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Is Larson or Verstappen the best driver in the world? 'Silly argument'
- Corwin Kunst
Who is the better driver: Max Verstappen or Kyle Larson? That discussion flared up last week when the latter - currently competing in the NASCAR Cup Series - claimed he could beat the Red Bull Racing driver. Denny Hamlin also joined the discussion and believes it is all not so black and white.
Hamlin, like Larson, drives in NASCAR and says in the Actions Detrimental podcast: "You’re going to be good at whatever you practiced and grew up doing. So yes, Kyle Larson definitely will beat Max Verstappen in a dirt sprint car race because that’s what Kyle Larson’s been doing for forever. That’s a silly argument."
Larson faced criticism following his statements. Hamlin - who won the Daytona 500 in 2016, 2019 and 2020 - believes his compatriot brought it on himself a bit. "I guess Kyle probably brought it on himself by saying he was better. Man, those F1 guys are good. I just would temper those expectations. Why don’t we just say that Kyle’s better on ovals and Max is better on road courses. Can we just leave that as a blanket statement?"
Better not to compare
The 43-year-old American continued by saying that it is actually much better to avoid any comparison. According to Hamlin, you cannot simply compare statistics. "They’re not running the same thing we’re running and I just, I mean the F1 guys are elite, elite. So I wouldn’t try to throw shade on any of them."
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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