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This season, the NASCAR race in Kansas attracted enormous attention from fans of the sport, who were surprised by Kyle Larson's victory. Namely, NASCAR fans witnessed the photo finish, whose participants were Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher.
The difference between the winner, Larson and Buescher, was only 0.001 seconds. After the race, many people pushed the question of who won the race, and NASCAR officials needed to assess who was the winner. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic watched the race that night, and in one of the episodes of The Teardown, he recalled the great race.
Gluck pointed out that controversy started immediately after the race, especially because of the crooked start and finish line. NASCAR officials had to explain to the fans how they made the assessment.
“There was another controversy in that race because the start/finish line was painted crooked,” Gluck said, as quoted by On3.
“NASCAR had to explain, ‘Well, it’s a laser line shooting across the track. Even though the start/finish line is painted this way and it looked like Chris Buescher got there first. The start/finish line itself doesn’t matter because it’s the same technology that they use for the Kentucky Derby.”
Gluck, just like many others, waited impatiently in the media center, wanting to know who won in the end. Gluck revealed that while sitting in the media center, he received a call from a famous name in the NASCAR scene, Dale Earnhardt.Jr. Gluck answered the phone call, and he received a question from Dale: 'Hey is the start/finish line crooked or not, can you just send me a picture?.'
He immediately wanted to determine what was the truth in the whole story. Jeff revealed that quite afterward, two NASCAR PR people were coming down from the tower: Jesse Little and Amanda Ellis. Jesse decided to explain what happened in such a situation, clarifying everything to Gluck. He even had a video clip in which Gluck could see everything.
Former NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a great desire to find out who was the winner in the end. Of course, Larson managed to take the win, so it's hard to say how frustrated and disappointed Buescher was after coming so close to victory.
Kyle Larson's reaction after the Kansas race
Kyle Larson pointed out after the race in Kansas that the race was wild, more precisely, a race like we have probably never witnessed. The 32-year-old driver is happy about the caution, pointing out that he gave his best and took advantage of the chance he had in front of him. The popular Larson stayed focused until the end of the race, pleased with how everything went.
Although they were moving poorly, he was happy to come out third from the pit stop and felt his best move was to pick the lower layer of the track and try to make a triple on the inside. The car behaved well and managed to make several good attacks. He took turns 1 and 2 very well and then had a big tow on Chris Buescher, which allowed him to force him into a shallow entry as he made a determined move to the top side of the track.
Although he wasn't sure if he'd be able to pass, he became very unstable in the center of the track. However, he tried not to get too far ahead of Buescher so that he couldn't use the side-draft, while at the same time trying to "destroy" his attack. After all, Larson stressed that the race was very exciting and crazy.
“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."
Buescher, on the other hand, pointed out that it's difficult to accept the fact that he was so close, and in the end, he didn't celebrate in Kansas. Although he was satisfied with the day behind him, he expected to be able to win. In an interview with the media, Buescher highlighted that he was satisfied with the speed. He couldn't hide the pride he felt for the team, but also himself.
“Had a lot of speed there firing off. We were really good really all day, and really proud of that. Had some good strategy to get us back up there and tried to cover what I could and gave him half a lane too much, I suppose, but good hard race right there down to the line. But, yeah, it just hurts.”- Buescher said.
English (US)