Why Kansas Speedway’s NASCAR main event vexed a Hall of Famer & runners-up alike

Last May’s NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway produced the most lead changes on any 1.5-mile track in series history.

In Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, nearly a year to the day later, the track in Kansas City, Kansas played host to the closest finish in NASCAR history.

Before being the hard-luck runner-up in Sunday’s historic finish, Chris Buescher produced perhaps the highlight of this year’s rain-delayed race.

He found the narrowest of gaps between four other cars early in the race. The daring move saw a five-wide row of cars across the start/finish line.

It also moved Buescher from seventh place to second, setting him up for the rest of the race.

“You certainly have at a lot of places the opportunity for stuff like that (at other tracks), but you lose momentum side-by-side like that,” he said. “A small gap opened up down the middle.

“I made one highlight reel, but not the right one. It felt pretty cool at the time, and now I’m just here upset with where we ended up.”

Buescher’s No. 17 Ford was initially ruled the winner of the race before it was determined he lost by .001 seconds to Kyle Larson.

Late restart bumps Hamlin

Denny Hamlin seemed primed to defend his victory from last May, holding the lead while conserving fuel in the last laps.

But then a late caution flag changed everything. Hamlin, along with the majority of the cars at the front, chose to take two tires.

Hamlin wasn’t a factor in the wild green-white-checkered finish, dropping back to a fifth-place finish.

“We were right on task there,” Hamlin said. “With about four (laps) to go, I felt pretty good there about getting another one, but it was just one of those things.”

Hamlin let out a sigh on the radio when he heard the call for two tires coming down pit road — with the codeword “vegetable.”

“It was the best call, for sure,” he said. “I just thought some cars would stay out and we’d end up losing to cars that stayed out.

“But we just lost the restart. I don’t think there’s any dispute we were the fastest car, for sure. I thought we were going to finish 20th with 70 to go. (Darn) it. I really wanted to get another one there. Had we not had that caution, maybe it was going to happen.”

Rough day for 7-time champ Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Johnson knows the way to victory lane at Kansas Speedway as one of just five NASCAR Cup Series drivers to win three races here.

Sunday’s rain-delayed AdventHealth 400 offered an ignominious new experience for the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.

It was, unfortunately, an afternoon to forget. He finished dead-last in 38th place after becoming the first car knocked out of the race on lap 175.

Johnson checked up entering the backstretch, which caused Corey Lajoie to rear-end Johnson’s No. 84 Toyota.

Johnson was apparently not happy with Lajoie after the incident, exiting the ambulance that was set to take him for a mandatory checkup to stare at Lajoie.

Later, after exiting the infield care center and seeing a replay of the sequence, he softened his stance somewhat.

“It’s just hard racing on these restarts,” Johnson said. “You’re certainly disappointed to get hit from behind and spun out and turned around, but I’m confident it wasn’t on purpose. It was just kind of one of those racing things. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll dust ourselves off and get ready to do it again ...”

Johnson is running a limited nine-race schedule this season in his return to NASCAR after a brief stint in IndyCar. His best finish thus far is 27th last week at Dover.