DARLINGTON, S.C. – Chase Briscoe had to win the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway to advance to the NASCAR Playoffs, and he did.

Briscoe entered the last race of the Regular Season 20^th in the standings, 144 points behind Chris Buescher he held the 16^th and final transfer spot. Briscoe started the race in third, and he raced up front all night long, finishing out Stage 1 in third and Stage 2 in second.

In the closing laps of Sunday night’s race, he made a daring move with 26 laps to go and held off a very hard charging Kyle Busch to win the 75^th running of the prestigious and to advance to the NASCAR Playoffs in Stewart-Haas Racing’s final season.

“For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “God is just so good. It’s like déjà vu there at the end with Kyle (Busch), with the Xfinity race here in 2020. Obviously I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it.”

Briscoe has won at Darlington in the NASCAR Xfinity Series before, but Sunday marked his first Cook out Southern 500 victory. The 29-year-old Indiana native said that the final laps were grueling and emotional.

“I was sideways, counter steering,” Briscoe said. “Like I was in a sprint car. Yeah, this night just literally went perfect. The pit crew did an incredible job. I was crying. After the checkered, I just won the Southern 500, this is a crown jewel. 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 was during COVID, I didn’t experience it with the fans. Glad that you are here and can’t wait to celebrate.”

Busch also had to win to advance to the NASCAR Playoffs as well. He entered the night 19^th in the standings, 106 points back. The Richard Childress Racing driver didn’t score any stage points throughout Stages 1 and 2; however, in the closing laps, he took fresh tires and was able to make his way through the field and challenge for the win.

“When I made it through a few of those guys right there on the start, I thought we had a start to get there,” Busch said. “I think I just needed him to have maybe three or four more laps, older tires for me to be able to break through the wake. Once I got within his air, I really didn’t have enough to power through that, to get closer. I was kind of sliding already. Hate it for our guys, everybody on our team, everybody at RCR.”

Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-five. Chris Buescher finished sixth, which wasn’t good enough to advance to the Playoffs despite entering the night above the cut. Denny Hamlin finished seventh, followed by Joey Logano and Corey LaJoie and in ninth.

Tyler Reddick won the Regular Season Championship with a 10^th-place finish. The 23XI Racing driver ended the Regular Season with two wins (Talladega, Michigan), 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. On Sunday, he battled a terrible sickness that was stomach related. Although he wasn’t anywhere near 100%, he held on to top Larson and Chase Elliott in the standings.

“Yeah, it’s just a testament to all the hard work that everyone at 23XI, here at the racetrack, week in and week out, back at Airspeed, puts into this. We’re on year four of their goals, right,” Reddick said. “It’s just been really, really fun the last two years to be a part of this process, building up to where we want to be.

“I mean, it takes a lot of hard work to be consistent as we’ve been through the summer stretch. Both years really feel like we had rocky starts to get going. It’s nice to be able to get to where we did in the middle of the year and start thinking about points. I think it really helped us just continue to be more consistent, get us in the right mindset for these Playoffs, just managing risk versus reward. We’ll be doing it three races at a time here soon.”

Throughout the Cook Out Southern 500, there were 27 lead changes among 11 drivers. Larson led a race high of 263 laps.

The caution flag flew on seven occasions for 39 laps.

On Lap 2, Martin Truex Jr. crashed in Turn 2 while trying to make a move on William Byron. Truex lost control and slammed into Ryan Blaney. Truex was in threat of not advancing after finishing 36^th, but the scenario played out in his favor.

The largest crash of the night came out on Lap 345, when Josh Berry tried to thread the needle between Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs in-between Turns 1 and 2. The crash collected a total of seven cars. Bubba Wallace, who was fighting for a Playoff spot was heavily damaged and was unable to advance with a 16^th place finish.

“We just were back and forth on our U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry,” Wallace said. “We were a little too loose, a little too tight. And the caution a couple laps on tires where we stayed out, I don’t know if that was the deciding factor or not. I was so tight there and got back there in traffic in a spot we hadn’t been all day and got caught up someone else’s mess. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for our guys. Hats off to the 14 (Chase Briscoe). I thought I did something yesterday, they one-upped us and showed up when it was game time so that’s pretty bad ass so congrats to them. Man, just wasn’t good enough for 16th this year.”

The NASCAR Playoffs will consist of Kyle Larson (2,040), Christopher Bell (2,032), Tyler Reddick (2,028), William Byron (2,022), Ryan Blaney (2,018), Denny Hamlin (2,015), Chase Elliott (2,014), Brad Keselowski (2,008), Joey Logano (2,007), Austin Cindric (2,007), Daniel Suarez (2,006), Alex Bowman (2,005), Chase Briscoe (2,005), Harrison Burton (2,005), Ty Gibbs (2,004) and Martin Truex Jr. (2,004).

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will kickoff on Sunday, Sept. 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Live coverage of the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart will broadcast on USA at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com