KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson came around Chris Buescher on the final lap and banged doors with him all the way to the finish line Sunday, where he was declared the winner of the Cup Series race by officials at Kansas Speedway in the closest finish in NASCAR history.
The official margin was a thousandth of a second — every bit as close as the Kentucky Derby a day earlier — and Buescher was left both dumbfounded and dejected. His team had begun to celebrate before learning he had finished second.
The dramatic finale came after a caution for Kyle Busch‘s spin forced a green-white-checkered finish. Larson pulled behind Buescher on the backstretch of the last lap, then came around him on the outside of the final corner. Buescher looked as if he had pulled in front, and even Larson thought he had finished second, before the call came through that he had won.
“That was wild,” Larson said. “I was thankful for that caution. We were dying pretty bad. I was happy to come out third.”
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 the second of the season for him in the No. 5 car for Hendrick Motorsports, and 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 on Sunday and Hamlin, who had the lead on the final restart, faded back to fifth place.
Meanwhile, Buescher was left questioning the grainy black-and-white images of the photo finish, and the entire Ford contingent — which has yet to win in any of NASCAR’s top three series this year — had to rue the closest miss in its history.
“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.”
Making it a 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 onto pit road when a crew member came over the wall too soon. The penalty sent him to the rear of the field, and he had to spend much of the final stage working his way back to the front.
Ultimately, he opted for a different pit strategy along with Hamlin, who had his own share of problems on pit road. And it might have worked out for them had the race finished under green. Instead, the late caution forced all the leaders to pit.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” Buescher said.
Christopher Bell started on the pole but struggled to run up front all day in a race that began after a 3 1/2-hour delay because of rain, finishing sixth. He was followed by Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch, whose spin brought out the last caution. Noah Gragson and Michael McDowell gave Ford two more cars in the top 10.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.