Kyle Larson Publicly Refutes His GOAT Status After Weeks of Turmoil

Much to Max Verstappen’s relief, Kyle Larson‘s time on the high horse might be over. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has come face to face with a rude awakening, intensified by weeks of struggle. Granted, the driver fetched top-ten finishes at Nashville (8th) and Michigan (5th) along with three victories, but the rest of it has been too painful to forget. In Larson’s second ‘Double’ attempt, he crashed out of the Indy 500 on lap 91 owing to issues with the hybrid engine. Then, the Coca-Cola 600 saw him spinning out after leading 34 laps and finally ending his day for good in a lap 245 ‘Big One’. Even last weekend’s Mexico race didn’t offer much of a respite.

Barely 7 laps (of 100) into the Viva Mexico 250 race, the No. 5 Chevy got entangled in a multi-car melee spurred by Kyle Busch on Turn 1 collecting Larson, Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, Zane Smith and AJ Allmendinger. Ultimately finishing P36, the #5 couldn’t help but think back on one of his claims…

In August last year, shortly after the Knoxville Nationals postrace press conference, runner-up Giovanni Scelzi had noted how, “[Kyle is] so good in every discipline, he’s probably the greatest driver ever to live,” FloRacing asked Larson if he would have to beat 4X F1 champion Verstappen to feel like the world’s best driver. “Not really. I know in my mind I am better than him as an all-around driver…There’s no way (Verstappen) can get into a Sprint Car and win the Knoxville Nationals. There’s no way he can go win the Chili Bowl. There’s no way he can go win a Cup race at Bristol,” Larson continued. “There’s probably no way I can go win a Formula 1 race at Monaco, but I think I’d have a better shot at him (doing what he does than him doing what I do) just because of the car element.” Well, hold that thought, Larson!

After a sordid finish last weekend, the 32-year-old officially withdrew his moniker of being the ‘GOAT’ in the post-race broadcast: “Well, I, although the public thinks that I think that, I don’t necessarily think that I’m the greatest in the world. But, no, I’ve heard the accolades and the comments and all that for a long, long time. And being compared to Jeff [Gordon] or Tony [Stewart] or even sometimes Mario [Andretti] and AJ Foyt, guys like that, and it makes me feel really good.”

“But I’m still, I’m only 32 and I’ve got a lot of racing left to do, and I hope I can accomplish a lot more to really feel like I’m deserving of that credit, but I do appreciate it and it just makes me kind of have more drive to try and live up to that hype, I guess.” Notably, a few days after the HMS racer had taken a shot at his F1 counterpart last year, the latter had also responded to the claims.

When asked by The Athletic‘s Luke Smith, Verstappen had coolly responded, “That’s fine. Everyone thinks their own way, right?” Challenging Max Verstappen, touted as the ‘greatest driver in the world’, is no mean feat, and Larson had the stats to prove it. Besides his dirt racing glory, he qualified sixth and fetched an 18th-place finish and Rookie of the Year in his Indy 500 debut. Both Larson and Verstappen have also won Best Driver ESPY awards.

However, the poor finishes still stand out as stains on his reputation. Kyle Larson reflected on what went wrong in Mexico City.

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New environment, foreign feel

NASCAR made history last weekend as it ventured onto international soil for the first time since 1958 for a points-paying race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a racetrack located at 2,240 meters above sea level. This makes it the highest circuit on the F1 and NASCAR calendars. It poses unique challenges, like the lower oxygen affecting engine power or the high altitude conditions requiring greater acclimatization on the part of drivers. Additionally, the reduced air density also affects the downforce in the cars. That is what Kyle Larson pointed out as the overarching problem in the Viva Mexico 250 race.

According to Larson, the downforce made it quite difficult for drivers to get the braking point correct. The HMS star pointed out how this discrepancy was not accurately shown in the simulators. He said, “I think you can see a lot of drivers kind of struggling with that yesterday. I think the sim kind of under-predicted that. So all the brake zones, we had to work to kind of back up, and then so you don’t lock up your rear tires and your front tires and whatnot. So yeah, that’s been the most challenging piece I think for almost everybody.”

This braking challenge also turned out to be the cause for Larson’s early end to the Viva Mexico 250. After the race was halted because of rain, the resumption under wet track conditions proved to be an added test, and Kyle Busch failed that test early on. The brakes turned to “ice” according to Rowdy, which led to him spinning out and collecting Kyle Larson and multiple other drivers in the aforementioned Lap 7 crash.

Regardless, Kyle Larson is staying optimistic and taking a more realistic approach at present, focusing on tackling his NASCAR season. As 2025 pushes forward, let us see how he can carve out his GOAT status again.