zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
This Retaliation-Filled NASCAR Finish Was The Best
This Retaliation-Filled NASCAR Finish Was The Best-January 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:14

Nothing was normal about the race at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, including that a driver who had a 12th-place car most of the race wound up with a lead so big he was almost sure to win. But that was just the beginning, and led to some of the best you’ll ever see.

There’s no need to spoil the ending before the video embed, so here’s some context: The red No. 18 car of has the lead with a handful of laps to go on the 1.5-mile oval in Joilet, Illinois, with lapped traffic ahead and the No. 42 car of chasing him down. , who’s been dominant along with Busch this season, is in third—and even though Harvick is out of the camera shot for most of this, Harvick is .

Just watch what happens and avoid scrolling down for spoilers until it’s over:

Watch it five more times if you need to. It won’t get old.

It didn’t look like Larson would catch Busch until the last lap, when he got a huge run going into the first and second turns. Larson, a dirt racer, went to pull a on Busch by ducking to the inside and sliding up in front of him, but didn’t complete it and ran into Busch instead. That put Busch into the wall and took away his momentum, letting Larson complete a pass for the lead.

But the problem with putting a driver into the wall, especially who , is that if you hit that person for the win, you better finish it before they come and hit you back.

That’s exactly what Busch did in the third and fourth turns, sending Larson into the start of a spin while Busch himself slammed the wall. Busch limped toward the checkered flag with lapped traffic around while Larson somehow saved the spin and limped to the line even more slowly, while everyone watching waited for Harvick’s unscathed car to zoom by and win its sixth race this year—which would’ve been the most of any driver by two wins over Busch, had he done it.

But Busch made it to the line first and came back around later to celebrate with a tire down, while Larson finished second place ahead of Harvick at an absolute crawl. And while it would’ve been a solid bet to think there would be some angry drivers after the race, Larson came around, gave Busch a thumbs-up and even went to victory lane to congratulate him.

Why? Because he started it, and Busch finished it.

“I’m not upset,” Larson the NBC Sports television crew after the race. “I had an opportunity there to slide in front of him and I figured I wouldn’t clear him or I would allow him to drive back underneath me. So, I tried to get to his door, and I opened the door for him to retaliate into [turn] three.

“I thought it was free game. I ran into him first, he got me after that, maybe a little bit worse than I got him, but that’s alright. I love racing Kyle. I know all of you fans are probably mad at him, but, hey, we put on a hell of a show for you guys and that was a blast.”

Busch, after —an exaggeration of a move he does regularly after wins in front of NASCAR fans, many of whom have called him a over the years—told the NBC Sports crew that Larson used him, and he used Larson back.

“We were horrible today,” Busch the TV crew on the front stretch of the track. “Absolutely horrendous. But we just never gave up, we just always kept working on it and kept making the most of it, and got it to where we needed it right there at the end and were able to lead all of those laps. If it wasn’t for lapped traffic, it wouldn’t have even been a race.

“I don’t know what y’all are whining about,” Busch added, gesturing toward the crowd. “But if you don’t like that kind of racing, don’t even watch.”

All the while, Larson lost and said immediately afterward, “That’s got to be one of the best NASCAR finishes of all time.”

Who does that? In what universe does an athlete lose and still get excited about how the competition ended? Whatever universe it is, let’s all move there.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
I Am Going To Try, And Possibly Fail, To Explain NASCAR's New All-Star Race Format
I Am Going To Try, And Possibly Fail, To Explain NASCAR's New All-Star Race Format
The NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race has been a staple in American stock-car racing circles since it was first introduced as The Winston in 1985. It has traditionally been a celebration of winners and champions from the current and previous seasons, with a few extra folks added on recently...
Jan 2, 2026
Custom Race Car Seats Are The Unsung Heroes Of Motorsport
Custom Race Car Seats Are The Unsung Heroes Of Motorsport
Jumpsuit. Helmet. Gloves and Shoes. You’ll need to pilot a race car, but arguably just as important as any of these things you wear, is the thing you sit in: . This is why, as funny as it may sound, race car drivers have their own custom fitted car...
Jan 2, 2026
Bobby Unser, Three-Time Indy 500 Champion And Pikes Peak Legend, Dies At 87
Bobby Unser, Three-Time Indy 500 Champion And Pikes Peak Legend, Dies At 87
The Unser family is loaded with automotive talent, and few epitomized that quite as deeply as Bobby Unser. In his decades-long career, the Colorado native crushed stunning records at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (dubbed “Unser’s Peak” due to the family’s massive success there), won three Indianapolis 500...
Jan 2, 2026
Nikita Mazepin Is Not Getting Much Better
Nikita Mazepin Is Not Getting Much Better
Nikita Mazepin finished Sunday’s over a minute behind 18th-placed Nicholas Latifi. Obviously, among the cars that finished, Mazepin was dead last. This is all but also increasingly cringe. Take Mazepin’s , for example, in which he and his race engineer try to convince themselves that they had a good...
Jan 2, 2026
Pato O'Ward Broke McLaren's 101 Month Open Wheel Losing Streak
Pato O'Ward Broke McLaren's 101 Month Open Wheel Losing Streak
November 25th, 2012. That’s the last time McLaren found victory lane in an open-wheel race. Back then it was Jenson Button winning the final round of the 2012 Formula One season, the Brazilian Grand Prix. 3080 days later, young Patricio O’Ward took his Arrow McLaren SP to victory ahead...
Jan 2, 2026
Marc Marquez And His Teammates Can't Stop Crashing
Marc Marquez And His Teammates Can't Stop Crashing
crashed yet again during a race, and to top it off the Spanish champ proceeded to take still another tumble during a warmup run. The spills happened this past Saturday and Sunday at the . That’s two crashes in just one weekend for Marquez, who is still recovering from...
Jan 2, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved