KANSAS CITY, Kan. >> One year ago, Chris Buescher was beaten by Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway by the blink of the eye.

Less than a blink of an eye.

The official margin of victory for the spring race at the track was 0.001 seconds, the closest in NASCAR Cup Series history, and nobody has forgotten it. Not the way that Larson came slinging around the outside of Turns 3 and 4, nor how they were nose-to-nose at the wire, nor how broadcasters thought that Buescher had held him off for the win.

“Certainly at that moment, thought we got it just by my eye,” Buescher recalled this week. “I was probably a little biased.”

It wasn’t until they had nearly finished their cool-down lap that Larson learned he had won.

And that Buescher learned he had not.

“At the end of the day, it was, you know — it was ‘that’ close, right?” Buescher said. “Like I said, played a lot of things in our head that week on what we would have done different, and maybe it would have ended in a different result. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter until we have a chance to replay it.”

They get that chance on Sunday when the Cup Series returns to Kansas Speedway.

Larson is off to another sensational start to the season, with wins at Homestead and Bristol, and three consecutive top-5 runs after his fourth-place finish last week at Texas. He’s the betting favorite to repeat at Kansas and start a busy three-week stretch that includes another shot at “the Double” — the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day later this month.

Buescher hasn’t had nearly the same success. His best finish has been a fifth at Phoenix, and in the last three races, he has not finished better than 18th, which is where he put his Ford for RFK Racing last week at Texas.

But perhaps a return to the Heartland will turn around some fortunes. Forget for a moment that he was oh-so-close to winning at Kansas last year, and remember that he not only finished second in the spring but ran a strong 11th in the fall race.