The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Kansas Speedway amplified both sides of winning and losing.
After a thrilling overtime battle, Kyle Larson edged Chris Buescher by a mere 0.001 seconds, making the finish the closest in Cup Series history.
In the waning moments before a winner was declared, Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing team felt they won.
The jubilation on pit road and on Buescher’s radio were emphatic. However, that quickly changed as NASCAR declared Larson the winner.
Triumph from Buescher’s crew quickly transferred to Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team as they heard the news.
As Larson began to celebrate, the typically reserved driver was amped as he waved his left hand out the driver-side window emphatically toward the fans — he was apart of history.
“My car cut really well and I was able to get to his right side, and I don’t know if the camera caught it, but I was sideways and then got it kind of back under control,” Larson said. “Then I had the run back to his right side off of four and was just too afraid to get too far out in front because a lot of times when you get someone inside close you get tight and into the wall.
“So I got off of four good and I thought, ‘Man, I have got to kill his run quick’, so I just hung a left; doored him and just tried to stall his momentum,” Larson continued. “He had it slowly coming back to me at the line, so just thankful that it was enough and those guys behind us didn’t get a huge run and get to our outside.
“Just incredible and I need to see the replay. I don’t know what it all looked like, but it was pretty damn cool from my seat.”
On the flip side, a dejected Buescher still couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t really know what to say right now,” Buescher said. “All I have seen is the picture and I sure can’t see it in that picture. It sucks to be that close. It was a great finish though. We had a really strong day with a lot of speed in this Castol Edge Ford Mustang and we really needed that. We needed a win more.
“I thought we had that one. We had a lot of speed there firing off, we were really good all day. I am really proud of that. We had good strategy to get us back up there and I tried to cover what I could but I gave him half a lane too much I suppose. That was a good hard race there down to the line. It hurts.”
Buescher’s emotions went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows as he went from thinking he was the winner to not.
“It sucks to celebrate on the backstretch and then pull up to the front straightaway and be told no,” Buescher said. “I don’t know how everything transpired honestly. Not right now. It sucks in a lot of ways.
“Second hurts, a whole lot worse than third. To be that close a couple of times this year now and not be able to get the win, the speed is great and we did a good job today and was a good recovery from the end of Stage 2 there but we don’t have a trophy right now.”