After Missing Out to Kyle Larson Last Year, Chris Buescher Explains How the NASCAR Next Gen Car Offers a Short Track Experience at Kansas Speedway

The NASCAR Cup Series will return to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway this Sunday, a year after Chris Buescher lost to Kyle Larson by an almost unthinkable margin of 0.001 seconds. The RFK Racing driver recently appeared on NASCAR: Inside The Race alongside Steve Letarte and spoke about what makes the track one of his favorite venues to race at.

From Kyle Larson to Denny Hamlin, many drivers believe that Kansas is where the Next Gen car is at its best. The grip, the progressive banking, and the drafts all help the car display its best features. For the same reason and more, Buescher enjoys taking his No. 17 Ford Mustang out to the tri-oval and navigating it.

He said, “It’s got options, and from behind the steering wheel, that’s what you want. If you have a car that isn’t great on the bottom, but you can move up and find something? That’s great, right?

“You can change your day without having to wait 50 laps to come in, pit, and throw a wrench in the rear glass or throw air pressure to it. Whatever it may be.”

Drivers are able to change lanes easily with the Next Gen car at Kansas and this makes all the difference, according to Buescher. He mentioned that this element is a lot like what they experience on short tracks where a lot of performance can be gained with every lap. The question is if he will choose the right lane this time after failing to do so last year.

How Chris Buescher lost in Kansas to Kyle Larson in 2024

The 2024 AdventHealth 400 is a race that will go down as one of the best in NASCAR history. It featured 27 lead changes among 10 drivers and seven cautions for 43 laps. The most exciting drama came after Kyle Busch spun on Lap 261 of the scheduled 267 laps to send the race into overtime. Buescher took the lead on the restart of the final two laps.

But Larson pulled up even to him on the backstretch of the final lap. The drivers banged doors twice racing to the checkered flag. It looked like Buescher might have the edge, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver prevailed in the photo finish. The results revealed that Larson had won by a just one-thousandth of a second.

Enough time has passed for Buescher to be able to joke about it without feeling a stinging pain in his heart. Hopefully, he will repay Larson this year and achieve his first Victory Lane visit of the year.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh

Chris Buescher Kyle Larson

About the author

Gowtham Ramalingam

Gowtham is a NASCAR journalist at The SportsRush. Though his affinity for racing stems from Formula 1, he found himself drawn to NASCAR's unparalleled excitement over the years. As a result he has shared his insights and observations by authoring over 3000 articles on the sport. An avid fiction writer, you can find him lost in imaginary worlds when he is not immersed in racing. He hopes to continue savoring the thrill of every lap and race together with his readers for as long as he can.

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