Current NASCAR star named top-10 driver of all time after just one championship

A NASCAR legend has claimed that Kyle Larson is 'certain' to end up as a top-10 driver of all time once his career ends.

Veteran play-by-play announcer Mike Joy was asked about Larson's eventual place in history while making on appearance on his color analyst Kevin Harvick's podcast this week, and showed a huge amount of respect for the 2021 Cup Series champion.

Larson's overall numbers aren't that flashy when compared to some of the greats of the sport – a single title and 31 Cup race wins in 13 seasons – but they come in an era where there is less separating the cars being driven throughout the series than ever before.

The 32-year-old's six race wins last year, more than any other driver but still some way off the eye-popping ten he claimed in his 2021 championship season, only resulted in a sixth place finish in the playoffs. However, locked into the playoffs after wins at Homestead and Bristol, Larson is out for revenge again.

Joy: Larson might be a top-five NASCAR driver of all time

Speaking on Harvick's Happy Hour podcast, Joy said of Larson's eventual place in NASCAR history: “Certainly top ten. Possibly top five. It’s very, very hard, of course, to compare eras. We have no idea how David Pearson would do in this car today, or Richard Petty, or even Jeff Gordon.

"We don’t know, we’ll never know. We have no idea how you [Harvick] might’ve done in one of those cars in the 70s and 80s, before power steering or even before front-steered cars – before Bobby Allison made the front-steered car a thing."

He also gave a sideways apology for possibly not celebrating Harvick as much as he should've during the 2014 Cup Series champion's career, saying: “The other thing is, sometimes you get a driver that’s so dominant that the success of other drivers pales in comparison.

"I was looking at your stats the other day, and not just all of the races you’ve won, but all the top fives, all the laps led, all of everything and I’m going, ‘When Kevin was racing, how did we not make a bigger deal out of this? Oh yeah, Jimmie Johnson was winning five championships in a row,’ and everything else was well down the list in comparison.

"So, we celebrate it now. Sorry if we didn’t celebrate it all that much then.”

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