The Sunday race started three hours later than its scheduled time because of the rain. But little did anyone in Kansas know Kyle Larson was about to unleash a storm of his own on the track? Larson won with a margin of just 0.001 seconds over Chris Buescher and broke all previous records at NASCAR! Evidently, this Hendrick Motorsports racer surpassed the 0.002-second advantages of Craven over Kurt Busch at Darlington in 2003 and Johnson over Clint Bowyer at Talladega in 2011.

But that’s not all. Larson, who nearly missed the win, ended up breaking not one, but two records. Hendrick Motorsports, who once were about to close doors, would have never imagined such a day would come!

Hendrick Motorsport’s moments of serendipity crossing milestones

This race at Kansas will be hard to forget for the HMS driver and his team. Larson even accepted it as he revealed, “I’ll always remember it. When you have the closest (to this point) finish in Cup Series history, I don’t think you’ll ever forget about it, even if it gets broken someday.”

He not only broke that record, but HMS, with a pair of top-five finishes at Kansas Speedway by Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, is the first team to reach over 1,250 top-fives in the NASCAR Cup Series. Larson won his second victory and for Hendrick Motorsports, it’s the team’s sixth win of the 2024 season. ​​

The team’s first top-five finish came with Geoff Bodine at Martinsville Speedway, where he tasted victory for the first time in 1984. It is truly remarkable to see the progress of the team, given that the team was on the brink of closure. That win catapulted many more wins and now is breaking records. Team owner Rick Hendrick, in an interview, reminisced the time and said, “I think about it all the time that had we not won that race, there wouldn’t be a Hendrick Motorsports and it wouldn’t be 300 wins, I’m very, very thankful for that.”

Jeff Andrews, who is the team president and general manager, was elated after the race. He said, “We need moments like that. Those are great stories for our sport and a great moment in history for our company. Every time you see that highlight reel, it’s going to be Kyle (Larson), Hendrick Motorsports, and Mr. Hendrick. It’s certainly something we’re proud of.”

Kyle Larson is a legend in the making, that we know for sure. But even drivers as seasoned as him have races that are oh-so-special. One that will etch themselves not just in history books but in their memories as well.

Larson’s take on his iconic win over Buescher in Kansas

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As they say, if luck is on your side, nothing can stop you! Well, for Larson, his win almost didn’t happen, but a little luck and his race plan just made the “perfect recipe” for the win. If it wasn’t for the late-race caution flag to trigger an overtime restart, Larson wouldn’t have finished the way that he did. 

Even Larson attested to that fact. He said, “First of all, we got lucky that a caution came out. I could tell my right front was beat up, and I was just going to survive to get to the checkered flag. Then I saw Kyle Busch. I think blew a right rear and was hoping they were going to throw a caution so we could pit for some tires.”

At one point Larson was running second, but he later down fell to sixth. So with Busch spinning off, he got a new lease of life at the race. However, Larson was not racing blindly. He seemed to have a plan. He exited the pit road third and executed his plan to get close enough to split the leader to the middle and then race it out. And the racer did execute his plan as he skillfully darted his car under Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher as they barreled into Turn one. 

Coming to the white flag, Larson thought he made a mistake going to the bottom of Turn three during the first of the two-lap finish. He said, “I thought I was done. We came to the white (flag) and I figured I’d try and run up the racetrack in (turns) one and two and build a run. My run was better than I was expecting. He (Buescher) got looking in the mirror and entered a little bit lower into (turn) three and I had that momentum with some clean air to get to his right side. I got pretty loose in the center of (turns) three and four next to him in an awkward aero spot and figured I would smash the wall off of (turn) four.”

“Somehow, it gripped up really good. We touched a little bit off of (turn) four. I noticed that he was going to have the run back, so I hung a left and just tried to kill his momentum,” Larson revealed while talking about what was going on in his head at the time. 

We all saw history made that Sunday! This Kansas victory is special too, given that Hendrick Motorsports is celebrating its 40th anniversary. As for Larson—he has miles to go before he sleeps (read retires)!