“I remember the Tarlton v Larson feud,” said Scelzi at the beginning of the interview, adding: ‘You guys hated each other.”
Scelzi was referencing a feud between Tommy Tarlton and Larson dating back to his teenage years. “Yeah, I legit hated him. Like hate’s a strong word but I hated Tommy. He was mean. He was a bully. And I just couldn’t stand him,” said Larson.
The 2025 Cup Series champion continued: “The day he retired, he turned into the nicest person ever. And I’ll never forget, it was in Vegas, I went to go pick Colby up at the hotel and Tommy came walking out. I was like ‘Tommy Tarlton, he’s probably going to say something s—– to me or whatever.’ And he walked over to the car, so nice, and has been so nice ever since.”
However, Larson then added that running his mouth nearly led to him getting into multiple fights with Tarlton and his crew. “Yeah, Trophy Cup, whatever year that was, I talked a bunch of s—,” added Larson.
“And his whole team came out wanting to fight. He wanted to fight another time. I’m like not even 16. He’s wanted to kill me. But, uh, that was fun.”
In the end, any differences Tarlton and Larson had seemed to have been resolved after the former retired. Back in 2021, Tarlton approached Larson to appear as a primary sponsor for the NASCAR star, with the latter sporting the Tarlton and Son scheme on his No.5 Chevrolet during a playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.