“I Wasn’t Confident”: Kyle Larson Makes Startling Admission After Extremely Close Win

The playoff race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was spectacular for Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who eventually went on to grab the win and seal his place in the championship four. However, he did have to battle tough competition in the form of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell who had started the race from the pole.

Despite a truly dominating run and an extremely close finish, the 2021 Cup Series champion made a rather unusual admission regarding his confidence level diminishing during the final lap of the race.

Kyle Larson makes surprise admission after tight race at Vegas

During the driver’s press conference following the race, Larson was asked if he felt confident holding off Bell on his way to the checkered flag. He subsequently responded, “No, I wasn’t confident. The #43 let us go, which I was very thankful for.”

“Then I was like, the whole way down the back, I was hoping the #38 was going to run the middle or the top. I wanted that clean air for the bottom. When he pulled down to the bottom, I knew I couldn’t follow him because it was going to choke me down too much.”

Larson then explained that he was unsure of what to do at that point during the race. He believed that his best chance of maintaining his lead off of turn four was to move toward the middle of the track and hope that he had enough grip.

Adding, “I peeled to the middle and was really loose, knew that Christopher was going to be able to get a run. Thankfully he wasn’t able to get to my outside before the exit. Kind of looked in my mirror and had to zig and zag a little bit.”

Larson added, “He hit me square in the back bumper, kind of closed off the win for me. Yeah, got much closer than I wanted it to. Thankfully we were able to edge out a win. Thankfully Christopher ran us really clean there off of four.”

Larson praises Bell, calling him one of the best drivers in the world

Later on, Larson was asked about the level of respect between him and Bell considering that he gave him the thumbs up after the race. The HMS driver mentioned, “Yeah, I mean, that was just me kind of showing respect and saying thanks in a way for having us race it out.”

Thereafter, Larson expressed his happiness in winning a race against someone he regarded as a fair and clean driver. Especially considering that they have had many battles in stockcars and dirt tracks in the past where Larson admits he has usually been the aggressor.

Despite this Bell has always raced him cleanly, earning the HMS driver’s respect. Larson even mentioned that he believes Christopher is one of the best race car drivers in the world and enjoys battling with him. He added, “I knew his car was going to be good the whole race. I got to lead right off the bat, then he was better than me there the first run. I knew he was going to be the guy to beat probably all race.”

With the Vegas win in the bag, Larson can now focus on the race at Phoenix next month. Also considering the statistics hinting that the winner of the first race in the round of eight often wins the championship later on, maybe this is Larson’s chance to scalp his second title.