Chris Buescher had a hard time digesting being on the wrong side of NASCAR Cup Series history Sunday night at Kansas Speedway in a photo finish with Kyle Larson.
Buescher finished second by 0.001s. But before NASCAR had reviewed its high-speed camera at the finish line, Buescher and his RFK Racing team thought they were going to victory lane in the AdventHealth 400 and started celebrating in the pit box and over the No. 17 team radio.
NASCAR reviewed the camera and declared Larson the winner. The track scoring pylon at the racetrack incorrectly listed Buescher as the winner.
“We were celebrating down the backstretch and looked at the pylon, and we were P1 up there,” Buescher said. “Everything we had said we had gotten it. Obviously not. The only thing I have to go off of is a grainy photo right now, and at this point it just sounds like I am complaining — and I guess I am because I don’t see it in that.
“I don’t understand how the timing system can read it out one way and not the other. We just got to understand it better.”
Scott Graves, Buescher’s crew chief, went to the NASCAR hauler to get clarification. Graves admitted to Fox Sports after the visit that he wanted to know if it was the painted start/finish line that the scoring goes by, but NASCAR showed the high-speed camera picture and explained the finish.
Buescher led Larson at the white flag after taking the lead on the restart. He had lined up outside Denny Hamlin and cleared the field as Larson put them three wide going into Turn 1. On the final lap, Buescher led the way going into Turns 3 and 4 and tried to move up and crowd Larson, who went to the outside with a run to put them side-by-side coming through the corners.
The two were side-by-side down the frontstretch and hit doors as they moved toward the bottom of the racetrack. Larson won the race, crossing the finish line above the white line as Buescher continued his charge on the apron.
“It was a great restart for us,” Buescher said. “Our Mustang was really good firing off, and I certainly could have blocked more, but at the end of the day, I felt like I was pretty defensive on it. I felt like I was going to make a drag race out of it coming to the finish line. We got to banging doors there a little bit and lost some momentum and I was aggressive trying to cover it.