A look at the winners and losers from Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
WINNERS
Chase Briscoe — Snapped a 93-race winless streak and gave Stewart-Haas Racing its first Cup victory in two years with his Southern 500 win. He was strong all night. Briscoe’s average running position of 3.16 was second only to Kyle Larson’s average running position of 2.02 Sunday night.
Ford — Remember when there were all these questions about Ford? It wasn’t until the halfway point in the 26-race regular season that Ford won a Cup race this year. Guess what? Ford has more drivers in the playoffs than any other manufacturer. Ford has six of the 16 playoff drivers. Chevrolet and Toyota have five each.
Kyle Busch — Although he will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2012, his runner-up finish marked his third consecutive top-five result. That’s his longest streak since 2022 when he was in his final year at Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to Richard Childress Racing.
Christopher Bell — When he finishes a race, he’s often near the front. He placed third at Darlington. DNFs have been an issue for this team this year with six. In the last 10 races that he’s been running at the finish, Bell has two wins, two third-place finishes, six top fives and nine top 10s.
Tyler Reddick — Overcame a stomach bug to finish 10th and win the regular season championship, giving 23XI Racing its first regular season crown.
Corey LaJoie — His ninth-place finish was his 10th career top-10 finish, but it was his first at a non-drafting track. He had never finished better than 15th at Darlington before Sunday.
LOSERS
Martin Truex Jr. — He would have needed a bizarre set of circumstances to miss the playoffs with the advantage he had on the cutline entering Darlington. His wreck on the third lap put his playoff future in jeopardy. He did clinch after finishing 36th. Truex has placed 24th or worse in nine of the last 12 races.
Chris Buescher — He finished sixth, but a new winner in Chase Briscoe knocked Buescher out of the final playoff spot. Buescher fell six points short. It’s easy to go back to Kansas in May when Buescher lost to Kyle Larson in the closest finish in NASCAR history at .001 seconds and think that if that result had been different, Buescher would not have been trying to make the playoffs Sunday.
Ross Chastain — A top-five in the Southern 500 is worthy of celebration, but it wasn’t enough for Chastain to make the playoffs. Two years after finishing second in the championship, Chastain will not have a chance to race for a title.
Bubba Wallace — A late-season surge was not enough to get him into the playoffs for a second year in a row. The weekend started well. He won the pole and finished second in the opening stage, but he struggled with the car’s handling and later was collected in an accident. He finished 17th — only the second time in the last eight races he finished outside the top 15.