Mario Kart 8 - A cheater? Or a glitch/connection issue?

Raced a guy twice who managed to win both times despite coming second. First time was too close to call, but in the video I followed his highlight and noticed that he had a delayed boost start, he started driving and then boosted. He got hit with a red shell but nothing happened and finally, quite clearly finished after me but somehow won. I don't know if this due to connection issues or a cheating device or what, but my question isn't a "Oh my god, I won that" I don't have to prove I won, I could care less if I won or not, my question is, if it is a case of cheating, then why? I'll vouch for the guy, he's not bad at the game by any means, he could easily win points on his own, but hacking a win seems ridiculous. I hope it is to do with connections because otherwise I'll just be disappointed in the stupidity of people.