"That to me is Kyle Larson" - NASCAR insider explains why picking 'driver of the year' should be easy

NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi recently sat down to discuss and share their opinions on why Kyle Larson should be the 'Driver of the Year' as he had the best overall season.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Larson dominated the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with six wins, 12 stage wins, and 1700 laps led. But the #5 Chevy driver fell out of contention in the Round of 8 of the playoffs.

On an episode of The Teardown podcast, Gluck asked his co-host, Bianchi, to vote for the Driver of the Year in the 2024 NASCAR season. To this, The Athletic reporter Bianchi named the 2021 Cup Seris champion Larson without hesitation. Moreover, he deemed this an "easy" pick, which Gluck agreed to.

"That's easy," Bianchi said. "That to me is Kyle Larson. Yeah, wins, laps led, everything you would look at. He is the guy."

As a result, Gluck gave an analogy of how, in his opinion, the NASCAR champion needs to be the first person that comes to mind when choosing "driver of the year."

"It's got to be to me the champion has got to be someone that you would think of as driver of the year. So I guess to answer the question, I'm going more toward the eye test. This guy had the best overall season. I can't necessarily tell you what exactly stats go into that but when you step back look, you [Bianchi] just said it was easy, 'This year was Larson.' That should be your series champion because when you step back and look at it, and again, he scored the most points. He had the most wins."

Team Penske driver Joey Logano secured his third Cup Series title this season. However, except for his four wins (two in the playoff), the #22 Ford driver barely managed to come close on the statistics board. In comparison to Larson, Logano obtained four stage wins and led only 414 laps in 36 starts.

Despite the statistical comparison, a former Cup Series champion awarded Logano as the 'Driver of the Year' in his podcast.

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"There's more to layers to winning the championship" - Kevin Harvick on why he picked Joey Logano over Kyle Larson

Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick (with Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith) hosted his own NASCAR awards on an episode of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast.

During the episode, Harvick picked Penske's ace driver Joey Logano over Kyle Larson, and stated his reasons for the same. He said:

"In the end, Joey Logano was the best driver of the year because he took a complete crap car with his team and turned it into a championship-winning car by the time they got to the end of the year. Every moment they had, they capitalized on to put themselves in position to win a championship." [31:18]

Furthermore, the 49-year-old added:

"There’s just more layers to winning championships than just being the best driver." [33:25]

Later on, Harvick listed, experience, communication, and taking advantage at the racetrack add up to the layers of winning the championship rather than being just the best driver.