DARLINGTON, S.C. — Being a part of the closest finish in NASCAR history means little to Chris Buescher.

He’s been focused on how he lost the lead and then the race by .001 seconds to Kyle Larson last weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Buescher admits he’s watched the end of the race and “replayed it in my head no less than 100 times.”

Buescher, who starts a season-best third in Sunday’s Cup race at Darlington Raceway, says he has a list of things he would do different.

“Ultimately, the way we see it is you need to be in those positions to know what you want to do better next time,” Buescher said. “Someone told me, not about this weekend, but a long time ago that you’ve got to lose some to win some”.

One of the key questions about that overtime lap is why did Buescher take the middle lane entering Turn 3 instead of going high?

“We were better down low on restarts on four tires,” Buescher told NBC Sports. “That was something that I realized now on two might not have been strong enough to make that work. Obviously weren’t. Almost.

“It felt like we could really make up good ground for about three laps on the restart. Next part of that is if you go run the top, (Larson) had a run off of (Turn) 2. If we go run the top, we’re going to get either slid in front of or you’re going get slid into. You jus watch these races play out enough to know that you put yourself in a very vulnerable position as well.

“I thought with us being good on the bottom would be good enough to go down there. I was just trying to cover the bottom to make sure we had that. In doing that, (it) probably made it to where … I ended up missing the bottom. So then I ended up at the top, it’s not really where we wanted to be.”

Larson said Saturday that he was planning to go to the outside lane in Turn 3.

“I honestly thought that he would just run low and fast; kind of run the shorter distance,” Larson said of Buescher. “So, when he kind of ran the middle, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, wow, here we go.’ But it wasn’t until l got exited off of the corner to the straightaway that I thought we still had a shot here.”

Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick made contact on the last lap at Kansas, causing Dillon to spin through the infield grass.

While Buescher has learned more about NASCAR’s high-speed camera that is pointed at the finish line and why the transponders are not used to determine the finish of a stage or race, he looks at what his team accomplished last weekend — “the most competitive mile-and-a-half that we’ve had.

“That was a better weekend than we had at Michigan (last year) when we won. I take that as the highlight of how it all went down and it kind of gets you through some of the bitterness of it as well. What we’re talking about it is how do we make that our baseline for mile-and-a-halves and see what we’re able to transfer here to Darlington.”

Hendrick Motorsports swept last season’s Cup races at Darlington.

This weekend has started well for RFK Racing. Brad Keselowski qualified second on Saturday and Buescher right behind him. That was the first time this season Keselowski had advanced to the final round of qualifying.

While both RFK Racing teams have are winless this season, they’ve combined to finish runner-up in four of the last nine races. Buescher has been second at Phoenix and Kansas. Keselowski has been second at Texas and Talladega.

“Success is always going to be a win and nothing short of that,” Keselowski said Saturday. “I’m not going to call a second-place day a failure. It’s a strong showing. What we need is just to have strong showings week to week.”

Buescher ended up on the short end of the closest finish in NASCAR history in a last-lap side by side duel with Kyle Larson last Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

A victory would have cemented Buescher into the playoffs for a second consecutive season and provided himself and Ford Performance with its first win of the season.

After some painful reflection on last weekend’s race, Buescher, 31, is already focused on repeating the strong performance of him and his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford team.

“I’ve watched (the replay). I’ve replayed it in my head no less than 100 times and that’s probably pretty conservative,” Buescher said. “I’ve got a list of things I would do different going back and I just need to be in that situation again.

“I’m taking a lot of good things out of it, a couple bad, but ultimately what I look at is that is the most competitive mile-and-a-half that we’ve had, ever in my career with RFK for sure as well.

“That was a better weekend than we had at Michigan when we won. I take that as the highlight of how it all went down and it kind of gets you through some of the bitterness of it as well.”

So far this weekend at Darlington, Buescher – and RFK Racing – look like they have picked up where they left off from Kansas.

Buescher’s team-mate and team co-owner Brad Keselowski qualified second for Sunday’s 400-mile race and Buescher will line up third.

Buescher’s second place run at Kansas was RFK’s third runner-up finish in the last four races and Buescher’s first top five on any intermediate track (1.5 mile). Both are a sign the organization is returning to the high level of performance it demonstrated in the second half of last season.

“Our first eight races of most every season have just been off. That was very important for us this year was to make sure that we started in a much better spot,” Buescher said. “We’ve got four runner-up finishes between the two of us on the year now.

“I guess that’s a really good useless stat for everybody in here. No one is going to talk about that one except us, but it is a measure for us to say we’re inching up on it or we’re right there knocking on the door.

“It’s just about sealing the deal at this point.”

Chris Buescher, RFK Racing, Fastenal Ford Mustang

Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

Darlington looks like a good opportunity for Buescher or Keselowski – or both – to come away with another strong finish and continue to improve their position in the series standings. Buescher sits 11th and Keselowski 15th.

“Fortunately, we’ve been in these situations more to have that fight to the end (in races). It’s good to be in that position and that’s how we’re going to learn and how we’re going to put notes away and be more prepared for it when it happens, hopefully not this weekend,” he said.

“We want to make it a little easier on everybody to celebrate ahead of time, but it’s just a learning experience at this point. It’s something that we need to take in and just make sure our performance stays elevated to the point where we’re able to be in those conversations again.”

The Governor’s Scholars program honors the top academic one percent of Kansas high school seniors. Scholars are selected from accredited public and private schools in the state.

This program is coordinated for the Governor by the Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force. It is funded by donations from private sector businesses in Kansas. The Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force was formed 30 years ago to strengthen public confidence in education.

Click here to see a full list of scholars.