Kyle Larson’s thrilling victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway almost didn’t come to fruition.
If it wasn’t for a late-race caution flag to trigger an overtime restart, Larson wouldn’t have been a part of the closest finish in Cup Series history by a mere 0.001 seconds.
“First of all, we got lucky that a caution came out,” Larson began. “I could tell my right front was beat up, and I was just trying to survive to get to the checkered flag. Then I saw Kyle (Busch) I think blew a right rear and was hoping they were going to throw a caution so we could pit for some tires.”
Larson had run as high as second in the latter stages of the race. However, his car began to fade. With seven laps to go, Larson had fallen to sixth.
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However, with Busch spinning in front of him and creating the yellow flag, Larson had new life.
“We left pit road in third, and I was happy with that because I wanted to choose (the) second row inside and was able to do that,” Larson explained.
“Kind of had a plan from before I chose the bottom that I was going to try if I was close enough to split the leader to the middle and then maybe race it out from there.”
Restarting third, Larson’s plan was well executed. He darted his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet under Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher as they barreled into turn one.
“It kind of mostly worked out the way I envisioned,” Larson said. “I was hoping I could get next to Buescher down the backstretch, but he had a good run off of (turn) two. I tucked in the hole that was there hoping that Chase (Elliott) could get a run to push me, to get a run to get next to him before we got to (turn) three, but that didn’t happen.”
Larson tucked in behind Buescher without any help behind him.
“Made kind of a bad misjudgment,” Larson admitted. “We were going hard and peeled off to the bottom of (turn) three, and yeah, that was wrong, and then had to chase and find some clean air. I thought I was done.”
Larson, however, wasn’t out of it. With one lap to go, the battle was brewing at the front.
A massive run on the topside of the race track helped surge Larson’s No. 5 to the rear bumper of Buescher.
“We came to the white and I figured I’ll try and run up the race track in (turn) one and two and build a run, and my run was better than I was expecting,” Larson said.
Larson had two more corners to overtake Buescher. The 2021 Cup Series champion chose the high line again.
“He got kind of looking in the mirror and he entered a little bit lower into (turn) three, and I was able to have that momentum with some clean air to get to his right side,” Larson described. “I got pretty loose there in the center of (turns) three and four next to him, just kind of in an awkward aero spot there and figured I would smash the wall off of (turn) four.”
With a minimal scrape on the right side of his race car, the battle between the two frontrunners was turning into a drag race.
In what was perhaps the winning move, Larson steered his No. 5 directly toward Buescher’s No. 17 Ford in a last-ditch effort to slow Buescher down.
“I noticed that he was going to have the run back, so I hung a left and just tried to kill his momentum,” Larson said. “I’ve seen so many times in NASCAR where if the guy has got a run you can just door him and it kind of stops it.
“That’s what happened, and I got to the start-finish line, had no clue if I won or not. I guess I cared but really didn’t honestly care because I was just like, ‘Man, that was freaking awesome.’”
“I think I asked if I had won or not or if I got him and you said (referencing crew chief Cliff Daniels) timing and scoring showed the 17, so I was like, ‘Cool.’”
A runner-up finish was short-lived as Larson was declared the winner. Larson found out by an emphatic voice on his radio.
“Then my spotter was going crazy shortly after that,” Larson said.
“Yeah, just incredible. But really just a great race from the green flag to the checkered flag. It was awesome.”