The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was in the midst of a competitiveness problem.
The average margin of victory (of races that didn't end under caution) was over three seconds, the highest since NASCAR began using electronic scoring in 1993.
We were averaging fewer than eight different leaders per race, the fewest since 1992. The 15.4 lead changes per race were the lowest since 1992.
And then Sunday happened.
A season that had been dominated with talk about how to make the racing more competitive, putting in restrictor plates on the intermediate tracks -- at least for a week -- has shifted over to talking about a finish that will hopefully go down as "Slidejob!"
Anyway, that finish was awesome. It defied statistics. The margin of victory was 1.9 seconds, but we all know it was a heck of a lot closer than that.
There was no "official" lead change on the final lap, since Kyle Larson didn't lead at the start-finish line. Still, there were some impressive statistics coming out of the weekend, and that's why you're here, right?
High-five for Busch and Harvick
Sure, that race was fun, but if your problem was that four drivers have combined to win all 15 non-restrictor-plate races this season, you probably weren't happy Kyle Busch won his fifth race of the season. A lot of people in attendance weren't happy Busch won. Busch seemed happy that his win made so many people unhappy. Keeping up?
Busch joined Kevin Harvick as five-win drivers, not even halfway into the season. And that's a rare feat.
This is just the fifth time in Cup series history that we've had multiple drivers with at least five wins just 17 races into the season.
The combination of Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough did it in 1974 and 1977. Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace did it in 1993. And most recently, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin pulled it off in 2010. In each of those seasons, one of those two drivers ended up winning the championship.
Take a second
Great finishes like that will get replayed over and over again, so Larson will get opportunities to second-guess and relive the second-place finish.
Larson made a crazy save coming to the line to remain second after spending most of Turn 4 sideways. It was his 18th career runner-up finish, up against just five wins.
Out of the 54 drivers with at least 15 runner-up finishes in their Cup series career, only one has fewer wins than Larson's five.
That would be James Hylton, who had two wins to go with his 18 runner-up finishes. Hylton also finished second in points three times and never won a championship.
Passing grade
There were 24 lead changes at Chicago, one off the season high set at Talladega. The previous four Cup series races averaged 10 lead changes per race, with no more than 11 in any of those.
Sometimes lead changes alone don't tell the whole story, as the lead can swap with different pit strategies. But NASCAR's Sultan of Stat, Mike Forde, tweeted that there were 23 green-flag passes for the lead, which are actual on-track lead swaps, not just those registered at the start-finish line.
Let's go back to the "official" 24 lead changes. That many in a race is an unusual occurrence, outside of restrictor-plate races. In fact, nine of the past 12 Cup races that had 24 or more lead changes took place at Daytona or Talladega.
It's actually the second time this season there've been at least that many lead changes in a race at a non-restrictor-plate track; there were also 24 at Atlanta.
In 2016-17 combined, there were only three such races. But it used to be a more common feat. In 2015, there were four of those races, with even more in 2014 (eight) and 2013 (seven).