Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell add another battle to their racing history at Las Vegas

This weekend the South Point 400 at Las Vegas provided the next chapter in the Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rivalry. While the two drivers are cordial with one another, they have been racing against each other since before the NASCAR Cup Series.

Both Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell are dirt racers at heart. They grew up racing midgets and sprint cars. Even when Larson looked like the best thing on dirt, Bell came in and pretty much changed everything.

After a clean finish in Vegas, this time with Larson on top by just 0.082 seconds, the Hendrick Motorsports driver talked about that rivalry and how this latest edition played out.

“Yeah, I mean, that was just me kind of showing respect and saying thanks in a way for having us race it out,” Larson said in the press conference. “Obviously, I’m happy because I won, but he’s always been a really fair, clean racer. We’ve had numbers and numbers of battles in stockcars, but mostly in dirt track. I’m typically the one that is the aggressor or the aggressive one in our battles. Probably push the limit of being dirty sometimes.

“For him to continue to race me clean, I definitely have a ton of respect for him. Always have. In my opinion, he’s one of the best race car drivers in the world, and could do everything that I get to do outside of NASCAR if his team would let him.”

Kyle Larson has a very good point. Bell doesn’t get to do what Larson does outside of NASCAR. He owns his own sprint car team and fields multiple vehicles. Joe Gibbs Racing has put a bit of a lid on extra-curriculars lately, though.

Following a narrow loss to Larson, maybe Coach Gibbs will think twice about restricting his young, talented driver.

Kyle Larson enjoys racing Christopher Bell

From my point of view, behind my laptop in Kentucky, it does seem short-sighted for JGR to stop Christopher Bell from racing sprint cars. Larson has shown that a diverse schedule can keep you sharp on the race track, dirt, asphalt – sprint car or NASCAR.

Maybe we’ll see Bell able to branch out a bit in the future. The 28-year-old driver has shown flashes, but there seems to be something missing. From Kyle Larson’s perspective, it’s just great to race someone as talented as Bell.

“I mean, he kicked my ass for a few years straight, like every race. I don’t know if I ever beat him. Yeah, he made me work really hard to get better as a driver, especially on the dirt track stuff. Yeah, we’ve had our run-ins along the way, just tight racing for wins and stuff. Then now I feel like we actually get along and we talk quite a bit, then get to race with a lot of respect on Sundays on TV in front of millions of race fans.

“Yeah, it’s cool. Just need to get to race with a guy like that. I’m sure he’ll be one of the guys to beat at Phoenix, too, when he’s in the Final 4.”

Next Sunday at Homestead-Miami we could get another battle between these drivers. Christopher Bell is turning into Mr. Pole Award with four in seven weeks. Kyle Larson looks like he’s entering championship form.