Kyle Larson vs. Max Verstappen

Lately I've been seen a lot of opinions regarding Kyle Larson and Max Verstappen.
Apparently Kyle stated that with the exception of open wheel racing, he is a better all around driver than Max Verstappen is. This has created a little bit of a fire storm in the motorsports community, with people taking sides if you will.

The F1 media and fanbase seem to think, based on what I've read, that there is no better drivers in the world than F1 drivers. While I would agree that F1 drivers are very talented, the assumption that F1 drivers are better than all other drivers is absolutely asinine.

Then I have seen the argument that Max has more wins and championships than Kyle. There is no arguing the fact that Max has won more F1 championships than Kyle has won NASCAR championships, but let's really look at that in perspective.

There are 10 F1 teams that make up the 20 car starting grid at an F1 race. Whereas in NASCAR there are twice that many on the starting grid. F1 has 23 races in 2024, and NASCAR has 38.
Let's not forget about Kyle's dirt track success also. You can spend hours going through his successes on dirt.

If you really want to get into it, it could be argued that someone like Robbie Gordon is a better driver than both Kyle and Max. Robbie has competed in NASCAR, CHAMP, INDY, Stadium Trucks, Dirt, Baja, etc. Robbie has competed at a high level since before Max or Kyle were even born.

While I don't quite see the point in Kyle making the statement that he did, it's hard to argue with it when we are talking about an all around driver skill perspective. Kyle has experience in multiple disciplines, whereas Max’s speciality is obviously open wheel racing.

While Max has shown to be head and shoulders above the competition in the F1 ranks this decade, he has a long way to go to be in a class with Michael Schumacher or Lewis Hamilton in my opinion. That’s not to take away from Max’s abilities or Kyle’s for that matter.

Bottom line is that there is already this huge divide within motorsports between a lot of the American fans and the European fans. F1 seems to look down on anything that isn’t F1 in a demoralizing way, as if they are better than everyone else because of the money. American fans have shown that they can appreciate and enjoy F1 racing, but don’t seem to find it as interesting as a NASCAR race.

Personally I am a huge fan of pretty much all forms of motorsports, especially the ones that don’t seem to get the love and respect deserved, like drag racing, rally racing, baja racing, etc. My opinion on this matter is pretty clear though. If we are talking about all around skill set, my opinion is that Kyle has that edge. Until I see Max get in a truck or on dirt, Kyle will continue to have that edge over Max in my opinion. What this also says though is that motorsports is doing just fine. These two drivers are both young and have long careers ahead of them. They are faces and names that we will still be talking about a decade from now, and that folks is a great thing to see!