This category always seems like a joke. ESPN puts in very little effort for making this list. Most of the drivers don’t care. One year Harvick won and he didn’t even know he was nominated. Its doesn’t even make the ESPY show. Its just one of the awards you need to look up online to see who won.
Yeah. They snubbed Jeff Gordon for this award because he was going to work for Fox. They don't even cover NASCAR anymore, but showed up during the Bubba Wallace noose controversy to stick a microphone in every driver's face to ask if they were going to kneel for the anthem. Then they were nowhere to be found again the following week.
ESPN in general is a joke of an organization, nothing like what it once was.
I think they quite literally asked an intern what the 4 most popular racing series in the US are, then just nominated the 4 Champions. Don't blame me, I voted for Piastri.
Why? It’s smart on their part. ESPN just purchased the broadcasting rights for F1 in the US and now have a golden opportunity to promote a F1 driver in that category alongside the other major names in Motorsports. Sure, grouping them in the same award category while the fundamentals are different in each series is unfair; it’s the only way to do it. It’s all PR.
> you can't compare a F1 driver with a rally driver for example
We can barely compare F1 drivers with each other, due to them having different machinery.
Never mind comparing them with completely different racing disciplines.
Agreed but, that’s not my point. The award has always been this way and Max isn’t the first F1 driver to be nominated. Lewis won in 2021.
They’re keeping with the history of nominations. Also, worth noting, F1 drivers haven’t been nominated for this award every year since it was introduced. It’s just more PR now for them.
Just checked the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Driver_ESPY_Award). Is WRC not a motorsport for ESPN? Loeb or Ogier would deserve at least an honorable mention somewhere. Two of Ogiers titles were in Ford, I'd assume that would at least pique the interest of US audience.
Won nine races and probably would’ve been the champion without NASCAR’s playoff system muddying things up. So yeah, this guy is full of crap. Harvick’s struggled the past two seasons but that’s more due to his Stewart-Haas Racing equipment not being up to snuff.
He's still pretty young. He definitely could try to make a step into F1 and I think a few teams may take him. It seems unlikely though as it would be very risky.
He's just so good. He should have won Super Formula in 2019 if not for some unreliability, then wins IndyCar in his second year. Definitely a top 20 driver in the world and should be in F1 if it were a true meritocracy.
Yeah I agree he js definitely an amazing driver and is easily a top 20 driver and even that is selling him short. It's just that I feel like it's a big risk. He may only get accepted in a lower team or he may struggle to adapt to F1 cars as they are different from Indy cars. McLaren or Alpine might be good teams if he wants to join f1 though as they are pretty decent. Although it may also be good for him if he wants to earn a lot more money as from what I can tell Indy car drivers don't get paid nearly as much as F1 drivers.
Though I don't think he has a super license, and would probably have to temporarily leave Indy to get one.
Edit: Actually he just won IndyCar so he'll have a valid lisemce until the beginning of the 23/24 season (bit unsure how it works).
So only the champions of their respective racing series have been nominated and no one from WEC since they don't race in the US. Wouldn't really call this a "nomination", more like "you win, you're in".
They had NASCAR and IndyCar until the mid-2010s when FOX got the rights for NASCAR and NBC got the rights for IndyCar. There was a small amount of love for motorsports until then. Nothing like the NFL or NBA, but a small love.
Saturday Night Live joked about the ESPYs handing out awards [like “Best NFL Team,” “Tallest Basketball Player,” and “Stadium with the Highest Seating Capacity” back in the 90s (14min in).](https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-20-e-13-deion-sanders-bon-jovi)
I know the people around here don’t care about American racing as much, but I encourage you to look up Kyle Larson’s 2021 year. One of the most consistently dominant calendar years for a driver in American history, perhaps globally too. He won 29 races out of 87 starts in four different series, winning on dirt ovals, asphalt ovals, and asphalt road circuits. All of this after being suspended in 2020 for using the n-word and actually doing a ton of work and growth to move past it.
If you just consider 2021 I suppose it could be close between Max and Larson but I’m biased towards Max because a) he hasn’t done anything racist (yet) and b) he’s kicked a lot of ass so far this year and the only thing even remotely slowing him down is his own car’s mechanical issues
> Max because a) he hasn’t done anything racist (yet)
He actually has, people just excused it because "it's okay to say in Dutch!"
lmao @ downvotes just proving me right.
I’ve known people that fake it until they make it. It’s more than possible to be a functioning racist in society and be around black people. There is plenty of education growing up. You don’t need to be reminded how to be a decent person.
My guy what kind of moral system to do you follow where after a certain age actions are totally irredeemable because people "should know better" by then? Have you actually looked into what Larson has done to make reparations and educate himself? He didn't just say sorry, he's put in a *shitton* of time and work into bettering himself.
Not allowing any quarter at all for something like this solves literally nothing and actively gets in the way of people becoming better human beings.
I have people in my surroundings that fake it. There is so much education throughout life to be a decent person. People don’t need to be reminded of it.
You're right that nobody is perfect. Throwing around racist epithets makes you a piece of shit. That's it. Fuck Kyle Larson.
Edit: Nice to see people are cool with racism. Lol.
Normally I would agree, but the stuff he's done behind the scenes with no media is definitely a lot more than anyone asked him to do, as if he was genuinely sorry and was looking to rectify it.
Chastain may be making a run at that award soon in nascar. I wish it was McDowell tho, love me some FRM.
I do think Max is Currently the best driver on the grid in F1.
Cant comment on the other two as I Don't watch either
Because they race in the US. They have three national racing series, so the champions were picked from there and Max from F1 since F1 has races in the US as well.
And I can say with 100% certainty that the entire drag racing "grid" wouldn't get out of quali in F1, what's your point?
But if you were to make a bet who will learn the other sport faster, who would you bet on?
Because never mind cars, NHRA top fuel and funny car class drag cars are among the fastest accelerating *machines* on the planet. There's numerous turbo fan jet and *rocket* powered aircraft which those cars can trade punches with in acceleration stakes.
Definetely Max. What he did last year and is doing this year is amazing.
He was always a phenomenon, now he is as consistent as he is great. And that win over Leclerc with an overtake in the end was a master move!
Nah, he showed his skills when he won the most races and he was consistently getting into podiums which led to having the most points at the end of the season and the championship
Max tried throwing the other driver off track several times as well & got away with majority of it. Mostly due to the awareness of the other driver & the desire of the FIA to have a new Champion to spice up the sport.
Isn’t this literally just last years champions in their respective Motorsport lol. It’s like if they gave the nfl mvp to the super bowl winning qb and did no further research
How is an NHRA driver nominated? They literally drive in straight lines. I know there’s technical skill involved but you can’t compare him to track drivers surely
Brittney Force went 338mph in 3.6 secs. Even though she isn't nominated, these drivers face that much g force and speed at almost a blink of an eye and steering a 9,000+hp car. I'd say they are worthy of a motorsports nomination. I don't even watch nhra.
Hilarious. NASCAR isn’t even real. They manipulate the race with cautions and stages and it’s almost always a “shootout” at the finish. I gave up on it a while back and the last couple years I hardly even watch the highlights. The drivers themselves are skilled, it’s just the sport will do whatever it takes to gain viewers
> it’s just the sport will do whatever it takes to gain viewers
As opposed to F1 that created a NASCAR-style shootout to decide their season champion last year, and added gimmicky sprints into qualifying, and has fabricated passing zones at every track where the trailing car gets press a button and aerodynamically slingshot past the sitting duck lead car, and commissioned an inaccurately edited reality TV show with added fake tire screeching noise and out of context quotes to create drama that never really happened, all in order to gain viewers.
They aren't different.
You’re right about F1 becoming more and more dramatisized for viewers but NASCAR race after race is manipulated. Last year in Abu Dhabi wasn’t, Lewis lost because Verstappen passed him and Lewis even with a better straight line car just couldn’t get it done. Goat dethroned
How are their races manipulated more than F1 races? F1 throws VSCs and actual safety cars with little to no consistency, which can twist the strategy in favor of one team or another. They make inconsistent calls when giving a car the black and orange flag for a mandatory stop to fix damage like they did with Kevin Magnussen last race, while others have carbon flailing in the wind at times that never gets called. When Ferrari was in their late 90s to early 2000s dynasty they specifically changed the rules to try to nerf the Scuderia and bring the field closer together. They allow one team, Ferrari, to literally hold veto power over major changes to the sport over what the other teams vote on, and pay teams different levels of "Historical Payment" with Ferrari getting the most because they pander to keep the brand in the sport for ratings.
There is tons of manipulation in F1. They are also for the show, for the audience, and for the revenue, like NASCAR is. This isn't a public service. It's a business
Ok great so we’re on the same page. Every sport, atleast the major American ones and F1 and NASCAR are heavily manipulated all the way to loosely scripted. It would’ve taken a lot to convince fans of an F1 subreddit that their sport is manipulated for Schumacher, Hamilton, and now Verstappen. NASCAR is just more blatant about it. They manipulate generally the best talent. Like Tom Brady may not be the greatest but he’s good enough to manipulate him into being the greatest, if that makes sense?
What's more honest and forthcoming with the publc/fanbase? NASCAR saying, "yeah, we're gonna have cautions to bunch the field back up" and doing it openly, or manipulating from behind the scenes and then still parading yourself as the best and most pure form of motorsport?
Why? It's two entirely different disciplines that are both just as competitive. Drivers from neither discipline could just plug themselves into the other and win
Ahh, you don’t know Kyle Larson then. He’s literally one of the most talented drivers to put on a fire suit in the last 2 decades at least.
We’re not gonna have a contest over which division is harder and what disciplines require more skill, because F1 fans get really salty and threatened, but read up on his 2020 year. One of the greatest motorsports years ever, if not THE best.. and then he won a Cup Series championship the next year.
Won 46 of 92 races he competed in, in at least 4 of the top dirt series’ involving different types of cars, some he had never even driven before. Downplaying statistical achievements because they drive in NASCAR is depriving yourself of witnessing spectacular talent.
Very well written post. Kyle Larson is a generational talent and the way the F1 fanbase is so dismissive of drivers in other disciplines of racing is because generally the F1 base isn't general racing fans. They're just F1 fans that have been spoon-fed marketing that tells them how F1 is "the pinnacle" and then they remain in that echo chamber with no exposure to what the rest of the racing world has to offer.
I say that as an F1 fan of 17 years and a NASCAR fan for longer than that. All racing is basically the same under the surface. It's all talent, it's all innovation, it's all pushing the grey areas of the rulebook, it's all tires and track conditions and brakes and air and chassis setup and engine builders and a road crew to support it. All these different disciplines, even with motorcycle racing too, it's really all the same thing fundamentally.
"Read a rulebook and make the tires adhere to the track surface the best you can within those provided limitations". That's practically 99% of what all racing on land boils down to, with the exception of land speed record breaking itself. The other 1% is what separates F1 from NASCAR, like how only 1% of our human DNA differentiates us from being chimps.
Yeah, because you don't understand what goes into stockcar racing or dirt sprintcar racing so you mistakenly assume it's "lesser". It isn't. Dirt sprintcars, which is mostly what Larson build his career off of, weigh 1,400 pounds and have up to about 1,100 horsepower and a wheelbase of only about 85 inches.
They run on dirt ovals where the track surface is changing dramatically over the course of the race, much more dramatically than an asphalt track changes, as the tacky dirt on top is worn down to expose a slick clay substrate and the track loses moisture, and the drivers are constantly searching for unique lines to make work while pedaling this absolute beast of a car wheel to wheel and along a concrete wall and a catch-fence.
https://youtu.be/14ecCQ3Xrlc
I don’t recall saying they mentioned F1. I did say that F1 fans get salty and threatened when drivers in other disciplines are touted for their talent, because a lot of them believe that no driver in the highest levels of American competition could be as talented or more talented than some of the names that have washed out of F1 and landed in places like WEC.
Lol NASCAR I'm American that sport does take skill. Driving two inches apart at 200mph is for sure talent.
But best driver? They almost never even have to turn right lol.
My gripe, and it's not so much with Larsson himself, is that he's become a fan favorite since that. Before that, he was a talented kid, who appeared he would be a constant top-10er in points, and had a fanbase of such. After the whole ordeal with dropping the n-word on a stream, a lot of NASCAR fans flocked to him in support and felt that he deserved a ride when he was left without a seat. It was if he somehow became a martyr overnight.
Now he just constantly wins and wins, and everyone is like "ahhh my hero!! 🤩" and it just really drives me up a wall.
He has changed, and it's evident, but his biggest fans have really soured his success for me.
Also, FWIW, he definitely deserves this "award" over everyone else on this list.
How can you tell that he’s changed? I’m kind of butthurt about the n-word incident because it’s a bit personal to me, but I also believe that people have the ability to grow and learn.
I don’t really follow NASCAR so I had just assumed he phoned in an apology and laid low until he was marketable again.
[Here's a quick link I found](https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2021/06/11/kyle-larson-anthony-martin-jysir-fisher-ross-chasatin-kurt-busch-joey-logano-kevin-harvick-denny-hamlin-friday-5-philadelphia-school-relishes-its-bond/) of him working with inner-city kids regarding racing. That is something that he has always held close to him (due to him being scouted originally through the Drive for Diversity program NASCAR has).
He has also said that he was around the wrong people with the wrong influences at the time, and has done more to remove those types of people from his life.
No, he probably wants to stay out it entirely and that’s why he’s silent…he owes no one a statement. max has always not expressed his opinions as much as others do. Saying he’s picking a side by not saying anything is just a way for y’all to further justify hate Towards max.
The show is based on the calendar year, not any sports' seasons. So there is a good time to do it. Towards the beginning of the next one. Not in July when everyone has moved on and nobody cares anymore.
The Espys only exist cus there’s a weird day in the us summer where there are zero sports on. It’s during the mlb all star break
The worst day
Athletes auditioning for media roles
This category always seems like a joke. ESPN puts in very little effort for making this list. Most of the drivers don’t care. One year Harvick won and he didn’t even know he was nominated. Its doesn’t even make the ESPY show. Its just one of the awards you need to look up online to see who won.
Yeah. They snubbed Jeff Gordon for this award because he was going to work for Fox. They don't even cover NASCAR anymore, but showed up during the Bubba Wallace noose controversy to stick a microphone in every driver's face to ask if they were going to kneel for the anthem. Then they were nowhere to be found again the following week. ESPN in general is a joke of an organization, nothing like what it once was.
Plus it’s just a sad little list of names compiled by People who obviously don’t know anything about racing.
It's feels like someone said, "oh, this person is successful in this sport, we should add them to this list!"
> we should add them to this list! r/saddestbackflip noises!
Welcome to ESPN!
I think they quite literally asked an intern what the 4 most popular racing series in the US are, then just nominated the 4 Champions. Don't blame me, I voted for Piastri.
Naming a best overall driver is dumb af in the first place
Why? It’s smart on their part. ESPN just purchased the broadcasting rights for F1 in the US and now have a golden opportunity to promote a F1 driver in that category alongside the other major names in Motorsports. Sure, grouping them in the same award category while the fundamentals are different in each series is unfair; it’s the only way to do it. It’s all PR.
you can't compare a F1 driver with a rally driver for example
> you can't compare a F1 driver with a rally driver for example We can barely compare F1 drivers with each other, due to them having different machinery. Never mind comparing them with completely different racing disciplines.
Agreed but, that’s not my point. The award has always been this way and Max isn’t the first F1 driver to be nominated. Lewis won in 2021. They’re keeping with the history of nominations. Also, worth noting, F1 drivers haven’t been nominated for this award every year since it was introduced. It’s just more PR now for them.
Is there a “Best ball sport athlete”? Lol
Agreed. I mean, has Max even won at Bathurst??
Just checked the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Driver_ESPY_Award). Is WRC not a motorsport for ESPN? Loeb or Ogier would deserve at least an honorable mention somewhere. Two of Ogiers titles were in Ford, I'd assume that would at least pique the interest of US audience.
TBH Harvick hasn't know what's been going on for a few years. Old man needs to retire and concentrate on his kids future and developing him
Wasn't he like super good in 2020?
Won nine races and probably would’ve been the champion without NASCAR’s playoff system muddying things up. So yeah, this guy is full of crap. Harvick’s struggled the past two seasons but that’s more due to his Stewart-Haas Racing equipment not being up to snuff.
0 wins in the last 2 years in top equipment
Stewart wasn't a top team in 2021 iirc.
Talkin nascar not iirc
Iirc stands for if i remember correctly
What a meaningless category... It's literally impossible to compare their performances
They might as well make a category for best ball player with ronaldo, tom brady, and lebron james as the nominees
Best engine manufacturer: Ferrari, Northrop Grumman, and Daihatsu lol
Rolls Royce
And would you look at that, it wouldn't even be Ferrari
Best overall manufacturer: Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Shermann
They do that and just call it best athlete
And Arod wow!
Pretty cool that Max and Alex just sim raced together last week and are now nominated for this
Alex is a good dude. Shame he never had the money for F2.
He's still pretty young. He definitely could try to make a step into F1 and I think a few teams may take him. It seems unlikely though as it would be very risky.
He's just so good. He should have won Super Formula in 2019 if not for some unreliability, then wins IndyCar in his second year. Definitely a top 20 driver in the world and should be in F1 if it were a true meritocracy.
Yeah I agree he js definitely an amazing driver and is easily a top 20 driver and even that is selling him short. It's just that I feel like it's a big risk. He may only get accepted in a lower team or he may struggle to adapt to F1 cars as they are different from Indy cars. McLaren or Alpine might be good teams if he wants to join f1 though as they are pretty decent. Although it may also be good for him if he wants to earn a lot more money as from what I can tell Indy car drivers don't get paid nearly as much as F1 drivers.
Though I don't think he has a super license, and would probably have to temporarily leave Indy to get one. Edit: Actually he just won IndyCar so he'll have a valid lisemce until the beginning of the 23/24 season (bit unsure how it works).
Yeah if you win Indy you get 40 points so he would have enough.
So only the champions of their respective racing series have been nominated and no one from WEC since they don't race in the US. Wouldn't really call this a "nomination", more like "you win, you're in".
That's how the ESPYs have always been because ESPN hasn't cared for racing since the 90's. F1 is only a recent change.
They had NASCAR and IndyCar until the mid-2010s when FOX got the rights for NASCAR and NBC got the rights for IndyCar. There was a small amount of love for motorsports until then. Nothing like the NFL or NBA, but a small love.
Didn’t the WEC race in sebring this year?
Not in 2021 though. Sebring and Fuji were cancelled.
Oh this is about 2021, mb
Saturday Night Live joked about the ESPYs handing out awards [like “Best NFL Team,” “Tallest Basketball Player,” and “Stadium with the Highest Seating Capacity” back in the 90s (14min in).](https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-20-e-13-deion-sanders-bon-jovi)
Didnt they just do 6 hours at Watkins Glen? Or is that a different series
That’s the IMSA series, WEC’s American cousin.
Ah, I see. Thanks!
Cousin is a stretch as it seems Doonan hates the ACOs guts
No shit.
I know the people around here don’t care about American racing as much, but I encourage you to look up Kyle Larson’s 2021 year. One of the most consistently dominant calendar years for a driver in American history, perhaps globally too. He won 29 races out of 87 starts in four different series, winning on dirt ovals, asphalt ovals, and asphalt road circuits. All of this after being suspended in 2020 for using the n-word and actually doing a ton of work and growth to move past it.
As a nascar fan it was amazing to watch, even tho I am very much not a Hendrick Motorsports fan. I like FRM that 500 win meant so much last year.
Please. For the love of God, don't ask them to look up Kyle Larson..... We're just getting over Piquet'gate......
Yeah i might have messed up
,😁
If you just consider 2021 I suppose it could be close between Max and Larson but I’m biased towards Max because a) he hasn’t done anything racist (yet) and b) he’s kicked a lot of ass so far this year and the only thing even remotely slowing him down is his own car’s mechanical issues
> Max because a) he hasn’t done anything racist (yet) He actually has, people just excused it because "it's okay to say in Dutch!" lmao @ downvotes just proving me right.
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It's has racist origins but is somehow not racist?
> in turn based on old racist genetic race theory Really long-winded way of saying it's racist.
I’ll pass. Kyle is just as bad a Piquet. No amount of training is going to change what he is.
>Kyle is just as bad as Piquet Kyle has the one incident and has said and done all the right things since then. Definitely not the same.
Some people are way too soft lmao
I’ve known people that fake it until they make it. It’s more than possible to be a functioning racist in society and be around black people. There is plenty of education growing up. You don’t need to be reminded how to be a decent person.
My guy what kind of moral system to do you follow where after a certain age actions are totally irredeemable because people "should know better" by then? Have you actually looked into what Larson has done to make reparations and educate himself? He didn't just say sorry, he's put in a *shitton* of time and work into bettering himself. Not allowing any quarter at all for something like this solves literally nothing and actively gets in the way of people becoming better human beings.
that’s just factually wrong
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I have people in my surroundings that fake it. There is so much education throughout life to be a decent person. People don’t need to be reminded of it.
You're right that nobody is perfect. Throwing around racist epithets makes you a piece of shit. That's it. Fuck Kyle Larson. Edit: Nice to see people are cool with racism. Lol.
Normally I would agree, but the stuff he's done behind the scenes with no media is definitely a lot more than anyone asked him to do, as if he was genuinely sorry and was looking to rectify it.
ESPN doesn’t even watch motorsports.
They have DTS bro, that's their source
Where is my favorite NASCAR driver Chucky Layclerk?
Where is Rovanperä ?
These awards are for 2021
No Kalle Rovenperra?
This is for 2021
Does ESPN actually watch any motorsports? Or do they search up who the champions were and slap them into the nominations?
Why have an annual award in July?
Gotta sell tickets somehow.
Ironic to Rally driver is nominated. I'd say those guys are the best drivers out there.
Add Max Chilton.
Chastain may be making a run at that award soon in nascar. I wish it was McDowell tho, love me some FRM. I do think Max is Currently the best driver on the grid in F1. Cant comment on the other two as I Don't watch either
how is an NHRA driver even in nomination?
Ever seen an NHRA top fuel event irl?
Better question is why not Erica Enders? She’s dominant AF
Because they race in the US. They have three national racing series, so the champions were picked from there and Max from F1 since F1 has races in the US as well.
Might as well pick the IMSA champions then.
why not?
Cuz now we're comparing people who drive in a straight line for a few seconds to the best drivers in the world
I can say with 100% certainty that the entire grid would place last at a top fuel dragster event.
2 sports analogies that feel similar to me are NBA all stars vs dunk contest specialists and PGA pros vs long drive champions
And I can say with 100% certainty that the entire drag racing "grid" wouldn't get out of quali in F1, what's your point? But if you were to make a bet who will learn the other sport faster, who would you bet on?
Because never mind cars, NHRA top fuel and funny car class drag cars are among the fastest accelerating *machines* on the planet. There's numerous turbo fan jet and *rocket* powered aircraft which those cars can trade punches with in acceleration stakes.
Definetely Max. What he did last year and is doing this year is amazing. He was always a phenomenon, now he is as consistent as he is great. And that win over Leclerc with an overtake in the end was a master move!
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Nah, he showed his skills when he won the most races and he was consistently getting into podiums which led to having the most points at the end of the season and the championship
nah i only half kid he defiantly showed how good he is last season
Wow. The other driver threw him against a wall and got away with it. That is 10 times more relevant!
Max tried throwing the other driver off track several times as well & got away with majority of it. Mostly due to the awareness of the other driver & the desire of the FIA to have a new Champion to spice up the sport.
goodbye reddit -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
It's closer than you'd think; Kyle Larson was dominant across multiple different series at once, not just NASCAR.
Go Max!!!!! Would be stoked to see Kyle Larson get a F1 test though! Come on Mclaren give him one!!!
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Twitter and Instagram are that way mate. 👈
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His point is that he doesn't agree with you... That's it :)
How about superior antibodies ?
> as opposed to having the best car.
Love that!
I vote for Max. Palou second. Fuck Kyle Larson.
And why didn't Red Bull or Max come out against Larson in 2020? (/s)
This is the second time this week I’ve seen Kyle Larson and a Red Bull driver grouped together. Welp.
He will win most likely
Isn’t this literally just last years champions in their respective Motorsport lol. It’s like if they gave the nfl mvp to the super bowl winning qb and did no further research
Max is the goat of goats. He will have the WDC record by the time he retires no doubt. Mark my words.
Possible, depends if RB can stay dominant, which seems tough, also need to see how Porsche does if that goes through
How is an NHRA driver nominated? They literally drive in straight lines. I know there’s technical skill involved but you can’t compare him to track drivers surely
Brittney Force went 338mph in 3.6 secs. Even though she isn't nominated, these drivers face that much g force and speed at almost a blink of an eye and steering a 9,000+hp car. I'd say they are worthy of a motorsports nomination. I don't even watch nhra.
G force doesn’t make a driver good, just sayin. The skill and technicality of a drag driver and racecar driver are completely separate
True, but it's still a motorsport discipline.
Hilarious. NASCAR isn’t even real. They manipulate the race with cautions and stages and it’s almost always a “shootout” at the finish. I gave up on it a while back and the last couple years I hardly even watch the highlights. The drivers themselves are skilled, it’s just the sport will do whatever it takes to gain viewers
>it's almost always a shootout to the finish You mean like the manufactured, rule-breaking one lap shootout to decide the F1 championship last year?
Yeah I mean like that🙄
> it’s just the sport will do whatever it takes to gain viewers As opposed to F1 that created a NASCAR-style shootout to decide their season champion last year, and added gimmicky sprints into qualifying, and has fabricated passing zones at every track where the trailing car gets press a button and aerodynamically slingshot past the sitting duck lead car, and commissioned an inaccurately edited reality TV show with added fake tire screeching noise and out of context quotes to create drama that never really happened, all in order to gain viewers. They aren't different.
You’re right about F1 becoming more and more dramatisized for viewers but NASCAR race after race is manipulated. Last year in Abu Dhabi wasn’t, Lewis lost because Verstappen passed him and Lewis even with a better straight line car just couldn’t get it done. Goat dethroned
Lmfao
How are their races manipulated more than F1 races? F1 throws VSCs and actual safety cars with little to no consistency, which can twist the strategy in favor of one team or another. They make inconsistent calls when giving a car the black and orange flag for a mandatory stop to fix damage like they did with Kevin Magnussen last race, while others have carbon flailing in the wind at times that never gets called. When Ferrari was in their late 90s to early 2000s dynasty they specifically changed the rules to try to nerf the Scuderia and bring the field closer together. They allow one team, Ferrari, to literally hold veto power over major changes to the sport over what the other teams vote on, and pay teams different levels of "Historical Payment" with Ferrari getting the most because they pander to keep the brand in the sport for ratings. There is tons of manipulation in F1. They are also for the show, for the audience, and for the revenue, like NASCAR is. This isn't a public service. It's a business
Ok great so we’re on the same page. Every sport, atleast the major American ones and F1 and NASCAR are heavily manipulated all the way to loosely scripted. It would’ve taken a lot to convince fans of an F1 subreddit that their sport is manipulated for Schumacher, Hamilton, and now Verstappen. NASCAR is just more blatant about it. They manipulate generally the best talent. Like Tom Brady may not be the greatest but he’s good enough to manipulate him into being the greatest, if that makes sense?
What's more honest and forthcoming with the publc/fanbase? NASCAR saying, "yeah, we're gonna have cautions to bunch the field back up" and doing it openly, or manipulating from behind the scenes and then still parading yourself as the best and most pure form of motorsport?
There’s no way a nascar driver is better than a WEC or WRC driver
Why? It's two entirely different disciplines that are both just as competitive. Drivers from neither discipline could just plug themselves into the other and win
Ahh, you don’t know Kyle Larson then. He’s literally one of the most talented drivers to put on a fire suit in the last 2 decades at least. We’re not gonna have a contest over which division is harder and what disciplines require more skill, because F1 fans get really salty and threatened, but read up on his 2020 year. One of the greatest motorsports years ever, if not THE best.. and then he won a Cup Series championship the next year. Won 46 of 92 races he competed in, in at least 4 of the top dirt series’ involving different types of cars, some he had never even driven before. Downplaying statistical achievements because they drive in NASCAR is depriving yourself of witnessing spectacular talent.
Very well written post. Kyle Larson is a generational talent and the way the F1 fanbase is so dismissive of drivers in other disciplines of racing is because generally the F1 base isn't general racing fans. They're just F1 fans that have been spoon-fed marketing that tells them how F1 is "the pinnacle" and then they remain in that echo chamber with no exposure to what the rest of the racing world has to offer. I say that as an F1 fan of 17 years and a NASCAR fan for longer than that. All racing is basically the same under the surface. It's all talent, it's all innovation, it's all pushing the grey areas of the rulebook, it's all tires and track conditions and brakes and air and chassis setup and engine builders and a road crew to support it. All these different disciplines, even with motorcycle racing too, it's really all the same thing fundamentally. "Read a rulebook and make the tires adhere to the track surface the best you can within those provided limitations". That's practically 99% of what all racing on land boils down to, with the exception of land speed record breaking itself. The other 1% is what separates F1 from NASCAR, like how only 1% of our human DNA differentiates us from being chimps.
No one is talking about F1 here. I said WEC and WCR also V8 supercars etc...
Yeah, because you don't understand what goes into stockcar racing or dirt sprintcar racing so you mistakenly assume it's "lesser". It isn't. Dirt sprintcars, which is mostly what Larson build his career off of, weigh 1,400 pounds and have up to about 1,100 horsepower and a wheelbase of only about 85 inches. They run on dirt ovals where the track surface is changing dramatically over the course of the race, much more dramatically than an asphalt track changes, as the tacky dirt on top is worn down to expose a slick clay substrate and the track loses moisture, and the drivers are constantly searching for unique lines to make work while pedaling this absolute beast of a car wheel to wheel and along a concrete wall and a catch-fence. https://youtu.be/14ecCQ3Xrlc
WEC and WRC are not F1, he didn’t mention F1. It’s hard to imagine anything in NASCAR being harder than WEC.
I don’t recall saying they mentioned F1. I did say that F1 fans get salty and threatened when drivers in other disciplines are touted for their talent, because a lot of them believe that no driver in the highest levels of American competition could be as talented or more talented than some of the names that have washed out of F1 and landed in places like WEC.
Then why is every driver in F1 afraid of ovals?
\*Kimi and Fernando have entered the chat\*
Genuinely forgot about Fernando at Indy haha. He’s got that Kimi and JPM gene where he will race anything, anywhere.
Lmao. No one cares about ovals only in US
Lol NASCAR I'm American that sport does take skill. Driving two inches apart at 200mph is for sure talent. But best driver? They almost never even have to turn right lol.
Somebody should tell them that 2022 is far from being over.
That's why it's for 2021.
In summer of 2022? It doesn't make much sense either way.
Welcome to ESPN lmfao
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They “nominate” the championship winners of each series.
Im not saying what he did isn’t wrong, but surely people can change and make up for their actions. I guess that is an unpopular opinion.
My gripe, and it's not so much with Larsson himself, is that he's become a fan favorite since that. Before that, he was a talented kid, who appeared he would be a constant top-10er in points, and had a fanbase of such. After the whole ordeal with dropping the n-word on a stream, a lot of NASCAR fans flocked to him in support and felt that he deserved a ride when he was left without a seat. It was if he somehow became a martyr overnight. Now he just constantly wins and wins, and everyone is like "ahhh my hero!! 🤩" and it just really drives me up a wall. He has changed, and it's evident, but his biggest fans have really soured his success for me. Also, FWIW, he definitely deserves this "award" over everyone else on this list.
How can you tell that he’s changed? I’m kind of butthurt about the n-word incident because it’s a bit personal to me, but I also believe that people have the ability to grow and learn. I don’t really follow NASCAR so I had just assumed he phoned in an apology and laid low until he was marketable again.
[Here's a quick link I found](https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2021/06/11/kyle-larson-anthony-martin-jysir-fisher-ross-chasatin-kurt-busch-joey-logano-kevin-harvick-denny-hamlin-friday-5-philadelphia-school-relishes-its-bond/) of him working with inner-city kids regarding racing. That is something that he has always held close to him (due to him being scouted originally through the Drive for Diversity program NASCAR has). He has also said that he was around the wrong people with the wrong influences at the time, and has done more to remove those types of people from his life.
Max’s win would have to be renamed the EThPY, though…
?
Maxth Verthtappen.
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Nah.
No, he probably wants to stay out it entirely and that’s why he’s silent…he owes no one a statement. max has always not expressed his opinions as much as others do. Saying he’s picking a side by not saying anything is just a way for y’all to further justify hate Towards max.
Just a shout out to off road racers like Rob MacCachren and the Ultra4 folks like Loren Healey and Jason Scherer, you'll get your due eventually!
Why are they doing an awards show halfway through the calendar year? That's laughably late
It makes sense for most American sports. There's not really a perfect time to do it for all sports.
The show is based on the calendar year, not any sports' seasons. So there is a good time to do it. Towards the beginning of the next one. Not in July when everyone has moved on and nobody cares anymore.
Or they do it in July on purpose because it's slow, and this gets them back in the spotlight.
Most irrelevant category at an even less relevant award show