Chase Briscoe Holds Off Kyle Busch For Southern 500 Win As Tyler Reddick Wins Regular Season NASCAR Championship
No one saw this one coming.
Chase Briscoe won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway by holding off Kyle Busch in the closing laps as they were both looking to win their way into the playoffs. Briscoe was 18th in the standings with just six top 10 finishes heading into the race.
Busch got oh-so-close in each of the final five laps, but just couldn’t find what he needed to get by as Briscoe put his dirt racing background to work controlling a slipping and sliding Ford Mustang on the tricky track. This will be the first time in 12 seasons that Busch misses the playoffs and it leaves him with 10 races left in which to extend is streak of 19 seasons with a win.
The victory was particularly special for Briscoe and his Stewart-Haas Racing team, which is disbanding at the end of the season.
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“To get this 14 car back in victory lane, you know, for a whole 320-something employees to be able to race for a championship in their final year is a … man, unbelievable,” Briscoe said on USA after the race.
Kyle Larson had dominated the race with 263 of 367 laps led in an effort to win the regular season championship over Tyler Reddick, but he ended up fourth while Reddick managed a 10th place finish despite being so ill that he needed medication during pit stops and took the title by one point.
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Martin Truex Jr. made it into the playoffs on points without a win even though he ended his own day when he got loose on lap three and was hit by Ryan Blaney, which ended the day for both of them. Truex remained on the bubble through stage two, but the results of the stage meant no one could catch him even if there was a new winner.
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The attention then turned to pole willer Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher, who were battling for the final two playoff positions with Ty Gibbs ahead of them. But Briscoe’s win and a wreck on lap 344 that took Wallace out of contention was enough to see Gibbs through with a 10th place finish as Buescher finished sixth and came up six points short.
That set the playoffs field with four race-winner Larson at the top of the post-season standings followed by Christopher Bell and Reddick.
Here’s the full playoffs standings heading into Atlanta on Sept. 8:
1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,040 points
2. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,032 points
3. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, 2,028 points
4. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,022 points
5. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford, 2,018 points
6. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,015 points
7. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,014 points
8. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, 2,008 points
9. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford, 2,007 points
10. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford, 2,007 points
11. Daniel Suárez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, 2,006 points
12. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,005 points
13. Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, 2,005 points
14. Harrison Burton, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, 2,005 points
15. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,004 points
16. Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,004 points
