Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick triumph at Darlington while several 2023 playoff drivers fail to clinch berth

If there had ever been a NASCAR race that demonstrated how some drivers and teams can overcome the odds and persevere for greatness while others suffer shocking defeat, the 2024 Southern 500 may have been it.

Chase Briscoe and the never-say-die Stewart-Haas Racing team won the crown jewel event at Darlington Raceway on Sunday night. It was Briscoe’s second career Cup win, and like his emotional win following a miscarriage by his wife in the spring Xfinity Series race of 2020, he held off one of the sport’s best in Kyle Busch to claim the checkered flag.

Briscoe was clearly emotional when holding his toddler son while doing his post-race interview on the frontstretch for television. This time, it wasn’t just tears of sorrow that dripped from his face — it was tears of joy, too.

As he held his son, he was overwhelmed by the feeling of winning what is arguably NASCAR’s most challenging race. He won it in his boss and hero Tony Stewart’s former No. 14 Ford and clinched a playoff berth in walk-off fashion.

“Everybody knows I’m a diehard Tony Stewart fan, and to get this 14 car back in Victory Lane and for all 320-something employees, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, it’s unbelievable,” Briscoe said.

Those 323 SHR employees are where that little bit of sadness comes in.

As widely reported during the summer, SHR will shut down after this season. Some of its employees, like Briscoe, who is replacing Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, have things set for 2025, and some do not.

SHR has been one of NASCAR’s most successful teams since its first season in 2009. It won the Xfinity title in 2023 with Cole Custer and two Cup championships with Kevin Harvick and Stewart within its first six years of existence.

Even with its end in sight 10 weeks away, SHR has not given up. The team has consistently said it is remaining focused on finishing the year strong, and with Briscoe now in the playoffs, it’s obvious SHR has stuck to its word.

There are still 10 chances for its other drivers to each get their first win. Noah Gragson and Josh Berry at least know they will continue to have opportunities to win races next season, but Ryan Preece has not yet solidified his 2025 plans. A win would certainly improve his stock when the few remaining team owners with open seats consider which driver to sign after the checkered flag flies in Phoenix in two months.

Then there’s Tyler Reddick, who had his own “Flu Game” moment as he clinched the regular season championship with 23XI Racing while battling stomach problems throughout the night.

His team’s co-owner, Michael Jordan, famously played through the flu in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when his Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz 90-88 to take a 3-2 series lead.

Jordan had symptoms of food poisoning before the game but persevered to put up 38 points that night 27 years ago. Reddick had similar symptoms but held on to finish 10th and clinch the regular season driver’s title by a single point over Kyle Larson.

“This has been one of my best tracks, and we just had an all-off night,” Reddick said. “I hate that. Like I said, I hated to use that buffer up that we had coming in here, but this is what this team is kind of all about. I feel like this is the worst night we’ve had in months and months speed-wise, and I still finished 10th.”

“… I couldn’t give great feedback, and it was just really, really hard to focus and keep it out of the wall there all night. It’s a shame we gave some points up. I felt like this is a race we could win, but it’s really nice in Year 2 for me here at this team and Year 4 of this team to get the regular season championship like we did.”

While 23XI celebrated Reddick’s achievement, it also had to realize that its other driver failed to make the postseason. After winning the pole earlier in the weekend, Bubba Wallace had his back against the wall to earn a spot in the playoffs. He ultimately failed to earn that spot, finishing 16th in the race without any wins to fall back on from earlier in the season.

Wallace made the playoffs last year and made it to the Round of 12 despite no wins throughout 2023. But since Reddick joined the team before the 2023 season, he has four wins, while Wallace has none. Wallace has been consistently outperformed by Reddick in the last two years, and it became as clear as ever when Reddick won the regular-season championship while Wallace failed to make the playoffs.

Wallace has as much sponsorship as anyone in NASCAR and has proven he can win Cup races, but his talent has to be questioned at this point. He is on a team capable of winning the championship, yet he hasn’t won since Kansas Speedway’s fall race two years ago. Two wins in four years is not the type of resumé that is going to earn anyone a championship.

23XI and Wallace were practically meant for each other when Denny Hamlin and Jordan created it four years ago, and Wallace has been a tremendous ambassador for NASCAR for the last several years. What can 23XI do, though? Wallace’s record isn’t enough as it is. He needs to start finding success like Reddick has.

Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain also missed the playoffs. Chastain has been winless since the 2023 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, and Busch has been winless since Gateway in the spring of 2023.

Busch finished second and gave all he had when he tried to chase down Briscoe in the closing laps on Sunday night. That win would have been his ticket into the playoffs, and it would have kept his streak of 19 consecutive years of winning a Cup race alive, but he came up just short.

Richard Childress Racing will not be in the 2024 playoffs as NASCAR removed Austin Dillon for his egregious final lap at Richmond Raceway, where he deliberately crashed into Joey Logano and Hamlin for the win.

RCR has shown progress since last month’s Olympic break, but it has been too little too late. Busch will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2012, and he has just over two months left to make it 20 straight seasons with a win.

As for Chastain, his No. 1 team did not have speed throughout the year as it had in the two previous seasons. He finished second in the standings 22 months ago and has won four times since joining Trackhouse Racing, but his average finish of 14th and nine top-10 results were not enough to be a top-16 driver after 26 races.

Wallace, Busch, and Reddick were all playoff drivers last year, and now they’ll be watching the championship transpire from outside the 16-driver grid.

Briscoe’s playoff berth is mildly surprising, as he was 18th in the standings before the Southern 500. But as soon as he won, it eliminated a spot for drivers such as Busch, Wallace, and Chris Buescher to make the playoffs on points. It points out that NASCAR’s playoff system could be considered flawed as Harrison Burton makes the playoffs despite an average finish of 26th and being worse than 30th in the standings for most of the year. But the win-and-your-in format allowed his Daytona victory last week to be the saving grace of his season.

NASCAR’s playoffs begin at Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday, and the championship chase is now officially underway.