Following a weekend that could have sparked a significant amount of controversy after the closest finish in NASCAR history, tensions have mostly eased in the wake of Kyle Larson‘s narrow win over Chris Buescher.
Buescher and his chief crew accepted the result of the race after being apprised of the laser technology that went into making the ultimate call.
Still, it wasn’t the best look for NASCAR, particularly after images of the start-finish line began making the rounds on social media. It certainly didn’t look like a uniform, straight line all the way down.
Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. chimed in on the poorly crafted start-finish line.
“It was almost like someone painted that line and then somebody came by and painted a little extra to the start/finish line,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “That was like a addition. Y’all ever see a nice house and then it has a shitty addition on the side of it?”
The line came under scrutiny after the race when RFK Racing tweeted a photo of it, with the caption “Just gonna leave this right here…” That came on the heels of Chris Buescher thinking he was the winner initially, only to find out moments later that Larson had been given the win by NASCAR.
But as Buescher and his crew chief noted in the aftermath, the painted line isn’t what NASCAR uses to officially determine a result.
“I mean they showed us the picture they create using the lasers,” Buescher crew chief Scott Graves said. “We were just wondering if they were using the painted line or not. They don’t, it’s actually they have a photo system that is a lot more accurate than that.”
Still, in light of how tight Sunday’s race was, it’s probably a good idea if NASCAR tries to get that line painted as straight as humanly possible. Even if it’s not official, it will lead to less possible confusion and controversy going forward.
In the end, it was just a tough blow for Chris Buescher, losing by the narrowest margin in NASCAR history.
“They showed us the picture of it and it is what it is,” Graves said. “It doesn’t make it any easier to swallow, but as much as all these races are you’ve got to at least question it and make sure your understanding of everything going on there and be able to accept that decision. So we did.”
The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. rips Kansas Speedway for paint job on finish line after Kyle Larson edged out Chris Buescher appeared first on On3.