Kyle Larson came roaring around the outside of Chris Buescher on the final lap at Kansas Speedway, banging doors with him all the way to the finish line, only to be told by his team over the radio that everything he had given was not quite enough.
It wasn’t until Larson was in Turn 3 of the cool-down lap
that he saw his spotter, Tyler Monn, dancing high above the track.
In the closest finish in NASCAR history, one that only
became official with a grainy black-and-white photo at the line, the No. 5 car
was declared the winner by a thousandth of a second — every bit as close as the
Kentucky Derby a day earlier, and an even more dramatic finish than the
three-at-the-line conclusion to the Cup Series race at Atlanta earlier this
season.
“Had no clue if I won or not,” Larson said, “but honestly
didn’t really care. I was like, ‘Man, that was frickin’ awesome.’”
Not so awesome for Buescher’s team, which had begun
celebrating before the result became official. His crew chief, Scott Graves,
asked to meet with NASCAR officials in their hauler. Shown the finish-line
photo, he accepted the outcome.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” Buescher said, shaking
his head while standing beside his No. 17 car. “I haven’t seen a replay other
than just the picture, and I sure can’t see in that picture. That sucks to be
that close.”
The ”dge-of-your-seat finish came after a caution for Kyle
Busch’s spin forced the green-white-checkered finish. Larson had pulled behind
Buescher on the backstretch of the last lap, then came around him in the final
corner. To the naked eye, Buescher looked as if he had edged ahead, and even
Larson had started to congratulate his team on a strong second-place run.
A few minutes later, he was doing a celebratory burnout on
the front stretch.
It was a brilliant start to a busy month of May for Larson,
who will attempt to run the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day
Memorial Day weekend. The win was his second of the season for Hendrick
Motorsports, and it gave him a bit of retribution after finishing second to
Denny Hamlin last week at Dover and in the spring race at Kansas a year ago.
Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth Sunday and Hamlin, who had
the lead on the final restart, faded back to fifth place.
“Had a great view of the finish,” Hamlin said with a smile.
Making the finish an even bigger bummer for Buescher was the
fact that he had overcome a big miscue midway through the race. He had just won
the second stage and led the field to pit road when a crew member came over the
wall early. The penalty sent him to the rear, and Buescher had to spend much of
the final stage working his way back to the front.
Ultimately, Buescher’s team opted for a different pit
strategy than the other leaders. So did Hamlin’s team, which had survived its
own share of pit problems. And it might have worked out for both of them had
the race finished under green.
Instead, the late caution forced the leaders to pit, and set
up a finish that went down in NASCAR history.
“I mean, I’ll always remember this, for sure,” Larson said.
“There’s definitely wins that you can kind of get lost in the distance a little
bit, but when you finish and have the closest finish in Cup Series history, I
don’t think you’re ever going to forget about it, even if it gets broken
someday. Great to be on this side of it.”
BEST OF THE REST
Christopher Bell started on the pole but struggled to run up
front all day in a race that began after a 3 ½-hour rain delay. He finished
sixth, and was followed by Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch, whose spin brought out
the last caution. Noah Gragson and Michael McDowell joined Buescher in giving
Ford, which has yet to win this season, three cars in the top 10.
YELLOW FLAGS
There were no cautions other than for stage breaks until
Jimmie Johnson wrecked with 91 laps to go. The seven-time champion, back in the
No. 84 for the second consecutive week, was hit from behind by Corey LaJoie
after he had checked up.
“Just trying to set up for the corner, I got a little help
from behind and just kind of hanging on from there,” Johnson said.
The yellow flags then came in quickly: Hamlin made contact
with Austin Cindric, sending the No. 2 into a wreck that spun out Bubba Wallace
and McDowell. Harrison Burton wrecked on the restart, then Joey Logano did on
the next one.
ODDS AND ENDS
Corey Heim, who won the Truck Series race Saturday night,
finished 22nd while subbing for Erik Jones in the No. 43 car for Legacy Motor
Club. ... Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 16th in his first race since signing a
contract extension with JTG Daugherty Racing. He also did it after going for a
wild ride in his sprint car Saturday night at nearby Lakeside Speedway. ...
Gragson has had strong back-to-back weeks after finishing sixth at Dover. ...
The series heads to Darlington next for its annual throwback weekend. AP
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