast as Max Verstappen, but there is no way Max Verstappen comes over here and does that in a stock car," 2014 Cup champion Harvick explained on his Happy Harvick podcast.

"Max is extremely talented and very, very, very good at what he does for his discipline and I heard him talk about drivers being specialised in their discipline, but that is not Kyle Larson.

"Kyle Larson can go out and drive anything, he is very good at his discipline, but he has got multiple disciplines, and we saw what he did in an Indycar. 

"I truly believe that Max would do okay, but he's not going to do anything close to what Kyle Larson does."

One way to settle the debate

Harvick, a veteran of 826 Cup starts, is keen for Larson to be given a tryout in F1 machinery, and wants Larson, Verstappen and other drivers to all head for a classic motorsport event to decide things on track.

"I wish we could get Zak Brown on the show because I have some pressing questions about how we can get Kyle Larson into an F1 car, get on him the race-track testing and in the simulator, and we could get him up to speed in a couple of weeks," said Harvick.

"I wish that our guys would be more versatile, I wish the F1 guys would be more versatile.

"Let's go do the 24 Hours of Daytona like they used to, have all these guys show up, and we make this a truly international event so that we can start having more of this discussion.

"I would love to see Max Verstappen show up and drive the 24 Hours of Daytona. I'd love to see Kyle Larson do it more. 

"I'd love our guys, like Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell to go run the 24 Hours of Daytona. 

"That's truly the place that they all used to do it. They all used to come to the 24 Hours of Daytona and race, and we need for this conversation to be more relevant. 

"We need those guys to race, and that is the place to do it."