‘A lot of craziness’: Cup Series playoff contenders have rough night at Darlington
.JPG "Kyle Bush pulls into pit row with 30 laps to go in the NASCAR Southern 500 auto race Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022, in Darlington, S.C. Jones held on to the victory after taking the lead from Kyle Busch, who blew a motor with 30 laps remaining pin the race. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)")
It started with Chase Elliott and ended with Kyle Busch. A handful of NASCAR playoff drivers had a rough start to the postseason Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Elliott, Busch and Kevin Harvick all had their nights end before Erik Jones took the checkered flag to win the Cook Out Southern 500.
Other drivers who struggled included Ross Chastain and Chase Briscoe. Chastain finished a lap down after suspension issues early in the race that required multiple trips to pit road.
Briscoe was involved in an early-race incident with Ellliot and finished 27th, four laps down.
“We felt like coming into it there would be a lot of craziness,” Briscoe said. “Our goal kind of was to stay out of the craziness, but we were one of the first ones involved in it.
“But we were fortunate a lot of them had the same issues, too. It kind of saved us.”
Of the 16 playoff drivers, six finished 15th or worse. The playoff field will get trimmed to 12 drivers after the next two races at Kansas and Bristol. Briscoe is in 15th place, but only 10 points behind 12th-place Daniel Suarez.
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The wild night on Sunday was consistent with how unpredictable the year has been in the first season of the Next-Gen car in the Cup Series. Going into Sunday, 15 different drivers won races through the first 26 races.
“This thing is just busting wide open with so many people involved now,” NBC analyst Dale Jarrett said.
Elliott came into the race as the regular-season champion, but also had the most room for error with 40 extra playoff points to give him a 15-point lead over Joey Logano. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is happy to have had those points after he lost control of his car and hit the wall in Turn 2 during lap 113. Elliott’s crash collected Briscoe.
Elliott’s crew attempted to fix the car but couldn’t get it done in the 10 minutes NASCAR allows to make necessary repairs. He goes into Kansas in ninth spot after his last-place finish.
Harvick had the scariest incident of the night when his car caught on fire on lap 276. He was able to get out of the car quickly, but his night was over.
Harvick finished 33rd and is below the cut line going into Kansas.
After the incident, Harvick went on a rant aimed at NASCAR and the safety of the Next-Gen cars. It wasn’t the first time a car has caught on fire. JJ Yeley’s car also went up in flames on Sunday.
“What a disaster for no reason,” Harvick said during an interview with NBC Sports. “We didn’t touch the wall. We didn’t touch a car and here we are in the pits with a burned up car and we can’t finish the race during the playoffs because of crappy-ass parts.”
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Busch had the best car of the night, leading six times for a race-high 155 laps. It was the most laps he has led in a race since Bristol in 2020.
But Busch’s engine blew up during a caution and many in the sellout crowd cheered as smoke came from the No. 18 car. Busch is now 11th in points heading to Kansas.
“The engine broke,” Busch said. “Real proud of the guys and of their fight. The guys on pit road tonight were awesome. Had a lot of fun being up front, leading laps like that, being able to show what we’re made of, I’m just upset that we couldn’t finish with points we needed.
“There are no words besides, ‘Oh well,’ I guess. Life goes on.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2022 at 5:49 AM.
