"We’ve been in a good spot" - Kyle Larson on his relationship with Chase Elliott after NASCAR Watkins Glen 1-2 finish

Kyle Larson won the Go Bowling at The Glen for the second year in a row late Sunday afternoon, passing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott on a restart with five laps remaining in a wet NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International.

Despite a late-race challenge from Michael McDowell, Hendrick Motorsports stars Elliot and Larson were in the field class all day. With five laps to go, they were set to restart together, with Elliott leading Larson.

Kyle Larson has won both of his races this season at the expense of Elliott. Larson slid right into Elliott on the front stretch at Auto Club in a three-wide battle for the lead that went awry, dropping Elliott to 26th. Contact on Sunday wasn't nearly as damaging, as Elliott still finished in the top five, but history remains.

Speaking to the media concerning the relationship between him and Chase Elliott, he stated:

“I feel like we’ve been in a good spot. We were able to talk after the incident at Auto Club, moved on past that pretty quickly. I haven’t seen an interview. I haven’t seen anything about Chase today. I think at Auto Club it was more of an accident. Today it was hard racing at the end on a restart.”

Elliott had a similar reaction when asked about Larson's winning move and whether he considered the risk of starting on the outside during the final restart on Sunday. His answer was to congratulate Larson and Hendrick Motorsports at large.

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Kyle Larson did everything he could to win the race at Watkins Glen International

Kyle Larson, who won the championship after a 10-race winning streak in 2021, reflected on the potentially frayed feelings that could result from late-race rough driving. In Turn 1, he accepted that risk, knowing Elliott would unlikely give him a break anytime soon.

On the restart, Elliott chose the outside, leaving the inside open on a corner that had been primarily contested in the runoff areas. When Kyle Larson overshot the turn, what would have been a problem became an advantage. Larson would then use his car's side to pin Elliott into the runoff area, forcing him to choose between giving up the lead and crashing both cars.

Elliott chose to pass on his teammate. Larson went on to win, a point swing in Larson's favor and away from Chase Elliott that would occur in each of the first three rounds of the upcoming playoffs. Although Larson appeared unhappy about the win, he did everything he could to win the race.

Larson led five laps at Watkins Glen International, but they were the most important. His 0.882-second victory margin was his first since Fontana, the weekend after the Daytona 500. Kyle's 18th career Cup victory provided him with much-needed momentum heading into the playoffs.