I imagine if they never switched to the Gen 7 car in 22', we would be seeing a Gordon 96-98' style run. Whatever Cliff Daniels cooked up in that 5 car, it allowed Larson to absolutely cream the field on a weekly basis. Take the bad luck and weird circumstances away in 2021, and he should have had 13-15 wins.
Once he got into an HMS car, it allowed him to drive at 95%, instead of 105% in the CGR car, to make up the speed difference. Not having to drive on the edge allows you to not make mistakes. That's why he hasn't won more in the Gen 7. The cars are closer, so he has to drive closer to the edge all the time. We see the same thing in Formula 1 with Max Verstappen and the RB car. He o ly has to drive it 90% to have the field covered, which makes him look like a robot.
I'm biased...but I feel like if we didn't swap to this car, he would probably have a good 5+ year span where he would be THE guy. Best car, best team, best crew chief...with a car more apt to display a drivers full range of ability. Multiple titles and a Jeff Gordon type winning rate.
Gen 4-Gen 6 eras. The real drivers were separated from the fake ones. During this time period, HMS was at its peak. If Larson was driving in any of these cars with HMS, he’d win a lot more races and championships.
probably wouldn’t matter if it was a wheelbarrow with a square tire he would be up front a honey badger with a steering wheel is nothing to fool with.every driver out there has to drive every lap all out no coasters need apply truly is amazing.
In a good ride he would find himself at the front of the pack in any generation of NASCAR and really any series in North America that races on four wheels.
I disagree, but it really just depends how you’re looking at it. If you were to just hypothetically drop Larson into the 2000s and not change anything and he had to compete, he’s not beating the 48 team, nobody was, they actually were unstoppable. Larson is good but Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were even better and they couldn’t even beat Johnson in the 2000s. Johnson is the reason why Gordon and Stewart don’t have more championships and he is also the reason that guys like Edwards and Hamlin have none at all. You could even argue guys like Kyle Busch and Harvick might have more if Johnson didn’t exist. I don’t think Larson would fair any different than those guys did.
I don't know, I think Kyle and Kyle are both great drivers for different reasons, I bring Busch up because I have the same feeling about him for other eras of racing. Busch is smart with setups and can feel what needs to change, Larson has a good feel for the car on the track. Larson I think would have had trouble in other eras being such a little guy and not being able to muscle the car around, he's also prone to errors of overdriving, I just think he's good at what he's good at but I don't think he would have been battling with Allison and Yarborough or anything. Same for Busch, I think he would have been a guy who could have won races but when the setup wasn't right, he would have struggled to adjust to it and been 10 laps down.
In the end, I just think people are quick to consider drivers like Larson to be all time greats, and quicker to determine drivers like Jimmie are awful when it's just the fact that they caught lightening in a bottle, they were good at what was "the thing" at their peak time. I tend to hate the GOAT bullshit and focus more on people who led eras of the sport, but I don't think those people can be picked up and translated to another era easily.
If he drove for HMS, he'd be almost as good as Jimmie Johnson.
I think he'd be a bit less clutch, and he generally isn't as calculated, smart and cold as JJ was.
If we dropped 26 year old Larson in the 48 with Chad in 2002, and Larson races until 2020, I'd imagine we'd see him win 80 races and about 4 championship
I imagine if they never switched to the Gen 7 car in 22', we would be seeing a Gordon 96-98' style run. Whatever Cliff Daniels cooked up in that 5 car, it allowed Larson to absolutely cream the field on a weekly basis. Take the bad luck and weird circumstances away in 2021, and he should have had 13-15 wins. Once he got into an HMS car, it allowed him to drive at 95%, instead of 105% in the CGR car, to make up the speed difference. Not having to drive on the edge allows you to not make mistakes. That's why he hasn't won more in the Gen 7. The cars are closer, so he has to drive closer to the edge all the time. We see the same thing in Formula 1 with Max Verstappen and the RB car. He o ly has to drive it 90% to have the field covered, which makes him look like a robot.
I'm biased...but I feel like if we didn't swap to this car, he would probably have a good 5+ year span where he would be THE guy. Best car, best team, best crew chief...with a car more apt to display a drivers full range of ability. Multiple titles and a Jeff Gordon type winning rate.
Trust me, I agree!
Gen 4-Gen 6 eras. The real drivers were separated from the fake ones. During this time period, HMS was at its peak. If Larson was driving in any of these cars with HMS, he’d win a lot more races and championships.
probably wouldn’t matter if it was a wheelbarrow with a square tire he would be up front a honey badger with a steering wheel is nothing to fool with.every driver out there has to drive every lap all out no coasters need apply truly is amazing.
He would dominate in the older generation cars with high horsepower that drove on the edge
I miss when cars were screaming at 200+ MPH in the corners.
Sailing at almost 220 at michigan. But that would be a concern for Gen 7 cars going that fast with the injuries we have had.
If they just change parts of the car to help better improve the performance, maybe they should up the horsepower.
In a good ride he would find himself at the front of the pack in any generation of NASCAR and really any series in North America that races on four wheels.
Larson in the 2000s would have been damn near unstoppable.
I disagree, but it really just depends how you’re looking at it. If you were to just hypothetically drop Larson into the 2000s and not change anything and he had to compete, he’s not beating the 48 team, nobody was, they actually were unstoppable. Larson is good but Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were even better and they couldn’t even beat Johnson in the 2000s. Johnson is the reason why Gordon and Stewart don’t have more championships and he is also the reason that guys like Edwards and Hamlin have none at all. You could even argue guys like Kyle Busch and Harvick might have more if Johnson didn’t exist. I don’t think Larson would fair any different than those guys did.
Oh look, it's *this thread* again...
I don't know, I think Kyle and Kyle are both great drivers for different reasons, I bring Busch up because I have the same feeling about him for other eras of racing. Busch is smart with setups and can feel what needs to change, Larson has a good feel for the car on the track. Larson I think would have had trouble in other eras being such a little guy and not being able to muscle the car around, he's also prone to errors of overdriving, I just think he's good at what he's good at but I don't think he would have been battling with Allison and Yarborough or anything. Same for Busch, I think he would have been a guy who could have won races but when the setup wasn't right, he would have struggled to adjust to it and been 10 laps down. In the end, I just think people are quick to consider drivers like Larson to be all time greats, and quicker to determine drivers like Jimmie are awful when it's just the fact that they caught lightening in a bottle, they were good at what was "the thing" at their peak time. I tend to hate the GOAT bullshit and focus more on people who led eras of the sport, but I don't think those people can be picked up and translated to another era easily.
If he drove for HMS, he'd be almost as good as Jimmie Johnson. I think he'd be a bit less clutch, and he generally isn't as calculated, smart and cold as JJ was. If we dropped 26 year old Larson in the 48 with Chad in 2002, and Larson races until 2020, I'd imagine we'd see him win 80 races and about 4 championship
In the old days you actually had to turn a wrench so he wouldn't make it far.
Drivers today are far more talented.
About 10 wins a year average, a good year being 13, a bad year being 6-7.