During Saturday night’s Knoxville Nationals postrace press conference, runner-up Giovanni Scelzi was asked what more he needed in falling one spot short on the podium.

In other words, what did newly-minted three-time Nationals champ Kyle Larson have that he didn’t? He offered up a good observation.

“I don’t know what it takes to get to that next level. When I get there, I’ll let you know. Just being mentally strong, physically strong, is the key,” Scelzi, the often-well-spoken 22-year-old, said. “Obviously Kyle runs three- to four-hundred-lap races that might not be as physically demanding, but it’s mentally draining for sure to run a stock car that long.”

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Then he shared what he believes separates Larson most.

“He’s so good in every discipline, he’s probably the greatest driver ever to live,” said Scelzi, whose words erupted a pavilion full of listening fans into cheers. “I don’t think it’s silly saying that. We all know.”

Eighteen-year-old Corey Day endorsed those comments: “Like Gio said, I don’t think there’s anyone on the planet better than Kyle Larson in a race car.”

So the question goes, is Larson the best driver on the planet in a race car? That’s subjective, of course, and dependent upon nationality. Americans at large won’t argue. Europeans, namely Formula 1 diehards, will likely say that’s blasphemy and instead declare three-time reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen — winner of 51 of the last 80 F1 races since 2021 — as unmovable from that throne.

Verstappen has won the last two Best Driver ESPY Awards, ESPN’s honors for best auto racing driver worldwide. Larson won it for his sterling 2021 season that delivered a Cup title and bonafide Crown Jewels in NASCAR, Dirt Sprint Cars, Dirt Late Models and Dirt Midgets.

If only Larson and Verstappen dueled at this year’s Paris Olympics, then we’d have our answer. Or perhaps not?

“Not really. I know in my mind I am better than him as an all-around driver,” Larson said bluntly when asked by FloRacing if he has to race, and beat, Verstappen to feel like the world’s best driver.

Larson didn’t just leave it at that.

“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.

“That’s what gives me ease and confidence that, like, I know I’m better than him. Maybe not in an open-wheel IndyCar or Formula 1 car, but that’s one discipline. I think I would beat him in everything else. You can quote that.”

Blunt Larson, a nickname given by NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck years ago, is indeed shining through. But Blunt Larson shouldn’t be mistaken for Egotistical Larson. He has a strong point, especially after winning his third Knoxville Nationals in four years — his second straight in dominant fashion — on Saturday.

This is the Sprint Car royalty he nows belongs with:

• One of seven to have won three or more Nationals: Steve Kinser (12 titles), Donny Schatz (11), Doug Wolfgang (five), Danny Lasoski (four), Kenny Weld (four), and Mark Kinser (three)
• One of five to have won three Nationals and a Kings Royal, joining Mark Kinser, Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz and Doug Wolfgang
• One of four to win three titles in a four-year span, joining Steve Kinser, Schatz and Lasoski

Aside from Sprint Cars, he currently leads the NASCAR Cup standings. He led laps in his first Indianapolis 500 in May, joining Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt as the select few to lead laps at the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 in the same season.

He returned to famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway three weeks ago to win NASCAR’s Brickyard 400, becoming the sixth driver in NASCAR history to win the Brickyard, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski are that list.

Though he doesn’t have plans to race Dirt Late Models anytime soon, he won one of the discipline’s most anticipated events, Jan. 14’s Wild West Shootout finale at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park.

Formula 1 diehards might say that accomplishments are on ovals, not road courses, and therefore not as remarkable. In June at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, Larson won his seventh NASCAR road course event in 24 starts — 30 percent — the last four years. He also has a 24 Hours of Daytona victory.

That’s not Verstappen level — a 63-percent win rate — but it might just be enough for Alexander Rossi to give his 2024 Indy 500 Arrow McLaren teammate the edge.

“Dude, I think (Larson’s) already towards the top, so I don't know,” Rossi said answering a question from the Associated Press leading up to May’s Indy 500. “Put him at the top? Like, he's the man.”

Rossi, having raced Verstappen during a brief F1 stint in 2015, followed that up with "I would say they're on the same level.”

“Which is, like, yeah,” Rossi said, his words, again, coming the days ahead of the Indy 500,” that’s a pretty big deal.”

Auto Racing In The Olympics?

It’s too bad that motorsports isn’t an Olympic sport because Larson vs. Verstappen would’ve been the hottest ticket in Paris.

ESPN’s Ryan McGee wrote about this at length a few weeks ago, how much of a missed opportunity it is but also how Ray Evernham has the blueprint for “a special car (at the Olympics) that will not be familiar to anybody” — “a mix of several different types of cars” that “could run in a very small stadium if you wanted to.”

As McGee wrote, the financial demands would likely be too great.

"It just costs so much money,” Evernham told McGee. “The Olympic nations are already barely raising enough money to send their athletes to go compete. With any race car deal, people will always ask me, 'Ray, can you do this?' Listen, I feel like I can do anything, or at least I think I can. I just need someone to tell me how much time and money I have to do it.”

After auto racing missed the cut for sports to be added to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program, the International Automobile Federation — Formula 1’s governing body — will reportedly make another for bid for go-karting to be added to 2032’s Brisbane Olympic Games, per Inside The Game.

Go-karting, while not as exciting as full-sized race cars, would be more cost-effective and therefore allow more countries to compete. Like McGee from ESPN, moto1.com's Jeff Perez also made his case for motorsports' inclusion as an Olympic sport in Brisbane 2032.

Larson would be 40 then. Verstappen, meanwhile, would be 34.

In a perfect world, racing has seemingly never been positioned better for Olympic-inclusion. Formula 1’s global reach is more widespread than ever largely thanks to Netflix’s docuseries Drive to Survive.

The globalization of dirt-track racing, with countless races streamed live on FloRacing and the ultra-successful FloSports film DIRT: The Last Great American Sport — a docuseries that takes a captivating look into the world of dirt track racing like you’ve never seen before, telling the story of Larson as he travels to dirt-tracks across the country — adds to the convo.

High Limit Racing heads to Australia on Dec. 28-30 to present the largest dirt-track purse ever in the Land Down Under. This past week’s Knoxville Nationals saw record crowds each night and Saturday’s finale was an all-around sellout — grandstands and pits respectively.

The Olympics would be right up Larson’s alley, his mission to intertwine as many sectors and disciplines of racing as humanly possible. And the opportunity to showcase that race car drivers are indeed athletes.

During Larson’s 21st-to-victory run Aug. 3 at Federated Auto Parts at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo., his maximum heart rate recorded on his Fitbit Watch reached 198. Olympian runners are in that same territory.

“There’s no denying we’re athletes,” Larson said. “There’s no denying that.”

Then came Larson’s thoughts on auto racing in the Olympics.

“But I will say, and I don’t follow the Olympics too much … I just don’t foresee it, you know, being in the Olympics; racing being in the Olympics because they are solely 100 percent athlete,” Larson continued. “Like, 100 percent pure athleticism is why you win, whereas racing, there’s always the machine-aspect of it. And the car, it’s not quite 100 percent.

“Even if you had two cars sitting right here and if you said they are identical, they are not identical. That’s why I don’t think racing will be in the Olympics. But I also want it to be in the Olympics because I would go do it.”

Larson suggested that if auto racing in the Olympics doesn’t work out, there’s always the wintertime-based Race Of Champions, the international multi-discipline racing event where invited drivers from around the world are pitted against each other in knockout competition.

“I’d love the opportunity to do that and maybe I’d have a different opinion if I had the opportunity to do that,” Larson said. “Right now, I don’t know. I just don’t think it could be an Olympic sport.

“But I’d love the opportunity to go for an Olympic gold medal, or hell, any medal racing against Max Verstappen or guys from different countries and all that,” Larson added. “Yeah, that’d be pretty awesome.”

The world knows the dominance of the LeBron James-led Team USA basketball squad. They know the greatness of gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky full well.

Larson and Verstappen deserve the same opportunity to go head-to-head, presumably the chance to go for gold. International Olympic Committee, let it be so. And let the best driver win.