We capped off a rain delayed weekend with the best race of the year so far and capped it off with the closest finish in NASCAR history and Kyle Larson’s second win of 2024.
Ross Chastain would take the lead from polesitter Christopher Bell on the initial race start and would lead all the way to the first round of pit stops. Meanwhile, William Byron, who started at the rear after hitting the wall in qualifying, was able to climb to 20th by lap 18
The first set of green flag pit stops would start on lap 34. After pit stops, Chastain and Kyle Larson would come out in a dead heat and battle back and forth for the lead for what felt like a endless number of laps with Chastain finally able to edge ahead on lap 51 as the third and fourth place cars of Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin would close in on the leaders.
Hamlin would make his way to second by lap 60 and almost immediately challenge to gain the lead of the race. It was truly incredible racing as you can practically throw a blanket over the top four drivers. Hamlin starts to pull a gap on the others on lap 70 with about ten laps to go in the first stage. Tyler Reddick would bounce his car off the wall with three to go in the stage, but the race would stay green as Hamlin would win stage one.
Stage results stage one:
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Ross Chastain
3. Kyle Larson
4. Christopher Bell
5. Chris Buescher
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Kyle Busch
9. Noah Gragson
10. Chase Elliott
After stage break pit stops, Chastain would lead the field off of pit road while the stage winner Hamlin would fall back seven spots after he got boxed in by Austin Hill. John Hunter Nemecheck would also receive a speeding penalty.
Larson would gain the lead after a insane restart that would have them 5 wide at the front of the pack coming off of turn number four.
Hamlin falls to 11th off the restart but climbs to the seventh position by lap 106 and up to sixth by the time the next round of green flag pit stops start on lap 117. Trouble for the race leader Larson as his crew has issues getting the left front tire properly tightened to the car. Buescher cycled out to the lead of cars that had pitted, followed by Gibbs, Busch, Larson, and Truex.
Meanwhile, the 23XI cars of Reddick and Bubba Wallce would run long to try to have better tires for the end of the stage. The second stage is much calmer than the first as Buescher holds a about two second lead over Busch with 27 laps to go. Larson moved to second place with about 15 laps to go while Hamlin had recovered all the way to third place by the time we reached four to go in the stage. Buescher won stage two, earning his group some very valuable and much needed stage points. Reddick was able to turn that strategy call into some stage points as well, and the young upstart Noah Gragson would edge out Chase Elliott for the final stage point of the afternoon.
Stage results stage two:
1. Chris Buescher
2. Kyle Larson
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Kyle Busch
5. Martin Truex Jr.
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Alex Bowman
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Ross Chastain
10. Noah Gragson
On the next round of pit stops, Hamlin gets held up by Ryan Preece on pit road and loses all the ground he made up and then some, falling back to 11th. Meanwhile, Larson beats Buescher off pit road to take the lead, Buescher gets nabbed for having a man over the wall too soon and will have to start the final stage from the tail of the field.
Larson leads Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, and Truex to the start of the final stage. Corey Lajoie wrecks Jimmie Johnson into turn one on lap 176, Austin Hill is also involved. Race would restart again with 85 laps to go. Austin Cindric would spin after making contact with the wall while trying to check up to avoid Hamlin checking up in front of him. Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell would also be collected in the melee.
Busch would lead the field to the next restart with 77 laps to go and would get clear of the field before Harrison Burton would spin coming off of turn two bringing out another yellow. This would bring a good handful of cars down pit road to top off with fuel and to get fresh tires as they are just outside the pit window. The next restart would be with 70 laps to go, and Logano would spin on the front stretch. This caution would put everyone else into the pit window with a stop and help greatly these that just pitted, which includes Hamlin and Buescher, the two stage winners. Busch, who had been leading, would be restarting seventh after a two tire pit call.
Todd Gilliland would lead the field to the green with 63 to go, followed by Hamlin, Buescher, Justin Haley, and Bubba Wallace in fifth. Buescher would end up with the lead after the restart settled out a bit with about 60 to go. Hamlin wouldn’t go far tho as he brought the battle back to Buescher and would get the pass for the lead made with 53 laps to go in the race. Meanwhile, Larson had made it to 4th and Busch to 3rd.Buescher brought the battle back to Hamlin, keeping the gap to a max 3 tenths lap after lap as this great race would start to wind down.
As those two continue their dogfight for the lead, Busch and Larson inch closer together about a second and a half back. Larson gets around Busch and creeps to within a second of the two leaders with about 32 laps to go. The race turned into a chess match at 185 mph as both Hamlin and Buescher are told they need to save as much fuel as they can while leading the race. Hamlin’s lead spreads out to over a second as we hit 13 laps to go. Truex slices through to second and is closing on Hamlin as we get a caution as Busch spins out with seven laps to go.
Everyone comes down pit road before the overtime attempt. Hamlin leads Buescher, Larson, Elliott, and Blaney off pit road. Truex loses eight spots, but he is the first car on four fresh tires in tenth. Hamlin and Buescher lead the field to green. Larson splits Hamlin low and takes second, and Buescher takes the white on point over the field. Larson and Buescher duel through the lap and make contact multiple times off of turn four to the checkered flag, and Larson will win by an unreal margin of 0.001, the closest in NASCAR history. A truly unreal finish to a fantastic race as the top 4 finishing positions were all covered within .074 seconds. A finish to the race that was certainly worth the wait through the rain delay.
Top Ten:
1. Kyle Larson
2. Chris Buescher
3. Chase Elliott
4. Martin Truex Jr.
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Christopher Bell
7. Alex Bowman
8. Kyle Busch
9. Noah Gragson
10. Michael McDowell
Photo credit: @puffadda
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