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Kevin Harvick says Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson have a rivalry built on respect rather than friendship, and he compared it to his own career-long battles with Kyle Busch on the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.
Harvick was responding to comments Bell and Larson made side by side at Phoenix Raceway last weekend, where Bell said the two drivers are not friends.
What Bell and Larson said at Phoenix
Asked about their relationship during a media session on Saturday, October 17, ahead of the Freeway Insurance 500, Bell said he and Larson have raced each other hard for most of their careers and are different people who spend time with different crowds.
“We’re not friends, but we’re acquaintances,” Bell said.
Larson agreed. “I think nobody’s pushed me more than Christopher to become a better racer, so I appreciate that,” he said, adding that the two are “just different” away from the track.
Harvick: ‘They aren’t friends’
Harvick said the answer reflected how the rivalry works.
“There’s a rivalry there that we all enjoy watching when it happens, and they’re able to race against each other because they’re both extremely talented and in extremely good equipment,” Harvick said. “And we want to see them go head-to-head, whether it’s in a Cup car or a sprint car or a midget, whatever it is.”
Harvick pointed to how long the two have been racing each other.
“It’s really unique when you get these dynamics of two guys that have raced each other since they were kids and their careers follow each other all the way through the ranks in the same divisions, and they have to continually beat each other,” he said.
“They aren’t friends. I believe that there’s a lot of respect there for one another. It’s just that they don’t like losing to the other one.”
Harvick compares it to Kyle Busch
Harvick said Busch played the same role in his own career.
“I think that Kyle Busch made me better,” Harvick said. “We competed head-to-head with the truck series teams with everything that we had on that side.”
He said that competition carried from the Truck Series into the second-tier series and then into Sunday’s Cup races, often for the same weekend, while both drivers ran cars for their own organizations.
Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion, died in May at age 41.
Harvick also said close friendships are hard to keep at the Cup level because drivers have to race for their teams first. He named Tony Stewart as his one close friend in the garage during his career.
“It’s tough because sometimes you gotta run your friends over,” Harvick said.
Bell and Larson head to Talladega one-two in the points
The two drivers enter Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, separated by five points. Larson leads the Chase after finishing 34th at Phoenix, and Bell is second after finishing fourth, according to the standings after Phoenix. Three races remain in the 10-race Chase.
The YellaWood 500 airs Sunday, October 25, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
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