Chris Buescher reflects on closest finish in Cup Series history one year after coming up short

To make matters worse for the 32-year-old Buescher, who is a six-time winner at NASCAR's top level, he did not make the playoffs. Had the roles been reversed and Buescher prevailed in that historic finish, the win would have put him in the 16-driver postseason field.

Instead, he did not make the playoffs, only to win at Watkins Glen in the second race of the first round. While the Kansas heartbreak was not the only race that kept him from the playoffs, it certainly did not help when the regular season wrapped up.

Buescher joined NASCAR's "Inside the Race" to reflect on the thrilling photo finish and discuss with former Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte what he could have done differently to come out on the other side of the outcome.

"Obviously, a lot of thought went into that one the week after," Buescher said. "If we had it to do all over again, we probably would've run a little bit higher in (Turns) 1 and 2 and ultimately kept the momentum up there. I think that would've been the way to go; we had been really good at running the bottom at Kansas than most, and on that last run to the end, I thought we'd be able to keep the momentum up. Ultimately, it wasn't the case there."

A year after living through the disappointment in real time, Buescher looked at the situation from a different perspective.

"You know what, it was a good race," Buescher said. "It's a little bit easier to joke about now and certainly wasn't in the moment, but we basically have a trophy for being the closest loser in NASCAR, so it's not a good trophy to put up on the shelf."

Buescher was running third at Texas, another 1.5-mile track, before a blown right rear tire in Stage 2 eliminated him from contention. If that speed translates over to Kansas on Sunday, perhaps Buescher can flip the script one year later and punch his playoff ticket this time around.