Tony Stewart joins the debate about the best driver in the world

Tony Stewart weighed in on the debate over who is currently the best driver in the world NASCAR and the Formula 1 world.

NASCAR fans think it’s Kyle Larson, Formula 1 fans support Max Verstappen, and the rest of the motorsport world just likes to join in the debate. Stewart is in a unique position to provide his answer.

While it’s obvious he has respect for both cyclists, he made some intriguing points in his statement, claiming Larson was a once-in-a-generation talent.

“Well, I know it’s a big debate, and I’ve been watching,” Stewart began on the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. You know, obviously I’m a big Kyle Larson fan. I love what he does in a sprint car. I saw him run his first dirt late model races and he had success there. Now that I’m going to Indy, I was really excited for him to go to Indy and I’m really excited for him to get the opportunity to go back. I am very grateful for that. I think people need to look at this from different angles. You know, I completely agree with you. I think Kyle Larson, you can put him in any race car and he’ll be up to speed pretty quickly and figure it out pretty quickly. I also remember taking Juan Montoya to Eldora Speedway and putting him in a dirty Late Model that he had never seen before. He had never ridden on dirt before. I literally had to show him how to just drive the car to get to the track because there is a low speed gear and a high speed gear and how to do that is a little different than just driving with a regular stick shift. He finished third on his third lap on the track.

“It’s like there’s a guy here who’s never seen anything like this. Could you take Max Verstappen, put him in a Cup car and make him competitive? I think you could. I don’t know how long it would take him, but you could. Could you take him and put him in a wing sprint car? I think so, especially because I remember we made a deal with Gene Haas. We took Kevin Magnussen, his F1 driver, to a dirt track in North Carolina and put him in a 360 wing sprint car, and by the end of the night he was within two tenths of a second of me. And he did that in four runs. These guys are all, I think all racers when you get to the pro level, and you and I have both seen it enough, I mean, there are drivers in the Cup Series that probably don’t necessarily end up in the Cup series. Series belong because of their qualification. They got there for different reasons and in different ways. But there are drivers that you could take from the Cup Series, from Formula 1, from IndyCar, from NHRA and put them in cars and they’ll figure it out because they’re pure racers. This is Kyle Larson.

“It’s so much fun to watch him in every race car. I don’t give a fuck if it’s a go-kart, the Cup car, the sprint car or the IndyCar. I just like watching him drive a race car. He simply polarizes people with what he can do behind the wheel. And you know, you and I have been part of motorsports for a long time, he’s a once in a lifetime guy. It seems like every generation has that one guy that stands out from the rest, and Kyle is that guy.”

Maybe one day we’ll see Kyle Larson and Max Verstappen settle the debate and compete against each other in various media to find out who really is the best. Until then, we’ll just have to take the word of legends like Tony Stewart.