NASCAR President Steve Phelps: Kyle Larson ‘can win in any car’

There’s a debate going on around the motorsports community, and it revolves around a simple question: Who is the best driver in the world, Kyle Larson or Max Verstappen.

Larson got the debate started last week when he claimed he was a better all-around driver than Verstappen. NASCAR President Steve Phelps has since chimed in, speaking about Larson’s greatness during a recent sit-down interview with Kevin Harvick.

While Phelps believes the debate is a bit “apples and oranges,” he does, however, think Larson is capable of winning any type of race in any type of car.

“He wants to race anything, right, and he has,” Phelps said. “I think the IndyCar experiment was a good one and circumstances, cautions and different pieces. Can he win in an IndyCar? He can win in any car and in IndyCar. I do think that debate of who’s the best driver in the world, where’s Max Verstappen stand — it’s in some cases to me apples and oranges. With that said, Kyle clearly loves to race, and he can win in anything. To me, it is about his winning and it’s about his talent.

“Whether it’s Tony Stewart or all these other folks, pundits who are saying, ‘Hey, he’s the best driver in the world.’ Or he’s a generational talent or whatever it is that they say, which they’re all true. But I do find it interesting, he does put himself out there. And like if we ask him to do something, he’ll do it. Like every time. But he’s not a larger-than-life personality. He just isn’t. He’s to himself, he’s quiet, he’s not gonna get in someone’s face, he’s not gonna fight. He’s just gonna go out and try to win out on the racetrack every single time he gets on a racetrack.”

Larson, in addition to being a Cup Series champion, is a dirt racing superstar. Among his many accomplishments on dirt, Larson is a four-time Turkey Night Grand Prix winner and a two-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner. Larson also won the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Jamie McMurray.

Max Verstappen responds to Kyle Larson’s bold claims

Verstappen, meanwhile, makes a living in F1 and is the undisputed best in the world on that circuit. He’s a 61-time winner in F1 and has won three consecutive series championships. Speaking recently with motorsports content creator Ash Vandelay, Verstappen said that while he respects other drivers such as Larson who compete in different types of racing, he doesn’t believe the debate is a valid topic because “everyone is good in their own right.”

“I have a lot of respect for other drivers who are doing a lot of different kind of racing,” Verstappen said. “… Honestly, I think I should first say we should not have that debate because everyone is good in their own right. I wouldn’t be good in dirt. Maybe if I would practice, I don’t know. Because I think at the end of the day, a good racing driver picks up things quite quickly. I find like you know it all depends on what you grew up with as well. Like, for me of course, probably go-karting and F1. These things are more natural to me than racing on dirt. I have no clue how to do that at the moment.

“But I’ve done a bit of rallying on like open field and stuff and I found that really fun. Am I gonna be really good at it? I don’t know, I thought the beginning was a good start, but there’s so much to learn and you need to learn off the best people in that division of racing. That’s only how you can be really, really good. That’s how we grew up as well. You learn from better people who have the experience and that’s how you then progress. And that’s why this debate of this guy is better than the other one — you don’t know. Everyone is good in their own right.”

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