Wallace, Buescher Face Playoff Heartbreak at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Basketball great Michael Jordan sat on the Darlington (S.C.) Raceway pit wall Sunday night watching his 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace contend for a 2024 Playoff position in the late laps of the regular season finale, Cook Out Southern 500.

Jordan had offered philosophical advice for the all-important evening and shown his support for the 30-year-old talent all year.

A little farther down pit road, Chris Buescher’s Roush Fenway Keselowski team was equally on edge having rallied and delivered all night for its driver – despite trying circumstances – needing to beat Wallace to earn that 16th and final Playoff position to race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

In the end, it was a brand-new season winner, Chase Briscoe that will instead take a Playoff position, meaning that instead of three drivers, only two (Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs) advanced to Playoff contention based on points earned. A first-time winner meant instead of claiming a points position, Buescher and Wallace were just below the elimination line despite eventful and emotional nights for both.

The first person to green Buescher at his dinged-up No. 17 RFK Ford on pit lane post-race was team co-owner and fellow driver Brad Keselowski. The two shook hands and shared a short private exchange before Keselowski looked at the nearby scoring screen to see exactly how close his teammate had come to a title chance.

“It takes a whole season to put these things together and we came up a little short,’’ Keselowski said before stepping away.

Although Buescher finished fifth and had kept himself in that final transfer points position for most of the night, contact with Todd Gilliland’s Front Row Motorsports Ford slammed Buescher’s Mustang into the wall bringing out a caution with only 45 of the 367 laps remaining.

The RFK team made repairs but Buescher returned to the track in a much tighter points situation than he had been in all night. If there had not been a new winner – or a Wallace win – Buescher only needed to finish within 12 positions of Wallace to secure the final Playoff position. And for most of the night, he was on track for that. Wallace finished 16th.

But Briscoe took the lead with 26 laps remaining – essentially negating both Buescher and Wallace efforts.

“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,’’ he continued. “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.’’

Wallace was similarly disheartened, standing by his car while race winner Briscoe celebrated by spinning donuts on the front stretch, his team cheering nearby.

Late in the race with Wallace still contending for the Playoff position, Jordan smiled and shared with a live USA Network race audience that he was “absolutely terrified” sitting and watching all the drama from the pits.

“But that’s what NASCAR’s all about, I enjoy it,’’ Jordan said. “I don’t have basketball anymore but this could replace it very easily. It’s exciting.

“Everybody wants something but something don’t come for free,’’ he said of the advice he gave Wallace before the race. “If you want more, it’s going to cost more that means you have to put the effort in there. He understands that.’’

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort Sunday night. Wallace won the pole position for the race and led 37 laps – second only to Kyle Larson’s massive 263 laps led total. More than race winner Briscoe’s 26.

But Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota suffered damage in a multi-car accident with only 22 laps remaining and he 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. They were better and deserving so congrats to the 14. We come back tomorrow and gotta hit it harder than we did. That’s sports. You go up and down and round and round. Gotta put this weekend behind and put the disappointment behind of not making the Playoffs and go give your all for the next 10 [races].”