NASCAR takeaways: Kyle Larson captures closest Cup finish ever at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson needed all his talent and a bit of luck to capture the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.

Larson and Chris Buescher leaned on each other door-to-door over the final hundreds of yards with Larson nipping Buescher by 0.001 seconds Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

"I was good to get to his outside," Larson said. "And I was good to stay there. The rest of it? A little bit of luck for sure.

"With the way these cars are aero-wise, I thought I was going to murder the fence."

NASCAR's timing and scoring initially showed Buescher as the winner, but NASCAR's photo finish system showed Larson as the winner.

"We touched a little bit off of [Turn] 4 [and] 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 about his side-drafting technique.

"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.'"

Takeaways after Larson and Buescher were followed by Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

Larson Thought He Lost

Larson thought he lost on the final lap. Crew chief Cliff Daniels told him timing and scoring showed he had finished second, and then after NASCAR officials announced over the race control radio that Larson had won, his spotter Tyler Monn relayed the message.

The confusion continued as Larson started to celebrate on the frontstretch.

"I was going nuts, and ... I was pumping the crowd up [with a burnout], and I look ahead and I'm like, ‘Oh s---' –Buescher is on the