Las Vegas winner Kyle Larson talks about how much respect he has for Sunday's runner-up and rival Christopher Bell.
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00:00 My question is in a similar vein to Zach's,
00:04 in terms of the shared background that you guys have
00:07 and all the Chili Bowl battles and various midget battles
00:10 and stuff like that.
00:11 Is there any special significance
00:12 to take that and duel here on a bigger, high-profile spotlight?
00:20 I don't know.
00:20 I mean, I don't know how fans view it,
00:22 but I really enjoy getting to race a guy in the Cup Series
00:26 that, when we were starting out racing with each other,
00:29 we weren't either of us in the Cup Series.
00:31 So I think his story and all of that with me being with Toyota
00:39 and then not moving forward with them
00:41 and then them kind of pushing him along after they
00:45 felt like they lost an opportunity on me,
00:48 I feel like I take pride a little bit in that,
00:50 that he is in the Cup Series maybe partly because of me.
00:54 But then, too, I mean, he kicked my ass for a few years
00:58 straight, like every race.
00:59 I don't know if I ever beat him.
01:01 So yeah, I had to work--
01:03 he made me work really hard to get better as a driver,
01:06 especially on the dirt track stuff.
01:08 And then, yeah, we've had our run-ins along the way,
01:12 just tight racing for wins and stuff.
01:14 And then now I feel like we actually get along
01:19 and we talk quite a bit and then get
01:21 to race with a lot of respect on Sundays on TV in front
01:26 of millions of race fans.
01:27 So yeah, it's cool and just neat to get
01:31 to race with a guy like that.
01:32 And I'm sure he'll be one of the guys
01:34 to beat at Phoenix, too, when he's in the Final Four.