NASCAR Cup Series

Think the 2016 season has produced close finishes? This tops them all

Published Mar. 16, 2016 10:21 a.m. ET

foxsports

Just four races into the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and already there have been two fantastic finishes, with races at Daytona and Phoenix each decided by a scant 0.010 seconds.

Those two races tied for the seventh-closest Sprint Cup Series finish since the advent of electronic timing and scoring in 1993.

But the closest finish in NASCAR history happened March 16, 2003, exactly 16 years ago today.

Fittingly, it happened at one of NASCAR's most historic and historically significant tracks, when Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch waged an epic last-lap duel for the ages at Darlington Raceway.

Craven passed Busch on the last lap -- the only lap he led -- and the drivers traded paint all the way to the start-finish line, with Craven's Pontiac edging Busch's Ford by just 0.002 seconds in an incredible finish.

It was the second and final Cup win for both Craven and car owner Cal Wells, and the first for crew chief Scott Miller, who today is NASCAR's senior vice president of competition.

Craven's race-winning car sits in the NASCAR Hall of Fame at its fantastic finishes exhibit.