Darlington Breaks Playoff Hearts For Buescher & Wallace

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher’s Cook Out Southern 500 results told the tale of both of their seasons in one frustrating narrative Sunday night.

The pair was oh, so close, but yet oh, so far once again.

Both drivers were hoping to return to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and yet were both denied by the walk-off win produced by Chase Briscoe at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway that eliminated them from contention.

Though he had a shot to point his way into the playoffs – and was within range of doing just that at one point in the race – Wallace presumably needed a win to make the postseason at Darlington, and his No. 23 team threw their best shot at it.

They brought a fast car, and Wallace used it to qualify on pole Saturday for his third career pole and first since last year at Texas Motor Speedway. The 30-year-old stayed inside the top 10 throughout the night, collected stage points, led 37 laps and had the first pit stall.

In short, everything seemed to be going in his favor.

However, that all changed on lap 345. A multi-car pileup saw Wallace fall victim to another situation where he was caught up in someone else's mess. This time, Josh Berry put Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin three-wide for seventh, and Wallace was swallowed up in the carnage, ruining his promising night.

He seemed fine at first, just bumping William Byron and getting minor front-end damage. But then Noah Gragson came barreling in from behind, also with nowhere to go, and slammed the left rear of Wallace’s Air Force Toyota Camry XSE.

Once again, carnage that had nothing to do with Wallace set him behind the eight-ball further than what he faced entering the weekend.

Briscoe was 18th in points entering the night, and yet won the race, while Chris Buescher – whom he had to finish 12 positions ahead of after stage points were tallied, stayed within striking distance all night.

It all added up to an impossible situation for Wallace at the end of the night.

“The caution came when we were a couple laps on new tires, where we stayed out. I don’t know if that was the deciding factor on our night or not. I was so tight there and got back there in traffic in a spot we hadn’t been in all day and got caught up in someone else’s mess,” said Wallace.

“We were back and forth on adjustments all night, a little too loose, a little too tight. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for our guys. Hats off to Chase Briscoe though,” Wallace added. “I thought I did something yesterday by qualifying on pole. They one-upped us and showed up when it was game time, so that’s pretty badass and congrats to them.”

Sunday night was another example of Wallace being caught up in a mess that he wasn’t the root of. At Daytona, he was caught up in the lap-151 “Big One,” not started by him.

A week prior at Michigan Int’l Speedway, Wallace was the victim of a Kyle Larson self-spin on lap 115. At the Chicago (Ill.) Street Race in July, he was cleaned out by eventual race winner Alex Bowman on lap 25 entering a narrow turn two.

Even at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June, Noah Gragson put Wallace and Austin Dillon three-wide, spun out and collected the pair.

All of those spoiled moments throughout the summer led the No. 23 team to the breaking point — having to throw a Hail Mary in a season that witnessed 14 different regular season winners.

It wasn’t a lack of speed that did in his playoff dreams; Wallace ended up 12th overall in the regular season point standings. But when only two spots ended up being available on points, he had to find a way to get into victory lane, something he last did in September 2022 at Kansas Speedway.

“Just wasn’t good enough for 16th in [playoff] points this year. I hate that,” Wallace lamented.

Despite missing the playoffs, Wallace’s goal of ending his 69-race winless streak still remains. His two career Cup Series wins to-date came in seasons he’s not been a part of the playoff field – a rain-shortened Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway race in 2021 and Kansas after leading 58 laps in 2022.

“It stinks saying that we missed the postseason, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort for all of us on the 23XI Racing No. 23 car,” Wallace noted. “Best of luck to [teammate] Tyler Reddick in the playoffs, and hopefully a Toyota wins [the championship].”

Similar luck befell Chris Buescher. All he needed was to run well, keep a clean car and not have a new winner below the cut line at Darlington.

His playoff fate seemed even clearer when 14th-seeded Martin Truex Jr. wrecked on lap two, providing another way to distance himself from the playoff cutline if that scenario came into play.

In the latter part of the race, he was able to maintain a seven-point cushion over Wallace, until Briscoe held off Kyle Busch for the win.

That left Buescher as the unfortunate “first man out” in the playoff picture.

“We felt like we did, for the most part, what we needed to do. We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it,” said Buescher. “We just didn’t quite get it done again and we were on the outside looking in. It’s just the system we’re all playing in.”

Buescher, like Wallace, saw his luck throughout the season fluctuate. His month of March was excellent, with four top 10s in a stretch between Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway to Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Then in May he arguably had two race wins stripped from him.

He fell victim to Larson’s historic Kansas win, finishing second by 0.001 seconds in the closest NASCAR Cup Series finish ever. Just a week later, he tangled with eventual regular season champion Tyler Reddick for the race win at Darlington and lost out there, too.

Buescher then saw weeks where his No. 17 team rode momentum, before experiencing equal lows, leading him to the point where Wallace and Ross Chastain were hot on his tail in the standings throughout the summer.

But Buescher, like Wallace, was statistically better in the regular season than where he was seeded in the playoff standings. He was 11th in regular season points, just six back of the top 10.

That made Sunday night’s outcome even harder to stomach.

“We had such a great year.  Everyone at RFK Racing has worked so hard,” he said. “We’ve been so fast.  We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are going to get to run for a championship, but that’s the system and we didn’t work it right.”

Both drivers have had career seasons thus far, but the chance to contend for a championship will not be there to cement them. Wallace has five top fives and 10 top 10s, tied for the most in his eight seasons in the Cup Series, and he’s also tied for his career best in average finish at 15th.

Buescher has had similar success, as he is on pace to beat his 2023 season, just four top fives away from tying his career high with 10 races left.

Even though the bigger goal isn’t there now, raising the bar on their seasons and finally getting that first win of the year remains at large for both Buescher and Wallace, and the hope is there for both that they can get the job done.

The Cup Series heads next to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway for the playoff-opening Quaker State 400 available at Walmart. Broadcast coverage is slated for Sunday, Sept 8 at 3 p.m. ET on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.