Chase Briscoe beat Kyle Busch in a two-car breakaway Sunday night, taking the Cook Out Southern 500 and joining the championship field in the final regular-season race in Darlington, S.C.
A lame duck driver at Stewart-Haas Racing who will join Joe Gibbs Racing in Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 next season, Briscoe scored his second career Cup victory in his No. 14 Ford by beating Busch by 0.361 seconds to enter the postseason.
The win marked the second consecutive week a driver has won to make the playoffs after Harrison Burton did it at Daytona last Saturday night.
Christopher Bell finished third. Kyle Larson dominated the event and was fourth, followed by Ross Chastain.
In addition to the 14 eligible winners, the 16-car championship group includes 2017 Cup champion Truex and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, each of whom pointed their way into the 10-race title hunt.
Chris Buescher and polesitter Bubba Wallace were the first two drivers on the outside looking in at the playoffs.
Just over two laps into the scheduled 367-lap event, Truex, who started 14th in points and only 58 points on the cut line’s good side, made a mistake at the east end of the track, tagging William Byron’s No. 24 and losing control of his No. 19 Toyota into Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford.
The day’s first caution flew with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver retiring from the legendary race in 36th place, nearly wasting Truex’ points advantage but not dashing his hopes of competing for a second championship.
After claiming his first pole of 2024, Wallace led the opening 35 laps of 115-lap Stage 1, but Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports came to life and won the segment. Wallace accomplished his goal by finishing second and climbing into the playoff spot for the time being.
In an incident-free Stage 2, Larson did just as he did when he won at Las Vegas on March 3 — claiming the first two segments of the race. That performance in the desert earned the No. 5 Chevrolet driver his first win of 2024, and he set himself up to duplicate the feat at historic Darlington.
With 24 to go, Wallace was involved in a multi-car wreck following a three-wide move in front of him that ended his chance for the postseason.
