Briscoe shakes Buescher and Bubba out of playoffs

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Running well wasn’t enough for either Chris Buescher or Bubba Wallace to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs when Chase Briscoe came to play.

Briscoe held off a charging Kyle Busch in the final 15 laps to win Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. 

Buescher entered the race at 21 points above the cutoff line. That advantage quickly went away as the race progressed, however.

Wallace gained 10 points when stage three rolled around. He finished second and ninth in the stages vs. just the 10th-place effort Buescher could muster in stage one.

As stage three began, Buescher’s advantage was down to 11 points. It narrowed to as few as two points before a caution with 52 laps to go changed everything.

Chase Briscoe challenged Kyle Larson for the lead and mounted a serious challenge. Finally, after everything shuffled around, Briscoe took the lead with a three-wide pass for the win heard ’round the world.

Buescher, despite staying in the top-15 all-night and finishing sixth, missed the playoffs.

Heartbreaking, as it was Darlington in May when he told Tyler Reddick, who had a win already, “That sticker means more to us” after Reddick shoved him in the wall while battling for the win. All just a week after Buescher came as close as a second-place finisher has ever been in the NASCAR Cup Series — so close that timing and scoring alone couldn’t call it — to getting a win that could’ve changed his whole season.

“I don’t know.  We felt like we did, for the most part, what we needed to do today.  We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it.  Just, we didn’t quite get it done again and we’re on the outside looking in.  It’s just the system we’re all playing in,” Buescher said. “We had such a great year.  Everyone at RFK has worked so hard.  We’ve been so fast.  We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are gonna get to run for a championship, but that’s the system and we didn’t work it right.”

Buescher did finish 11th in the regular-season points standings. But with 14 winners and two other winless drivers beating him in points, it was moot.

A valiant effort for Wallace, with Michael Jordan, MJ himself, looking on, also was moot. Not only did Briscoe’s win take him out but he was involved in a late-race incident, set off when Josh Berry took Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin three-wide into turn one.

Wallace disappointed in the outcome, but gave credit to Briscoe and his team.

“I thought I did something yesterday. They one upped us and showed up when it was game time. So that’s, uh, it’s pretty badass. So, congrats to them,” Wallace said.

Wallace, just like Buescher, finished inside the top-16 in the regular-season points standings in 13th. But no wins and not being one of the top-two winless drivers will end his championship hopes.

Both Wallace and Buescher look to finish the season strong and be spoilers for the playoffs by running well and hopefully winning before the years out.