There are no good accidents on a NASCAR track, but the one Tyler Reddick described during Sunday’s Southern 500 was better than a crash.
“I’m throwing up, shitting myself, all of the above,” a gravely ill Reddick told his crew chief during Sunday’s race at Darlington, South Carolina.
After receiving some medication during a pit stop, Reddick fought back from his illness to finish 10th and clinch the NASCAR regular-season points title, though he has since retracted his mid-race comments. Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported that Reddick denied defecating in his car during the race but admitted he was battling a stomach virus.
“It was a false alarm!” he told reporters, as quoted by Noah Lewis of TSJ Sports.
Regardless of whether he got his overalls dirty or not, Reddick was still able to celebrate the regular-season crown with 3XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan.
Regular season champion Tyler Reddick and his car co-owner Michael Jordan at Darlington
Tyler Reddick drives through Turn 1 during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington
Elsewhere in the race, Chase Briscoe worked his way through three lanes to pass Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain for the lead, then held off two-time series champion Kyle Busch to win Sunday and make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Briscoe pulled away on a final restart with 17 laps to go in the regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway and held off Busch, who like Briscoe needed a win to make the postseason.
“We just won the Southern 500!” Briscoe said excitedly over the car radio.
Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas team announced its closure earlier this season. Briscoe gave the proud program something to strive for during the final 10 weeks of the season.
“Yeah, the day we found out the team was no longer going to exist, we walked up to the sign in the store, looked at each other and said, ‘We’re in this until the end,'” Briscoe said. “I’ve been saying all week, ‘We’ve got one bullet left in the chamber.’ That bullet hit the mark.”
An exhausted Tyler Reddick is seen during practice ahead of Sunday’s Southern 500
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. claimed the final two playoff spots in points, while Bubba Wallace and Chastain, both 27 points from the cut line when the race began, fell short.
Briscoe’s dramatic move spoiled another dominant race at Darlington for Kyle Larson, who led 263 laps but was not the same after being passed by the winner. Larson was trying to pass Reddick for the regular-season points title (and the 15 bonus points the leader receives) but fell one point short.
Christopher Bell was third, followed by Larson, Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie and Reddick.
Truex, who was running his final season before retiring, only needed a solid, trouble-free run at the “Too Tough To Tame” track to advance. Instead, he left his fate in the hands of others when he crashed on Lap 3 when his car slid and hit defending NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney.
But following Larson’s Stage 2 victory (he also won Stage 1), NASCAR announced that Truex had secured a spot in the 16-driver playoff field.
Bubba Wallace came into the weekend as the first man out of the playoffs and got a boost when he won his first pole at Darlington on Saturday. But with Jordan in his pit box to watch his two 23XI drivers, Wallace was involved in a six-car crash with 24 laps to go.
Jordan, wearing headphones and watching intently, raised his hands and bowed his head when he saw Wallace involved in the crash.
“I couldn’t finish 16th this year, I regret that,” Wallace said. “It’s a shame to say that, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.”
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford, compete during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500
Busch failed to win for the second straight week, losing to another driver who had not won this season. Last week at Daytona, he was beaten by Harrison Burton.
“I hate it for our guys,” said Busch, who won titles in 2015 and 2019. “Something to build on and get better at. We missed a lot of things early and mid-year to be in this position, out of contention.”
Reddick won the regular-season title, with Larson second. The rest of the playoff contenders are Chase Elliott, followed by Christopher Bell, William Byron, Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Briscoe, Gibbs and Truex.
The first round begins in Atlanta, then moves on to Watkins Glen and Bristol before the field is narrowed to 12.
Cale Yarborough, the Hall of Fame driver who died at age 84 on New Year’s Eve, was remembered at his hometown track when Dale Jarrett drove the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass that Yarborough used to win his third straight Cup Series title in 1978 during check laps. Yarborough won five of the Labor Day weekend crown jewel races — second to Jeff Gordon’s six — at Darlington after growing up there just a few miles away.
The playoffs begin next week in Atlanta on Sunday, with the first round continuing at Watkins Glen and Bristol the following two weeks.