Poised to win the NASCAR regular-season title and on his way to what appeared to be his fifth win in 2024, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson led 263 of 367 laps but in the end couldn’t seal the deal in the NASCAR regular-season finale in Darlington, S.C.
Instead it was Chase Briscoe who took the checkered flag in Sunday night‘s Cook Out Southern 500 claiming his second victory of his career and his first since March 2022 at Phoenix.
The Mitchell, Ind., native also broke a 73-race winless streak for Stewart-Haas Racing and claimed his first playoff spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after finishing 30th in points in 2023.
All this as Stewart-Haas Racing is ceasing operations at the end of the year.
“For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “This group, the day that we found out that the team wasn’t going to exist anymore, we went over to the shop floor, we all looked at each other and said, ‘We’re in this till the end. We’re not going to give this up.‘
“We kept saying all week we got one bullet left in the chamber. That bullet hit.”
Second-place finisher Kyle Busch, who charged into second spot after a restart on Lap 351, used everything he had to try and pass Briscoe for the win and force his way into the playoffs.
Busch would end up as runner-up for the second straight Cup race, having run second to Harrison Burton last Saturday night at Daytona.
Busch, who is winless in 2024, fell 0.361 seconds short of triumph.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell, former Cup champion Kyle Larson and Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain completed the top five as RFK driver Chris Buescher, JGR driver Denny Hamlin, Team Penske driver Joey Logano, Spire Motorsports driver Corey LaJoie and 23XI driver Tyler Reddick completed the top 10.
Reddick battled illness all evening but ultimately won the regular-season championship by a single point over Larson, the first such title for the 23XI Racing driver. The title is Reddick’s first since NASCAR began recognizing the leading points scorer at regular season’s end in 2017, when Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. claimed the inaugural championship. That momentum carried Truex to his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
As the regular-season champion, Reddick receives a bonus of 15 playoff points that will carry through each round of the NASCAR Playoffs to which he advances.
Reddick is a two-time winner in 2024, collecting wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway. His 11 top fives and 18 top-10 finishes are the most in the series after 26 races in 2024.
Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champion, finished 11th, one spot behind Reddick.
Busch, along with Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace were eliminated from the playoffs.
Despite a sixth-place finish, Buescher lost the final playoff spot on points to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr.
“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,” Buescher explained. “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.”
After the race, Bubba Wallace was standing by his car while race winner Briscoe celebrated by spinning donuts and a classic burnout on the frontstretch. The race left Wallace wondering what could have been.
Wallace made the playoffs in 2023 for the first time, but this year, there was no repeat performance, even with team co-owner Michael Jordan in the pits, providing moral support for the 23XI driver..
It wasn’t for a lack of effort on Wallace’s part. He won the pole position for the race and led 37 laps — second only to Kyle Larson’s massive 263 laps-led total and led more laps than race-winner Briscoe’s 26.
But the No. 23 Toyota suffered damage in a multi-car accident with only 22 laps remaining, and Wallace 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,” replied Wallace following the race. ”They were better and deserving, so congrats to the 14. We come back tomorrow and gotta hit it harder than we did.”
Fellow 23XI driver Ty Gibbs was on the playoff bubble and was looking to make the 16-driver postseason grid via points eligibility. Despite a wreck on Lap 344, Gibbs was able to continue and raced away, claiming the final position on points while Wallace was ousted.
The Lap 344 wreck collected Josh Berry and Denny Hamlin, spinning Berry and collecting William Byron, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suárez, Bubba Wallace and Noah Gragson.
Martin Truex Jr. nearly had his playoff hopes upended after an early Lap 3 error sent him into the Turn 1 wall with Ryan Blaney, ending the day of two former champions early. Truex attempted a pass on William Byron and misjudged, bouncing off Byron’s left rear and sending Truex into a skid.
Truex’s overcorrection led him into the safer barrier, collecting Blaney and eliminating both from the race. Truex would finish a disappointing 36th-place and Blaney would finish dead last.
“Yeah, it was all my fault, all my doing. I got a run on the 24 (Byron) and went to the inside and thought everything was going fine, and the car just took off and I ran into him,” Truex said.
“Obviously, that was on me. I hate it for my guys, (sponsor) Bass Pro Shops, Toyota, everybody. We had a phenomenal race car, and I know this is like the longest race of the year — just a dumb mistake on my part.”
The early exit put Truex‘s playoff hopes in temporary jeopardy, but by the end of Stage 2, Truex was able to clinch his spot in the postseason.
Race winner Briscoe added in post-race comments that “what makes this race so special is all these race fans. Every time we come here, it’s sold out. It’s awesome. We love you guys. Last time I won here (in the NASCAR Xfinity Series) was during COVID. I didn’t experience it with the fans. Glad that you are here and can’t wait to celebrate.”
The series travels to Atlanta for the second race at the unpredictable 1.5 mile track. It will be the first playoff race for 2024, before traveling to Watkins Glen in two weeks and then on to Bristol, which will serve as the cut off point in the Cup Series playoffs.
The Cookout Southern 500 | NASCAR Cup Series Race
- Chase Briscoe
- Kyle Busch
- Christopher Bell
- Kyle Larson
- Ross Chastain
- Chris Buescher
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Corey LaJoie
- Tyler Reddick
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Preece
- Austin Cindric
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Bubba Wallace
- Todd Gilliland
- Daniel Suárez
- Alex Bowman
- Ty Gibbs
- Harrison Burton
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Zane Smith
- Erik Jones
- John H. Nemechek
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Justin Haley
- Michael McDowell
- Daniel Hemric
- William Byron
- Josh Berry
- Noah Gragson
- Carson Hocevar
- Kaz Grala
- Timmy Hill
- Martin Truex Jr
- Ryan Blaney
NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,040 points
- Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,032 points
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, 2,028 points
- William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,022 points
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford, 2,018 points
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,015 points
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,014 points
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, 2,008 points
- Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford, 2,007 points
- Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford, 2,007 points
- Daniel Suárez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, 2,006 points
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 2,005 points
- Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, 2,005 points
- Harrison Burton, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, 2,005 points
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,004 points
- Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2,004 points
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