Childhood friends Alex Boyan, 24, and Chris Luca, 25, grew $1 million richer last Wednesday when their team narrowly snagged the top prize on CBS's Amazing Race 2. There were a few times in the competition — against ten other teams of travelers, over a span of 52,000 miles — when it didn't look like they'd make it to the end. The boys from Boston joke that this was just part of their "master plan."

"We wanted to see the race from all angles," Alex snickers to TV Guide Online. "To see what it was like to be in the back and what it was like to race in the middle."

"We had everything planned," Chris agrees. "We knew that we were almost going to get eliminated. We just wanted to push everyone's buttons."

Uh-huh. But seriously folks, their archrival Wil did almost manage to trick the boys into undoing themselves. Aware that they were following him via taxi toward the finish line, the cad lured them into a dead-end detour. It's hardly necessary to ask what they would've done differently, in hindsight. Admits Alex: "We probably wouldn't have followed Wil — even though [we only lost] two seconds, because we knew it was over the bridge. We would have won by more, but then, we wanted to give the viewers a little more hang-on time."

But it wasn't just strategy or adrenaline alone that pushed these two across the finish line first. Alex attributes it to "my hatred for Wil." Again, Chris wholeheartedly agrees: "Wil's whiny-ass voice. Plus $1 million — that would be six zeros."

However, the guys give due credit to Wil's partner (and estranged wife) Tara — with whom Alex flirted a bit during the game — for coming in a very close second. "She's an amazing girl," Alex beams. "I don't know how she dealt with Wil for that race, but that proves what kind of girl she is. How did she end up almost beating us [when] she had to deal with a guy named Wil the whole time?"