Larson Over Buescher in NASCAR's Closest Photo Finish.

(KANSAS CITY, KS – MAY 5, 2024 – RIS) Kyle Larson used a good run off the second turn to squeeze by leader Chris Buescher on the outside, then the two battled and bumped to the closest finish in NASCAR history with Larson just edging out Buescher by a scant thousandth of a second at the line. The top four cars were separated by a margin of only three thousandths of a second at the checkered flag, a margin that would have been a new record close finish at the track had it been only the lead pair.

The race started almost three hours late after rain forced an extended track trying operation and ran several extra laps before the green flag so that pit road could receive more attention from the track crew. Ross Chastain took the lead on lap one and held on, with Kyle Larson peeking to the inside a few times before dropping back by a second to Chastain.

The leaders pitted for tires and fuel with Chastain ahead exiting the pits but Larson passed for the position only to have Chastain return the favor. Derek Kraus led until Chastain and Larson got around him and back into the lead after Kraus led six laps.

After multiple laps of passes and repasses, Larson eased ahead of Chastain then Denny Hamlin, last week’s winner at Dover, got around Chastain and started closing on Larson, reporting that his car was better in long runs than fresh out of the pits. 

After a long run of side-by-side racing between Hamlin and Larson, Hamlin got the lead for the sixteenth race in a row and Chastain took second.

Hamlin went on to his third stage win of the season, followed by Chastain, Larson, Bell and Chris Buescher. Hamlin got stymied leaving his pit and fell out of the top ten. On the restart, Kyle Larson took advantage of the pit sequence and in a five-wide move Chris Buescher streaked through the middle lane to take second place. As pit stops cycled and Larson’s crew had a problem with the left-front wheel lock, Buescher got the lead, with ‘Kyle and Kyle’ (Busch and Larson) chasing him down but unable to make the pass before the end of the second stage with Buescher taking his first stage win of 2024. Larson, Hamlin, Busch and Truex followed Buescher across the line with Noah Gragson just edging out Chase Elliott for the tenth and final points position in the stage.

Buescher’s crew went over the pit wall too soon and on the same stop, a windshield tear off got stuck on the roof of the No. 17 Ford, but blew off at the restart. Buescher had to make the restart from the back of the field but did not pull through the pits to get the sheet pulled off. Just a couple of laps into the final stage, Jimmie Johnson got tapped by Corey Lajoie, sending Johnson sliding to the infield and LaJoie to the pits in the first incident-caused yellow flag. Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric were noted as being involved but both drove on with minimal damage. “I just had contact from behind and really nothing I can do at that point, especially at that critical part of the corner turning in. And I know it wasn’t on purpose, but it’s just unfortunate,” Johnson commented. He added that he slowed “just to make the turn. I was just slowing to make the turn. There’s traffic in front of me, so I’m trying to set up my line so I’m in clean air and not drive in the tire tracks of those in front of me. I was just setting up for the corner and got hit from behind.”

Larson chose the inside land with Kyle Busch to his right with the two swapping the lead for a couple of laps before Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell Michael McDowell got involved in a spin on the back straight. Hamlin got loose, then moved up the track by Bell, collecting Cindric and sending his No. 2 Ford into Bubba Wallace and then Michael McDowell. “A lot of cars there trying to overdrive the corner to try to get in front of one another,” Cindric commented. “The 22 slid up on the 20, the 20 slid up on the 11 and I was the first thing to hit before the wall. I tried to back out when I saw the situation the 11 was getting put in. It is just racing. Nobody I can really be frustrated with. It is unfortunate. I felt we had a really solid run going, nothing overly spectacular but I thought the guys did a really good job all weekend and executed a great race up until that point.”

A couple of laps under green with Kyle Busch leading Kyle Larson, Harrison Burton spun in the back of the field to bring out the third caution since the end of the second stage, not including the stage-ending flag. At this point in the third stage, the longest green flag run has been three laps.

As the field finished the first lap under green this time, Joey Logano spun trying to avoid Chase Briscoe and had to be towed in with flat tires.

Hamlin and Buescher headed the field to the restart, moving ahead of Bubba Wallace in third place. Buescher got around Hamlin for the lead but Hamlin used his long-run speed to retake the lead.

Both leaders’ crew chiefs are telling their drivers to save a little fuel in case the race goes into overtime. Kyle Larson, running third, is also trying to save fuel but at the same time, put pressure on the leading pair to make them use fuel. 

Inside of the ten lap to run point, Martin Truex Jr swept around Buescher for second and started to close on Hamlin but Kyle Busch’s spin out of fifth position in the second turn brought out a caution with six laps to run. 

Hamlin pitted for right tires and fuel, Truex took on four tires and Hamlin got off of pit road first, followed by Buescher, Larson, Elliott and Blaney. Hamlin chose the bottom lane with Larson behind him flanked by Chase Elliott, while Buescher will restart to Hamlin’s right on the front row.

The overtime restart saw Larson jump to the inside while Buescher got a good launch and the lead with Larson chasing Buescher. Larson squeezed 

“That was wild, I was thankful for that caution,” Larson said. He said he figured his “best show was to choose the bottom. I got super loose in the center – I was trying not to get too far in front of him so he could side-draft. You guys got your money’s worth today.“

Buescher commented: “I don’t know what to say right now, I haven’t seen a replay. It sucks to be that close. It was a great day for us. Good hard race right there down to the line.”

Unofficial Results: AdventHealth 400, May 5, 2024 - Kansas Speedway
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms, Laps, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 4, Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, 268, 3, 2, 6, 63, 5, 57, Running
2) 12, Chris Buescher, No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford, 268, 5, 1, 4, 54, 1, 51, Running
3) 9, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 268, 10, , , , , 35, Running
4) 13, Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota, 268, 7, 5, , , , 43, Running
5) 14, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, 268, 1, 3, 6, 71, 1, 50, Running
6) 1, Christopher Bell, No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota, 268, 4, , 3, 5, , 38, Running
7) 18, Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 268, , 7, , , , 34, Running
8) 5, Kyle Busch, No. 8 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet, 268, 8, 4, 1, 14, , 39, Running
9) 3, Noah Gragson, No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford, 268, 9, 10, , , , 31, Running
10) 8, Michael McDowell, No. 34 Love's Travel Stops Ford, 268, , , , , , 27, Running
11) 30, Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford, 268, , , 1, 1, , 26, Running
12) 26, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford, 268, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 29, John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Family Dollar Toyota, 268, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 25, Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford, 268, , , 1, 4, , 23, Running
15) 17, Josh Berry #, No. 4 Overstock.com Ford, 268, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 21, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Minute Rice Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 23, Bubba Wallace, No. 23 MoneyLion Toyota, 268, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 35, Justin Haley, No. 51 Children's Mercy Hospital Ford, 268, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 2, Ross Chastain, No. 1 Busch Light Crocs Chevrolet, 268, 2, 9, 4, 43, , 29, Running
20) 15, Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota, 268, , 8, 1, 7, , 20, Running
21) 10, Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford, 268, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 20, Corey Heim(i), No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota, 268, , , , , , 0, Running
23) 36, William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 22, Carson Hocevar #, No. 77 Delaware Life/Creative One Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 16, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 28, Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 27, Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 32, Ryan Preece, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford, 268, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 24, Zane Smith #, No. 71 Focused Health Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 8, Running
30) 33, Daniel Hemric, No. 31 LA Golf Chevrolet, 268, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 38, Derek Kraus, No. 16 projectwyoming.com Chevrolet, 268, , , 1, 6, , 6, Running
32) 6, Ty Gibbs, No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota, 267, 6, 6, , , , 15, Running
33) 34, * Austin Hill(i), No. 33 United Rentals Chevrolet, 267, , , , , , 0, Running
34) 11, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 266, , , , , , 3, Running
35) 37, Riley Herbst(i), No. 15 Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford, 266, , , , , , 0, Running
36) 31, Harrison Burton, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, 262, , , , , , 1, Running
37) 7, Austin Cindric, No. 2 Snap on Ford, 184, , , , , , 1, Accident
38) 19, * Jimmie Johnson, No. 84 AdventHealth Toyota, 175, , , , , , 1, Accident
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Race Length: 268 Laps, 402. Miles
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 10 Mins, 42 Secs.
Average Speed: 126.481 MPH
Margin of Victory: .001 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 11, 1, 5, 20, 17, 54, 19, 8, 10, 9
Stage 2 Top 10: 17, 5, 11, 8, 19, 54, 48, 45, 1, 10

Comments: Kyle Larson won the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, his 25th NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Cautions: 7 for 43 laps;
Laps: 82-88 (Stage 1 Conclusion [41]);
167-173 (Stage 2 Conclusion [14]);
177-183 (Nos. 7, 31, 33, 84 Incident Turn 2 [42]);
186-190 (Nos. 2, 11, 23, 34 Incident Backstretch [99]);
193-197 (No. 21 Spin Backstretch [None]);
199-205 (Nos. 14, 22 Spin Frontstretch [43]);
262-266 (No. 8 Spin Turn 2 [23]).

Lead Changes: 27 among 10 drivers;
C. Bell 1;
R. Chastain 2-32;
C. Bell 33-35;
D. Kraus 36-41;
R. Chastain 42-43;
K. Larson 44;
R. Chastain 45-50;
K. Larson 51-62;
D. Hamlin 63-64;
K. Larson 65;
D. Hamlin 66-83;
R. Chastain 84-87;
C. Bell 88;
K. Larson 89-118;
T. Reddick 119-125;
C. Buescher 126-168;
K. Larson 169-183;
K. Busch 184-197;
K. Larson 198-201;
T. Gilliland 202-205;
D. Hamlin 206-207;
C. Buescher 208-214;
D. Hamlin 215-227;
C. Buescher 228;
D. Hamlin 229-262;
B. Keselowski 263;
D. Hamlin 264-265;
C. Buescher 266-268.

John Davison

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

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Volume 2024, Issue 5, Posted 10:37 PM, 05.05.2024