"If you don’t like that kind of racing, don’t even watch." - Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch knocks Kyle Larson out of the way on the final lap to win the Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway

In the most action-packed final lap of the season, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson traded shots and positions until Busch finally sped away with the checkered flag to claim victory at Chicagoland Speedway in the Overton's 400. Busch now has five wins this year, tying him with Kevin Harvick for the most victories in the Cup Series this season. It is the fourth time in NASCAR Cup Series history that two drivers each have five wins in the first seventeen races of the season.

Busch took the race lead after a re-start on lap 213 and appeared to be cruising for an easy win when lapped traffic entering the final lap slowed him down and let second-place Kyle Larson catch up to him. Larson drove hard into Turn 2, tapping Busch's left rear panel when he failed to clear the No. 18 and sending him into the outside wall. Larson took the lead down the backstretch, but Busch wasn't going down so easy. Busch raced up to Larson's back bumper coming out of Turn 3 and spun the No.42 out of his way with a hard shot to the rear. The shot sent Busch's car into the wall for a second time on the final lap, but he was able to straighten the car out and motor pass the finish line for the win.

"It was a lot more hectic than I wanted it to be," said Busch. "Those lapped cars just got in our way and slowed us down so much that we just had no momentum. Finally I got through a couple of them. Larson just threw a dart there in Turn 1 and 2 and tried to pull a slide job. I don’t think he was close enough. He didn’t get enough clear on me to be able to slide. And when he got to me, he throttled up and drove us in the wall. And going down the backstretch, I lost all of my momentum. I tried to side-draft him as much as I could to keep him alongside of me. He cleared me and I gave him what he gave me back into Turn 3 and 4."

To his credit, Larson was able to recover from the spinout to finish runner-up ahead of third place Kevin Harvick by a half-second. After the race, Larson didn't hold any grudges against Busch for the way the final lap played out.

"Oh man, I’m not upset," said Larson. "I had an opportunity there to slide in front of him and I figured I wouldn’t clear him or I would allow him to drive back underneath me. So, I tried to get to his door and you know I opened the door for him to retaliate into (Turn) 3. I thought it was free game. I ran into him first, he got me after that, maybe a little bit worse than I got him, but that is alright. I love racing Kyle (Busch). I know all these fans are probably mad at him, but hey we put on a hell of a show for you guys and that was a blast."

The pit crew for Busch's No. 18 deserve credit for putting him in position to win the race at the end. Busch was weak early in the race, not even scoring a single stage point in the first two race segments. Fast pit-stops making improvements along the way helped Busch work back into contention. After the final caution flag of the race, Busch was able to assume the lead over Harvick coming out of the pits and he never looked back the rest of the way.

"Great win for the Skittles Camry and all of these guys'" Said Busch. "We were horrible today. Absolutely horrendous. We just never gave up. It’s always good to make the most of the days and get to where we needed at the end. I was able to lead all of those laps. And get through the rest of the traffic."

Two-time defending Chicagoland race winner Martin Truex Jr. finished in fourth place despite the fact he was unable to lead a single lap during the race. Clint Bowyer was able to overcome three pit-road speeding penalties to finish in fifth place.

"Yeah, we were too fast," said Bowyer. "The guys work very hard on making sure that they are pushing the envelope, which you have to do in this world and against this competition. You have to push everything. Certainly pit road is a big part of that. You are splitting hairs out there on the race track down to the tenths of a second and you can gain seconds on pit road. Obviously our pit road speed was just a little too fast."

Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman round out the top-ten. During post-race inspections both Hamlin and Keselowski were found with one lug nut not secured on one of their tires. Per the NASCAR rulebook, each driver's crew chief will be issued a $10,000 fine.

Aric Almirola took the checkered green for Stage One, the first stage win of his career. Two unscheduled pit-stops for having a loose wheel took him out of race contention afterwards, he finished in 25th place despite leading a race-high 70 laps. Kevin Harvick was the winner of Stage Two, his ninth stage victory of the year. Both drivers will receive a postseason bonus point for their stage wins.

Click here for full race results.

Kyle Busch remains the leader of the NASCAR drivers points standings. Kevin Harvick sits in second place 62 points behind Busch, while Joey Logano is in third 119 points behind. Martin Truex Jr. moved into fourth place 142 points behind Busch.

You can see the updated Driver's Points Standings here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will head to the Sunshine State for the second time this season next week for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 7th.

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_{Photo credits: Tequilamike CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

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_{Author: @chops316
Editor: @liberty-minded}

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