NASCAR Monday Mash-Up: Kyle Larson wins in closest finish in NASCAR history

During the ARCA Menards Series race on Saturday, it looked like it would be all Tanner Gray. He was dominant for the entire race, until he wasn’t.

A late adjustment for Connor Mosack threw a wrench into things for Gray. After leading 80+ laps, the lead slipped away. Mosack got his car out front and didn’t look back. Two wins in a row for Chevy and the No. 28 PRG team.

Amber Balcaen back in the car after Dover wreck

This week in the ARCA race we also saw Amber Balcaen return. She had a fracture in her left foot, but she wasn’t worried about having to use the brakes at Kansas.

Balcaen had another top-10 run and is now P3 in the points standings. Who would have thought she would be here at this point in the season? Full-time drivers are winless in the ARCA season so far.

Heim Time strikes in Kansas

Moving onto the Craftsman Truck Series, it was a dominant performance, but a fun race overall. Corey Heim reminded everyone that he is the top driver in the series with another convincing win.

The fact that Heim won over Zane Smith is big. Smith is a Cup Series driver and former Truck Series champion. Heim is showing that he is just as good if not better than a lot of prospects out there.

Charter negotiations are still stalled

Apparently, NASCAR and the teams met with each other on Wednesday last week. Things did not progress, at all, and the talks are still more or less stalled out.

Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski gave some small updates on the talks. Not much to say, though. For now, teams are united together, but NASCAR is trying to negotiate with each team independently.

Rain leads to a delay well worth the wait

Rain came through the Kansas area in the late morning and early afternoon. The weather led to a delay of the race for about three hours. When the race got going, it was well worth the wait.

Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain swapped the lead I don’t know how many times. Crossover moves, slide jobs – they did it all. Denny Hamlin got involved along with Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell at times. It was awesome.

Clean racing until the final stage

I think the dichotomy between the first two stages and the final stage was great. A ton of clean, green flag racing in the first 160 laps. Just pure, unadulterated racing power.

However, at the beginning of the final stage, hell broke loose. Caution after caution after caution. Not to mention the final caution that set up the final restart and the epic finish. It was enough to give this race differing pit strategies and make it unpredictable.

Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher drag race to the line

With a two lap shootout to determine the winner, Chris Buescher was hoping he could hold the lead long enough to get the win. This RFK Racing team really could have used a win.

Kyle Larson got to his door on the final lap and the two drivers just beat and banged until they crossed the finish line. Buescher thought he had won at first, but he was just barely beaten out by Larson. Inches, if that. 0.001 seconds difference. Larson leads the points standings going into Darlington.

Stewart-Haas could sell charters and real estate

Another note from the weekend, things don’t look great at Stewart-Haas Racing. The organization is reportedly reaching out to teams that want to expand and buy charters, letting them know they could sell.

It wouldn’t just be a charter or two, but SHR could also sell one of their team buildings. They have a NASCAR shop and their F1 U.S. Headquarters. Things could look a lot different next season for SHR.