The old cliche is close races are won by a matter of inches. But Sunday night (May 5) at Kansas, Kyle Larson could literally say that.
Larson jumped to the outside line to beat Chris Buescher in a photo finish, prevailing by 0.001 seconds to emerge victorious in Kansas Speedway’s Advent Health 400 for the NASCAR Cup Series.
The crazy ending was set up by a Kyle Busch spin that caused NASCAR Overtime. During the final round of stops, the first nine cars elected to take right side Goodyear tires only, with Martin Truex Jr. in 10th taking four. On the restart, the field raced two, three-wide and more for two laps, four cars emerging with a chance to win all the way to the finish line in what’s now the closest finish in NASCAR history.
“That was wild. I was obviously thankful for that caution, we were dying pretty bad, and was happy to come out, you know, third and figured my best shot would be to choose bottom and just try and split three-wide to the inside,” Larson told FOX Sports. “It worked out, my car turned well and I was able to get some runs.”
It was a heartbreaker for Buescher, winless on the year and in position on the last lap before Larson got momentum on the backstretch and pulled alongside.
“We really needed that,” Buescher told FOX after the event. “Needed a win more… gave [Larson] half a lane too much, I suppose.”
Larson completed a stunning recovery after taking a back seat to Truex and Hamlin racing for the win. However, that final caution changed everything; Truex wound up fourth after his four-tire stop while Hamlin couldn’t get momentum on the restart and slid to fifth.
“One more lap we’d have looked like heroes,” Truex told MRN.
It wasn’t to be, Truex falling just short while Chase Elliott wound up third, slotting ahead of both the No. 19 Toyota and Hamlin. Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson and Michael McDowell rounded out the top-10 finishers.
Stage one entertained with nearly nonstop side-by-side racing in the top five. From the drop of the green flag, Ross Chastain and Larson passed pole sitter Bell to trade the top spot for almost the entirety of the first 80 laps. Coming to the end of…
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