With NASCAR returning to Kansas Speedway for the next race in the Cup playoffs \u2014 remember that finish there in May 2024? \u2014 it’s a good time to look back at the sport’s closest finishes.<\/p>\n
NASCAR has used electronic scoring since 1993 and this list is the closest finishes since then.<\/p>\n
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Kansas has the closest finish in NASCAR in that era. Could Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET on USA Network) join the list?<\/p>\n
1. May 2024 Kansas: Kyle Larson wins by .001 at Kansas<\/p>\n
It was a heartbreaker for Chris Buescher, who did not win a race and missed making the playoffs by .001 seconds from this race.<\/p>\n
2. April 2011: Jimmie Johnson wins by .002 at Talladega<\/p>\n
This would be Jimmie Johnson’s second and final Cup win at Talladega, as he nipped Clint Bowyer at the finish line.<\/p>\n
2. March 2003: Ricky Craven nips Kurt Busch by .002 at Darlington<\/p>\n
One of the most thrilling last-lap duels in the 2000s. This was the second and final Cup win in Ricky Craven’s career.<\/p>\n
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4. February 2024: Daniel Suarez wins by .003 at Atlanta<\/p>\n
This was the closest 1-2-3 finish in Cup. Daniel Suarez finished ahead of Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch. Suarez beat Blaney by .003 seconds and Busch by .007 seconds.<\/p>\n
5. July 2007: Jamie McMurray beats Kyle Busch by .005 at Daytona<\/p>\n
Jamie McMurray scored his second career Cup win in exciting fashion. This was his first win since his 2002 victory at Charlotte in just his second Cup start.<\/p>\n
5. July 1993: Dale Earnhardt wins by .005 over Ernie Irvan at Talladega<\/p>\n
Dale Earnhardt scored this narrow victory in a season that saw him win his sixth Cup title. He would add his seventh Cup championship the following season.<\/p>\n
7. Oct. 2024: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. beats Brad Keselowski by .006 at Talladega<\/p>\n
“I just needed half a foot I guess,” Brad Keselowski said after his close loss to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/p>\n
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7. March 2001: Kevin Harvick scores emotional win by .006 over Jeff Gordon at Atlanta<\/p>\n
In just the third race after Dale Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick took Dale Earnhardt’s team to victory lane with his emotional triumph. The win was the first in Cup for Harvick.<\/p>\n
9. June 2020: Ryan Blaney beats Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by .007 at Talladega<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a slam-banging finish that had a couple of cars crashing across the finish line.<\/p>\n
9. Oct. 2019: Ryan Blaney nips Ryan Newman by .007 at Talladega<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney earned his first win of the season in this playoff race and advanced to the third round with this result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With NASCAR returning to Kansas Speedway for the next race in the Cup playoffs \u2014 remember that finish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[18488,2840,1213,91359,2841,425,73978,62047,8656,99,100589],"class_list":["post-181888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-dale-earnhardt","tag-daniel-suarez","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-kansas-speedway","tag-kyle-busch","tag-nascar","tag-playoff-race","tag-ricky-craven","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-sports","tag-talladega"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}