Sam and Dan McMillen have no regrets about finishing “The Amazing Race” in second place or any of the measures they took to get there – including stealing an opposing team’s cab and leaving another team to fend for themselves in a challenge where they had agreed to work together.

The brothers from Liberty, Mo., took a cab that was reserved for Brian and Ericka after completing a ropes course in Prague and then Dan went back on his word when he refused to give Big Easy from the Globetrotters the word ‘Franz’ in a challenge that had teams unscrambling five letters.

“I thought ok … I’ll give him the ‘F’ and then 10 minutes later he’ll probably get it and then we’ll have a head start,” says Dan. “Little did I know that he took forever. It was kind of cool to say, ‘Hey I got the Globetrotters out - (a team of) professional athletes,’ so I was happy with it,” says Dan.

The brothers say they were surprised at the backlash they got from viewers after the episode aired.

“I think that it was just the fact that the Globetrotters were kind of ‘America’s favourite.’ Compared with some other reality shows, what we did, we really wouldn’t be the villains at all, but (everyone else) was just so nice that the little things we did really made us the villains. We didn’t really care though,” says Dan.

But all their strategic moves couldn’t take them to first place.

Sam and Dan finished behind winners Meghan and Cheyne, who sped through a challenge where teams had to count a million dollars worth of poker chips.

“It just came down to who’s played poker before and who knew how to count chips. Sam and I’ve never played before and Cheyne played all the time so he knew how to stack the chips in a fast way and we had no clue what we were doing,” says Dan.

Disappointed but simultaneously relieved that it was all over, the brothers say they were proud of how they finished.

“Especially from the start line when we saw all the other teams we thought, ‘This is going to be a tough race.’ We were very excited to be second,” says Dan.

Being on the race together has definitely strengthened their relationship, says Sam and Dan, and showed them they can hang out as friends as well as brothers.  

“We have a lot of the same interests and it really got us a lot closer together,” says Sam.

“At the same time it showed that we’re so truly different. I always want it to be my way, he wants it to be his way, we just got to realize do your own way and be fine with it,” says Dan.

These differences definitely came out on the race as Sam and Dan were frequently shown bickering during challenges.

“I think we didn’t necessarily fight any more than the other teams but our fights were a little bit bigger because when you’re brothers you don’t really have to hold back,” says Sam.

“And to be honest with you, I don’t think it hurt us any. When we fought during the hay bales I was still doing the challenge and unrolling them the whole time so it’s not like we stopped to fight or anything and kind of the same thing with (pushing) the Golem (through the streets of Prague), even though we were fighting, we were still dragging it while we were doing it.”

Sam and Dan say their family certainly got a kick out of watching them behave in such a way.

“Our parents laughed so much whenever that stuff happened because they know that we have great hearts and we have a solid family and the fact that was shown on TV, it was just kind of entertaining,” says Sam.

“It was really fun. Each Sunday I’d get nervous again because I didn’t know how they were going to edit it,” adds Dan with a laugh.