NASCAR Cup Series

31 Moments: No. 25 -- Kyle Busch outduels Kyle Larson at Fontana

Published Dec. 7, 2014 9:59 a.m. ET

Tom Jensen

Editor's note: For the month of December, FOXSports.com will count down 31 moments that defined the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. This is No. 25.

Kyle Busch's lone victory of 2014 came in the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in March, when for the second consecutive year, he made the race-winning pass on the final lap. Only this time, it was during a green-white-checkered finish.

Busch came out of nowhere in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch were dueling for the top spot on the final lap. Kyle made a strong pass of Stewart in Turn 2 to capture the 29th race in his Sprint Cup career.

"Taking the white flag going into the middle, I was going to run the middle," said Kyle, who led only five of 206 laps. "I was committed to the middle and Tony went off in there on the bottom and then slid up in front of me, so I kind of tried to cut left as quick as I could and get back on the gas and come off Turn 2 and was able to pass both Kurt and Tony for the lead. From there on out, man, it was my race to lose."

In 2013 at the same track, the younger of the two racing Busch brothers passed Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win on the last lap.

This time around, Kyle likened the finish to "Days of Thunder," the Tom Cruise racing movie.

"Man oh man," said Kyle. "The first thing that comes to mind when the caution came out with just a few laps to go -- that was total Rowdy Burns 'Days of Thunder' right there. There's a couple laps to go -- I'm not pitting. Everybody has to pit, 'Cole (Trickle), we're coming down for four tires because there's a green-white-checkered coming.' I knew four tires was going to win the race, so I'm glad Dave (Rogers, crew chief) called that."

Rookie Kyle Larson finished second ahead of Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Stewart. The race featured a record 35 lead changes.

It was a huge weekend for Larson, who won his first NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday. "We'll take a second," Larson said. "Long race and definitely didn't expect to run second, so I'll take it and head back to North Carolina with a smile on my face."

For Kyle Busch, it would prove to be his only victory of the year, the fourth time in 10 full seasons of Sprint Cup Series racing that he would win but a single race in a year.

VIDEO: Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson duel at Auto Club Speedway