DARLINGTON, S.C. — Chase Briscoe scored an immaculate win in the Cook Out Southern 500 to qualify for the NASCAR playoffs with a win in the final regular season race of the season.
Briscoe held off a charging Kyle Busch in the final 20 laps to score his second career win and the first of 2024 for Stewart-Haas Racing, which is closing at the end of the year.
"To get this 14 car back in victory lane for all 300 employees in their final year is unbelievable," Buescher said to the NBC Sports crew after the win. "This night went perfectly. The pit crew did an incredible job."
The closing battle mirrored a Darlington finish between the drivers in the Xfinity Series in 2020, where Briscoe prevailed.
It's the second-straight second-place finish for Busch, who missed the playoffs for the fourth time in his 19-year career.
"I just needed [Briscoe] to have three or four more laps older tires," Busch said. "[Our team] has turned it around the last four to five weeks... Something to build on."
Kyle Larson led 263 of the race's 367 laps and was far and away the best driver for most of the race. Larson lost the lead on a late restart and did not again challenge for the lead. He finished fourth.
Tyler Reddick won the regular season title by a single point over Larson, gaining 15 valuable playoff points. Reddick ran in the top five for most of the race but dealt with an illness during the race. He managed to finish 10th.
"Things fell our way there at the end," Reddick said. "It's huge for us [to win the regular season title.]"
Briscoe entered the race in a must-win situation to make the 16-team playoff grid.
With Larson winning most of the race, the focus shifted to the final playoff spot battle between Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace. Buescher entered Sunday with a 21-point advantage but Wallace gained crucial stage points to reduce the deficit to 11 points by the start of the final stage.
Wallace's playoff chances ended with a crash on lap 344 when he was caught in a wreck with Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez, and Noah Gragson. Wallace was able to continue but had to settle for 16th while Buescher finished 6th. Their battle was made moot with Briscoe's win.
"I got caught up in someone else's mess," Wallace said. "Wasn't good enough for 16th this year -- hate that."
"We felt like we needed what we needed to today," Buescher said. "Unfortunately, it's the system we're playing in."
Ross Chastain, who started the race 27 points behind Buescher, failed to gain any stage points and finished well behind the cutline.
Martin Truex Jr., who entered Darlington practically locked into a playoff spot, wrecked out of the race on lap 3 with Ryan Blaney.
Carson Hocevar brought out the next caution for an incident way later on lap 314. He wrecked again on lap 336 which prompted chaos that shook up the playoff picture.
Chastain was the only car to stay out during the latter caution period. He stayed in front of Larson for about a lap but Briscoe went three wide to pass both of them.
Berry and Gibbs collided after Briscoe's pass. Wallace, Suárez, and Gragson were caught up in the aftermath.
Briscoe stayed out front during the next restart. Busch started further back in the field with fresher tires but immediately started racing toward the front. The two battled for the win in the last 10 laps with Briscoe scoring the victory.
Stewart-Haas Racing's last win came with Kevin Harvick in August 2022.
The Round of 16 for the NASCAR playoffs begins on Sept. 8 at Atlanta.
NASCAR playoff standings:
- Kyle Larson - 2040
- Christopher Bell - 2032
- Tyler Reddick - 2028
- William Byron - 2022
- Ryan Blaney - 2018
- Denny Hamlin - 2015
- Chase Elliott - 2014
- Brad Keselowski - 2008
- Joey Logano - 2007
- Austin Cindric - 2007
- Daniel Suárez - 2006
- Alex Bowman - 2005
- Chase Briscoe - 2005
- Harrison Burton - 2005
- Ty Gibbs - 2004
- Martin Truex Jr. - 2004