Saturday (5/4) Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish. Not to be outdone, Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race was also a photo finish with the closest finish in NASCAR history!
The AdventHealth 400 was delayed by hours due to rain at the Kansas Speedway. When the race did get started it ran caution free through the first two stages. Denny Hamlin won stage one and Chris Buescher won stage two. There was plenty of racing action even without the wrecking. Ten drivers exchanged the lead 28 times through the race.
The four drivers that led the most were Denny Hamlin (71 laps), Kyle Larson (64 laps), Chris Buescher (53 laps) and Ross Chastain (43 laps). These four drivers were among the front five cars all race long. It was obvious the winner would likely be one of these four … barring some strange turn of events.
The third and final stage of the race looked like it could produce that strange turn of events as the caution flag waived five times. Kyle Busch was in position near the end of the race to be that unexpected winner of the race. However, he spun his car with just seven laps remaining in the race. That caution put the race in a green-white-checkered NASCAR overtime finish.
When the race re-started, Denny Hamlin was on the inside of the front row. Chris Buescher was on the outside of the front row. Kyle Larson was on the inside of the second row. Kyle dropped to the inside of Denny and passed him going into turn one as Chris passed Denny on the outside.
Chris was able to get the lead and hold it to take the white flag to indicate one lap to go. Going through turns three and four Kyle was able to get to the outside of Chris and make it a drag race to the finish line. Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott also came up to make it a four-wide race to the finish. The initial call was for Chris Buescher as the winner. However, the official photo finish changed that call.
Kyle Larson won the race by a margin of 0.001 seconds, the closest finish in the history of NASCAR. This is Kyle’s first win in the Cup Series at Kansas Speedway. It is his second win of the 2024 season and his 25th career win in NASCAR’s top division.
Chris Buescher took home a heart-breaking runner-up finish with Chase Elliott grabbing third-place. See the complete race results for the AdventHealth 400 here.
The top five spots in the NASCAR point standings did not change following the race at Kansas Speedway. The top three are Kyle Larson (#1), Martin Truex Jr. (#2) and Chase Elliott (#3). See the complete NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
The next stop for the NASCAR Cup Series is Darlington Raceway for the Goodyear 400 on Mother’s Day … Sunday, May 12th.
By: Buck Stevens
