JGR's Denny Hamlin analyzes Chris Buescher's missteps leading to Kyle Larson's victory at Kansas

Denny Hamlin broke down Chris Buescher's final lap stumble that cost the latter his maiden victory in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher were involved in a photo finish at the AdventHealth 400 in Kansas. Larson was a mere 0.001 seconds ahead of Buescher while crossing the checkered flag on Sunday, May 5.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Hamlin had front-row seats to the nail-biting finish as he finished the race in P5. In a recent episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, Hamlin claimed that the #17 RFK Racing driver could have done certain moves differently in the final stretch.

"I think you know he (Buescher) ran the bottom of one and two and that I necessarily wouldn't have done that if it was me because what is the #5 strong suit it's always going to be running higher than you are and being able to get momentum when he's running higher. I would think that I would say okay I'm going to run the middle in one and two, not the bottom because when you run the bottom you just run off the corner," Hamlin said. (9:10)

Hamlin pointed out that Buescher made the mistake of choosing the wrong lane after the white flag and thus let Larson get close to him by leaving space in the outer lane in the last stretch of the lap.

Hamlin noticed Larson was strong on the higher lane and discussed how Buescher could have avoided giving Larson the momentum. Hamlin said:

"Run the middle, you then force the #5 car in a place where he hasn't completed a ton of passes all day which is the bottom, so you force him to the bottom now you come off the corner." (10:20)

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Denny Hamlin thinks Chris Buescher still had a chance in the final stretch at Kansas

Kansas witnessed a last-lap battle between Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher where the former took the checkered flag by a whisker.

JGR driver Hamlin believes that Buescher had an opportunity to win the door-to-door fight between the #5 Hendrick Motorsports driver and the #17 RFK Racing driver during the final moments of the race. He said during a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin podcast:

"If Buescher just barely taps the #5 and gets him hung up in the wall what would happen is the #5 was so close to the wall that if he touched it, he was going to get hung in it and the #17 would have been clear sailing." (11:20)

Hamlin also believed that the RFK driver wanted to end the race in a good spirit and not spoil it for the rest.

"I think that Buescher just was not willing to do that, he wanted to race it out fairly," Hamlin added. (11:38)

Check out the nail-biting finish at Kansas Speedway between Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher which led to the above discussion: