Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Chase Briscoe held off Kyle Busch for a walk-off victory on Sunday to clinch a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs while delivering a devastating blow to drivers hoping to make the playoffs on a points basis.

Briscoe won the final race of the regular season by leading the final 26 laps of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, becoming the 14th driver to earn a playoff spot with a win. Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs are the only drivers without a win who made it into the 16-driver playoff bracket.

“I knew it was going to be one of those do-or-die moments,” Briscoe said. “We talked about it before the race today, this is the last bullet in the chamber. … If we executed all night, I knew we were going to be in the mix.

“We did it. And we were still in the middle of it at the end.”

Chris Buescher missed the cut by six points, while Bubba Wallace was off by 27 points. Buescher and Wallace appeared to be locked in a tight battle for the final playoff spot for much of the race, with Kyle Larson leading 263 of the 367 laps. Busch, who also finished without a win this year, came up short when he finished second in the final two regular-season races.

“Our best game wasn’t good enough, it’s as simple as that,” Wallace said.

Briscoe, Truex and Gibbs join Tyler Reddick (the regular season champion), Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman and Harrison Burton in the playoffs.

Some key points after the season finale, in which a driver who needed a win for the second week in a row to make the play-offs actually did so:

Briscoe Win-en-in

Briscoe started the race 18th in the standings and was 114 points behind the play-off cutoff, meaning he had no other way to the play-offs than to win.

But it was more than that fact that made this an exciting moment. He earned a spot in the playoffs for Stewart-Haas Racing, which close at the end of the season. Briscoe, who snapped a streak of 93 races without a win, drives the team’s iconic No. 14 car, first driven by Tony Stewart.

“It’s huge,” Briscoe said. “I’m a diehard Stewart-Haas fan. That’s the car I cheered for as a kid. I’ve seen that car win over and over again, win a championship.”

‘I Cried’ — Chase Briscoe on Winning Cook Out Southern 500

Busch, who was running on slightly better tires at the end of the run, was just unable to keep up with Briscoe and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

“We didn’t have a lot of speed there for most of the race,” Busch said. “We were just stuck in traffic and we couldn’t get through.

“But once we got there, I felt like on those last three or four restarts we had a chance to get into the top five. But then we had a chance to win and we just couldn’t pull it off.”

Briscoe thanked Busch for giving him a flawless race.

“Here he is in second place. I’m thinking, ‘You’ve got to be crazy, I worked 300 laps to get to the lead, now Kyle’s going to steal it from us,'” Briscoe said.

Wreck and progress

Truex and Gibbs earned the two playoff spots for drivers without a win and they both had some moments to sweat, as they were both involved in accidents.

Truex ultimately came away with just six points, having entered the race guaranteed a spot if there was a repeat of the winner. He crashed on the second lap of the race and finished 36th, not knowing if he would make the playoffs until the end of Stage Two.

“This is miserable,” Truex said before he knew if he was making the playoffs. “I just feel terrible for my team. … They deserve better. It’s just a mistake.”

NASCAR Cup Series: Cook Out Southern 500 Highlights

Gibbs was involved in a crash with 23 laps to go when Josh Berry got loose while three-wide with Gibbs and Hamlin. Gibbs was able to continue and made the cut by 12 points. If he had been knocked out of the race, he probably would have made it, but he would have only gained a few positions.

“We just really — I would say dirty — ran, which was unfortunate,” Gibbs said. “That was definitely closer than it should have been.”

Reddick loses regular season title

Tyler Reddick was suffering from a stomach virus the entire race and felt like he was going to throw up or have diarrhea. He finished 10th and with Larson in fourth, he beat Larson by one point for the regular season title.

The regular-season title is worth 15 playoff points (points a driver can use to advance if he doesn’t win in the three-race playoff rounds), while second place is worth 10 points. Larson, with the most wins of any driver this year, would have won a tiebreaker.

Reddick, who is convinced he got the virus from his child, says it was the worst he’s ever felt in a race car.

“It was horrible on Saturday,” Reddick said. “(I) woke up on Sunday with the same thought hoping it would go away.

“I actually felt good all the way to the race. It must have just been the bump at (Turn) 2 or something. It got really bad at the end of Stage 1. It stayed there the rest of the way.”

Larson nearly won the regular season title despite missing the Charlotte race in May, where he competed in the rain-delayed Indianapolis 500.

“It’s not just that,” Larson said. “I could have made it to Michigan or Iowa or Chicago and not even been close today. I don’t look at Indy as the reason. That’s just part of my season. I wouldn’t give up the Indy 500 for five bonus points.”

Bob Pockrass writes about NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has covered motorsports for decades, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bob poc race.

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