You have to watch this incredible NASCAR finish
Thought modern-day motorsport was all about drivers spitting their dummy out after the tiniest of contacts? Check out the incredible footage of Kyle Busch holding off Kyle Larson during a wild last lap to win the Overton’s 400 Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
Going into the closing laps of the race, Larson – in a faster car but back down the grid after nerfing the wall with eight laps to go – harangued Busch who desperately clung onto his lead into the closing laps of the 267-lap race. On the final lap, Larson went hard into Turn 2 and nudged Busch into the wall, sending him off line.
As Larson took the lead, Busch gathered up his fishtail to close in on Larson’s bumper and nudge him into a massive Formula D skid around Turn 3, sneakily gifting the Skittles-liveried driver the win. At this point, other formulas would start whinging and head to the stewards, but Larson saw it as fair game and slung his thumb up out the window as the ultimate sign of respect.
“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,” Larson said. “So, I tried to get to his door and you know I opened the door for him to retaliate into (Turn) 3.
“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 is alright. I love racing Kyle. I know all these fans are probably mad at him, but – hey – we put on a hell of a show for you guys and that was a blast.
“I just went down and talked to him and said, ‘That was a lot of fun.’ I have a lot of respect for Kyle Busch. He has a lot of respect for me. Like I said, that was hard racing.
“I didn’t think I was even going to get the opportunity to race him side-by-side for the win like that. I was getting really tight behind him just from running really hard up top to try to catch those guys. Like I said, he roughed me up, then I roughed him up. I can’t be mad at him.”
Fair play. Afterall, NASCAR did invent the adage of ‘rubbing is racing’, so you can’t complain when it happens. And it was one hell of a show, so keep it up, boys…
