Sunday night’s historic finish at Kansas Speedway will stay with Chris Buescher for the foreseeable future.

“Yes. I told everybody I thought I was going to throw up on the way to the airport afterward,” Buescher said Tuesday on the Dale Jr. Download.

Buescher finished second to Kyle Larson by 0.001s in the AdventHealth 400. It displaced the finish between Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven from the 2003 race at Darlington Raceway as the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.

It wasn’t just Buescher coming up short that made the defeat sting. Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing team initially thought they’d won the race after crossing the finish line. NASCAR’s timing and scoring showed 0.000 on the pit boxes, and Buescher’s name topped the racetrack scoring pylon.

However, with such a close finish, NASCAR immediately went to its high-speed camera system for a review. It showed Larson was the winner, and the celebration of Buescher and his team while driving down the backstretch on the cool-down lap quickly turned to confusion and disappointment.

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“I guess when I look back at it, if we’d gone across the line and from the get-go thought we finished second, you would have been upset about it, you would have been hurt about it, but it would have been OK. But to be in that first minute that everything was very confusing, we’re trying to figure out how we’re getting this answer … transponders and timing and scoring, and everything is in our favor — obviously, the painted line, which doesn’t really matter.

“It’s comical right now to talk about but to see it all play out the way it did, it hurts. And knowing the result now and understanding it, it’s not going to make it any easier. You understand it now, at least, but it’s not going to make it easier. This one is going to hurt for a really, really long time.”

Buescher’s team has told him to let it hurt until he gets to Darlington Raceway, where they could win and put Kansas behind them. Sunday was Buescher’s second runner-up finish of the second. The difference, however, is that a win at Kansas was much more realistic as Buescher led 53 laps and won the second stage.

“I finished second at Phoenix to Christopher Bell and it wasn’t even close; he just walked away from the field and at that race, second felt good because we knew we needed a lot of work to win,” Buescher said. “This one, to be that close and not be able to get it, it’s going to stick with us for a long time.”

Chris Buescher had a hard time digesting being on the wrong side of NASCAR Cup Series history Sunday night at Kansas Speedway in a photo finish with Kyle Larson.

Buescher finished second by 0.001s. But before NASCAR had reviewed its high-speed camera at the finish line, Buescher and his RFK Racing team thought they were going to victory lane in the AdventHealth 400 and started celebrating in the pit box and over the No. 17 team radio.

NASCAR reviewed the camera and declared Larson the winner. The track scoring pylon at the racetrack incorrectly listed Buescher as the winner.

“We were celebrating down the backstretch and looked at the pylon, and we were P1 up there,” Buescher said. “Everything we had said we had gotten it. Obviously not. The only thing I have to go off of is a grainy photo right now, and at this point it just sounds like I am complaining — and I guess I am because I don’t see it in that.

“I don’t understand how the timing system can read it out one way and not the other. We just got to understand it better.”

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Scott Graves, Buescher’s crew chief, went to the NASCAR hauler to get clarification. Graves admitted to Fox Sports after the visit that he wanted to know if it was the painted start/finish line that the scoring goes by, but NASCAR showed the high-speed camera picture and explained the finish.

Buescher led Larson at the white flag after taking the lead on the restart. He had lined up outside Denny Hamlin and cleared the field as Larson put them three wide going into Turn 1. On the final lap, Buescher led the way going into Turns 3 and 4 and tried to move up and crowd Larson, who went to the outside with a run to put them side-by-side coming through the corners.

The two were side-by-side down the frontstretch and hit doors as they moved toward the bottom of the racetrack. Larson won the race, crossing the finish line above the white line as Buescher continued his charge on the apron.

“It was a great restart for us,” Buescher said. “Our Mustang was really good firing off, and I certainly could have blocked more, but at the end of the day, I felt like I was pretty defensive on it. I felt like I was going to make a drag race out of it coming to the finish line. We got to banging doors there a little bit and lost some momentum and I was aggressive trying to cover it.

“I just needed a draft to keep speed up down the straightaway. I am really proud of that work. I just watched the replay and I just can’t see it right now. It hurts to see the pylon say we get it and then not.”

It was an up-and-down day for Buescher that ended in heartbreak. Buescher was the best of the Ford contingent, winning the second stage and leading four times for 54 laps.

But at the end of the second stage, it appeared his chance to contend for the victory had disappeared. Buescher’s team was penalized for going over the wall too soon, and he was sent to the rear of the field. A rash of cautions in the final stage aided Buescher’s climb back to the top.

Buescher was back in the top five when the team stayed out under caution with 70 laps to go. He moved to second off the ensuing restart behind Denny Hamlin. With 30 laps to go, Hamlin and Buescher were in fuel-save mode. Buescher lost second position to Martin Truex Jr. with eight laps to go before the final caution flew a lap later.

The team maintained its position off pit road, and Buescher lined up outside Hamlin for the final restart. Kansas Speedway was the second runner-up finish for Buescher this season.

“It sucks to celebrate on the backstretch and then pull up to the front straightaway and be told no,” Buescher said. “I don’t know how everything transpired, honestly. Not right now. It sucks in a lot of ways. Second hurts a whole lot worse than third.

“To be that close a couple of times this year now and not be able to get the win — the speed is great and we did a good job today and was a good recovery from the end of Stage 2 there. But we don’t have a trophy right now.”