Kyle Larson Wins Nail-Biting AdventHealth 400 By One Inch

In a dramatic and nail-biting finish, Kyle Larson clinched victory in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, edging past Chris Buescher by a mere thousandth of a second to secure the closest win in the sport’s history. After a late caution involving Kyle Busch forced a green-white-checkered finish, Larson, in the No. 5 Chevrolet, trailed Buescher down the backstretch before maneuvering around him on the final corner. The two cars banged doors as they hurtled toward the finish line, but it wasn’t immediately clear who crossed first.

The final result was only confirmed by a grainy black-and-white photo, as Larson’s spotter Tyler Monn celebrated from above. Initially unaware of his triumph, Larson congratulated his team on a second-place run before the reality of his victory set in. Meanwhile, Buescher’s team, led by crew chief Scott Graves, had already started celebrating until the official photo dashed their hopes. “That sucks to be that close,” said a visibly disappointed Buescher.

This marked Larson’s second win of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, giving him a measure of redemption after finishing second in both the previous week’s Dover race and last year’s spring race at Kansas. The victory kicked off an ambitious month for Larson, who plans to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.

Rounding out the top five were Martin Truex Jr. in fourth and Denny Hamlin in fifth. Hamlin had initially led on the final restart but faded back in the last laps. For Larson, this unforgettable victory will forever be etched in his memory, as he declared, “I don’t think you’re ever going to forget about it.”

“That was wild. I was obviously thankful for that caution. We were dying pretty bad. Was happy to come out third (off pit road), and figured my best shot was to choose the bottom and try and split three-wide to the inside.

“Worked out my car turned well and was able to get some runs. Got through (Turns) 1 and 2 really good down the backstretch and had a big tow on Chris, and got him to kind of enter shallow, and I just committed really hard up top.

“Wasn’t quite sure if we were going to make it out the other side. I got super loose in the center, and then we’re just trying to… I’m trying not to get too far ahead of him to where he can side-draft, and then I was just trying to kill his run. It was crazy.”

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