The Perfect Combination For Nascar




     We came into Sunday anticipating a crazy race that would see excitement, chaos, strategy, and more importantly pure racing. After about a 3 hour rain delay and 400 miles plus overtime I would have to say that was probably the best race I’ve seen at least in this car. The passing was there. The side by side was there, we even went 5 wide at points of this race. We had comers and goers and strategy. Battles all over the race track all day along with a changing track with the weather forcing this to be a day to night transition race. What’s even crazier about all of what I just said is , that all got overshadowed by what is now the closest finish in NASCAR history and even has people debating if this finish was better than Darlington in 2003 (that’s a no for me).

      This race started with Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain on the front row and while they were as eager as the rest of us to start this race, Mother Nature had other plans as we had to wait around 3 hours for the rain to stop and for the track to dry. The bright side is this meant that we were likely going to see one of the best tracks on the circuit right now race at night  . This is the first time that I can say I saw people asking for a rain delay just so we could see Kansas at night. After the track drying was done the cars took to the track to help heat it up and after drying pit row and a speed tachometer check, the race was on. 

     Bell was able to take a small lead before being passed by Ross Chastain but another guy moving up early was Kyle Larson. It wasn’t before two long that these two were 1-2 and fighting for the lead and what we saw from these two in stage one was a masterpiece. While yes we all know that this car races well on intermediate tracks, these two were passing each other on each end of the track for the majority of stage one, side by side aggressively drafting off of each other and then throwing monster crossovers and sliders that had me on the edge of my seat. This then allowed Denny Hamlin who looked to be a car to beat to catch the two. However Denny moved by both of them to win stage one as if they were standing in mud.

        Stage two then starts and this restart was crazy. Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell were fighting for the lead when they both had to check up off of 4 and first Larson went around, but then Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr, and Chris Buescher made a mad dash to go inside, outside, and even through the middle of Ross and Bell to take it 5 wide down the front stretch. As of this point in the race everything that has made fans love this track in the past few years was on full display.  At this point the track started changing and Chris Buescher and Kyle Busch started making moves to the front as Chris would win stage 2 and Kyle Busch would end up 4th behind Larson and Hamlin.

      Up to this point the race was tame but stage 3 brought a sense of urgency that led to chaos. There were a few big wrecks in the back of the pack with the most notable one being Corey Lajoe and Jimmie Johnson making contact on the front stretch to set off the tone. Even though this happened on air we had to watch on board footage and a few fan videos to see what appeared to be Jimmie Johnson checking up for some reason and Corey had nowhere to go. This would end Johnson’s day. Another notable crash was off of turn two when Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell made contact which got Austin Cindric loose and collected Micheal McDowell and Bubba Wallace. This would end Cindrics day. With a few of these cautions we were then able to get a long green run in but with drivers on different fuel and tire strategies the race was over.

         At the front of the field after the restarts sorted  there was Denny Hamlin and Buescher on a fuel strategy call, Kyle Busch closing with a two tire call on the previous yellow, with guys like Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr on 4 tires. As the run went on the top two began fighting for the lead and the win allowing Busch and Larson to close in. Larson eventually passed Busch and was in the best position to win with fresher tires and more fuel but his car started to fade late in the run. Chris also had to back off to save fuel, and Kyle Busch I honestly believe used up his tires (Busch was on two with Larson on 4). At this point I thought Denny Hamlin was in position to win when Martin Truex with about 20 to go started making a mad dash and as we got inside 10 to go it looked like MTJ was going to blow by Denny for the win, when a caution came out for a Kyle Busch spin.

     Now this is where things get really interesting as everyone decided to pit and Denny Hamlin won the race off of pit row with Buescher in 2nd. The big gainer was Kyle Larson from 5th to 3rd, and the big loser was Martin Truex Jr as he took 4 tires and came out around 9th or 10th.

    Now the restart, the drivers hit the zone and get up to speed and Larson was on it as he immediately goes 3 wide into turn 1 to ultimately pass Hamlin and give himself a shot at the win. At this point Chris was trying to judge Larsons line to air block him but Kansas is too big and Larson was able to close in as they took the white flag.  As they enter and exit 1-2 Larson was able to get a run and sent it on the outside of Chris into turn 3, giving the term “Larson Line” a whole new meaning as he and Chris were door to door inches from the outside wall.  Contact is made off of 4 with a touch once, twice, everyone else is giving it their all and the winner is Chris Buescher by inches as called, ONLY to be overturned moments later and Larson is then declared the winner by a 0.001 seconds, making this the closest finish in NASCAR history. 

Larson and Buescher create closest finish in NASCAR 
history at 0.001 sec
(Credits Toby Christine/ Racingamerica.com

      If you didn’t enjoy yesterdays race then i don’t know what will because that race had everything a NASCAR fan could ask for, especially considering the talks surrounding the racing in the past weeks, it’s nice to change speeds to something more positive like this race. Once again Kansas Superspeedway delivers.

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