Pit Stops : Darlington Raceway

• Thursday, August 29th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Regular-season title, final NASCAR Cup Playoff berths on the line at Darlington

It could happen again.

Harrison Burton’s unlikely victory in last Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway caused consternation around the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff bubble.

The same thing could happen in the “last-chance qualifier” for the Cup Playoffs—Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Thirteen drivers—Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman and Burton—already have secured Playoff spots by winning at least one regular-season race.

That leaves three berths currently available on points, and Martin Truex Jr. is the odds-on favorite to secure one of them. Truex comes to Darlington 58 points above the current Playoff cut line, needing just 19 points (an 18th-place finish without stage points) to advance to the postseason.

But Truex knows all too well that’s no guarantee.

“The challenge is that it’s a long race, a lot of pit stops and a lot of chances for things to go wrong,” said the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who announced he will retire from full-time racing at the end of the season.

“Track position is obviously really important. To go through 13 sets of tires or whatever it is, and track position and what it means there, and to keep track position, it’s tough to stay up front and be consistently really strong. It’s tough to do there, and we hope we can do that on Sunday night.”

Similarly, Truex’s teammate, Ty Gibbs can clinch a berth on points by scoring 38 points in the grueling race.

Chris Buescher currently is the last driver in a Playoff-eligible position, 21 points above the cut line. Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain are on the wrong side of the bubble, 21 and 27 points below the cutoff, respectively.

A victory by another currently winless driver—perhaps Kyle Busch or two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones—could spell the end of the Playoff hopes of all three of those bubble drivers.

Chastain nevertheless approaches the race with optimism. On May 10, he won a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at the Lady in Black.

The driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet first gained national recognition with a breakout Xfinity Series performance at Darlington in 2018, when he won the pole and the first two stages and led 90 laps in Chip Ganassi’s No. 42 Chevrolet.

“We need to gather a lot of points Sunday night and win,” Chastain said. “The math is the math. If we have a fast car, that will obviously increase our chances. I love Darlington, so I can’t think of a better place to be going this weekend.

“We’ll all know Sunday night if I’m in the Playoffs or not. No matter what, though, we’re going to keep working hard and going for wins the rest of the season.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Sunday’s race will settle a three-driver battle for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Regular Season Championship and the bonus of 15 Playoff points that goes with it.

Tyler Reddick leads Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott by 17 and 18 points, respectively. Reddick can lock Larson and Elliott out of the title by scoring 44 points on Sunday, which would require him to collect a minimum of nine stage points if he doesn’t win the race (four stage points if he does).

Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion, is the defending winner of the Crown Jewel race.

“I love racing at Darlington, and it was cool to get that first (Cup) win there last year in the Southern 500,” Larson said. “We’re 17 points down, but we’re going to race hard for stage points and hopefully be able to battle for the Regular Season Championship at the end of the race.”

• Cook Out Southern 500
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Bubba Wallace
• Age: 30
• Team : No 23 - US Air Force Toyota
• Owner: Michael Jordan
• Crew Chief: Robert Barker
• Bubba Wallace won the Pole Award for the Cook Out Southern 500 with a lap of 29421 seconds, 167146 mph
• This is his third pole in 245 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and 12th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in 13 races at Darlington Raceway
• Carson Hocevar (second) posted his third top-10 start of 2024 and his first in three races at Darlington Raceway
• Chase Briscoe (third) posted his first top-10 start at Darlington Raceway It is his 11th in 26 races this season
• Carson Hocevar (second) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Sunday, September 1st, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Wallace, Buescher face Playoff heartbreak after regular-season finale at Darlington

Basketball great Michael Jordan sat on the Darlington (S.C.) Raceway pit wall Sunday night watching his 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace contend for a 2024 Playoff position in the late laps of the regular season finale, Cook Out Southern 500. Jordan had offered philosophical advice for the all-important evening and shown his support for the 30-year-old talent all year.

A little farther down pit road, Chris Buescher’s Roush Fenway Keselowski team was equally on edge having rallied and delivered all night for its driver – despite trying circumstances – needing to beat Wallace to earn that 16th and final Playoff position to race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

In the end, it was a brand-new season winner, Chase Briscoe that will instead take a Playoff position, meaning that instead of three drivers, only two (Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs) advanced to Playoff contention based on points earned. A first-time winner meant instead of claiming a points position, Buescher and Wallace were just below the elimination line despite eventful and emotional nights for both.

The first person to green Buescher at his dinged-up No. 17 RFK Ford on pit lane post-race was team co-owner and fellow driver Brad Keselowski. The two shook hands and shared a short private exchange before Keselowski looked at the nearby scoring screen to see exactly how close his teammate had come to a title chance.

“It takes a whole season to put these things together and we came up a little short,’’ Keselowski said before stepping away.

Although Buescher finished fifth and had kept himself in that final transfer points position for most of the night, contact with Todd Gilliland’s Front Row Motorsports Ford slammed Buescher’s Mustang into the wall bringing out a caution with only 45 of the 367 laps remaining.

The RFK team made repairs but Buescher returned to the track in a much tighter points situation than he had been in all night. If there had not been a new winner – or a Wallace win – Buescher only needed to finish within 12 positions of Wallace to secure the final Playoff position. And for most of the night, he was on track for that. Wallace finished 16th.

But Briscoe took the lead with 26 laps remaining – essentially negating both Buescher and Wallace efforts.

“We knew we needed to get to the end of the night and we’d get better and pretty much what we did, started coming around and had good speed there at the end,’’ a disappointed Buescher explained, leaning on his car. “But I got fenced there and had to come fix it and put tires on and it got us off sequence. Didn’t even hit anything in the big wreck but just a roller coaster of a night.

“Can’t control everything, right,’’ he continued. “Tried to control what we could and it wasn’t enough. To come back and get a really good finish out of it is great, just wasn’t working out with the way the rest of the race played back. We’ll go back and watch it and see how it unfolded, ultimately, just didn’t get it done this year.’’

Wallace was similarly disheartened, standing by his car while race winner Briscoe celebrated by spinning donuts on the front stretch, his team cheering nearby.

Late in the race with Wallace still contending for the Playoff position, Jordan smiled and shared with a live USA Network race audience that he was “absolutely terrified” sitting and watching all the drama from the pits.

“But that’s what NASCAR’s all about, I enjoy it,’’ Jordan said. “I don’t have basketball anymore but this could replace it very easily. It’s exciting.

“Everybody wants something but something don’t come for free,’’ he said of the advice he gave Wallace before the race. “If you want more, it’s going to cost more that means you have to put the effort in there. He understands that.’’

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort Sunday night. Wallace won the pole position for the race and led 37 laps – second only to Kyle Larson’s massive 263 laps led total. More than race winner Briscoe’s 26.

But Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota suffered damage in a multi-car accident with only 22 laps remaining and he could not get back ahead of Buescher, where he had been for much of the night.

“We weren’t good enough, simple as that; last two-thirds of the race I said I hope the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and 5 (Kyle Larson) stay up there because the 14 (Briscoe) is fast,’’ Wallace said, noting Hamlin and Larson had already won races and would not have bumped that third points position as Briscoe’s win did.

“Who won? The goal post moved again. They were better and deserving so congrats to the 14. We come back tomorrow and gotta hit it harder than we did. That’s sports. You go up and down and round and round. Gotta put this weekend behind and put the disappointment behind of not making the Playoffs and go give your all for the next 10 [races].

• Drivers Entered: 37
• Laps Scheduled: 367
• Margin of Victory: 0.361 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 55 Minutes 14 Seconds
• Average Speed: 127.870
• Cautions: 7 for 39 laps
• Lead Changes: 26
• Green Flag Passes: 4,213 (12.8 passes per green flag lap)

• Cook Out Southern 500
• Race Winner: Chase Briscoe
• Age: 29
• Team : No 14 - HighPointcom Ford
• Owner: Gene Haas
• Crew Chief: Richard Boswell, II
• Chase Briscoe won the Cook Out Southern 500, his second victory in 134 Cup Series races
• This is his first victory and seventh top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in eight races at Darlington Raceway
• Kyle Busch (second) posted his 15th top-10 finish in 26 races at Darlington Raceway It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2024
• Christopher Bell (third) posted his third top-10 finish in 11 races at Darlington Raceway
• Zane Smith (23rd) was the highest finishing rookie
• Tyler Reddick leads the point standings by 1 points over Kyle Larson