May 64 min read

AdventHealth 400: Larson Edges Buescher At Kansas, Closest Finish In Cup Series History

Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher in a photo finish at Kansas. — The finish at Kansas was one for the ages. (Photo: Logan Riely | Getty Images)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - If you blinked at the end of the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, you might have missed the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history as Kyle Larson edged Chris Buescher to win a Sunday night thriller in the Sunflower State.

0.001 seconds was the difference between Larson earning his 25th career Cup Series victory and Buescher getting Ford its first national series win of the year.

This marks the third photo finish of the 2024 NASCAR season, with each of them resulting in a Chevrolet barely edging out a Ford (Cup Atlanta: Daniel Suárez, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney; Xfinity Texas: Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg).

In a Kansas race that started calm, it quickly turned chaotic, as five cautions in the final stage changed the outcome for many drivers. Larson, who was falling back to sixth before the final caution with just five to go, used the late yellow to his advantage as the team took two tires, had an incredible restart and battled with the No. 17 Ford until the last possible millisecond.

"It started off (Turn) 2, and I got a really good run and was able to get into his draft," Larson said. "He was trying to break it and you could tell he was probably going to try and take my line away. I just drove in as hard as I felt like I could. 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 added. "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."

On the other end of the historic finish, there was plenty of disappointment for the driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, who posted on X that he "should've pulled a Lightning McQueen and stuck out my tongue." Nevertheless, it was a good result for Buescher despite coming up short.

"We were able to run the bottom pretty well and we had some good momentum down the back but Kyle certainly had a run," Buescher said. "I was trying to cover what I could but we just left too much space around the top side. Unfortunately, that ended up getting us, and it hurts. It was a good race. We were banging doors all the way to the checkers.

"I knew it was going to be close but certainly it hurts to be that close and miss out. I don't really know what to say right now. 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."

Take another look at NASCAR's closest Cup Series finish in history:

Results from the 2024 AdventHealth 400 are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Denny Hamlin, who led the most laps (71), has now led in 16 consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races. It is not only a career-high, but he is also one away from tying Kyle Busch for the longest streak among active drivers. Hamlin also finished fifth, which is his sixth straight top-five finish at Kansas Speedway.

The two drivers that etched themselves into NASCAR history by being the two part of the closest finish in Cup Series history (Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher) each finished in the top five during Stage 1, Stage 2 and the final stage. Larson was third, second and first. Meanwhile, Buescher was fifth, first and second.

Noah Gragson had another impressive day, as the driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished ninth at Kansas. This marks his third straight top-10 finish. Gragson finished third at Talladega and sixth at Dover.

Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have now won 10 of 12 Cup Series races in 2024. The only non-Hendrick or JGR cars to win were Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suárez at Atlanta and 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick at Talladega.

GRID Ranking

The 2024 GRID Ranking is the eighth year of the world's premier motorsport ranking and was initially released on Sunday, April 7.

The official ranking includes drivers that participate in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, World Rally Championship, Repco Supercars, MotoGP), and each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Kyle Larson	11.57	20th	1st	13.69	13th
William Byron	13.86	13th	23rd	12.70	15th
Denny Hamlin	10.63	23rd	5th	10.98	23rd
Chase Elliott	N/A	N/A	3rd	9.74	29th
Christopher Bell	9.01	33rd	6th	9.25	32nd

Week 5 of the GRID Ranking:

For the first time this season, 2023 NASCAR GRID Rating Champion William Byron no longer holds the top spot. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson has moved ahead, following his thrilling Kansas win as Byron falls to second in the NASCAR GRID Rating.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 12. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.