The 2024 Cup series has been the undoing of Kyle Busch. Two significant personal records were at stake going into the regular season finale at Darlington: a stretch of 11 seasons having Cup Series Playoffs appearances and a 19-season run of having at least one Cup race win. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion can keep the latter ticking even now but failed to keep the former running despite giving his all in what was a missed opportunity after he had to settle for a P2 on the track that is “Too Tough to Tame.”

On any other day, he would have happily accepted that finish on the crown jewel. But not today. It won’t be enough! Because of Kyle’s poor runs this season, he doesn’t even have the required points to make it in. When many question if Busch has what it takes to end the 50-Cup race winless drought, his wife Samantha is hopeful it’ll be one of the next 10 races.

Kyle Busch will be missed in the 2024 playoffs!

Credit has to be given to Chase Briscoe, who showed tremendous skill to lead four times for 29 laps, out of which he pulled away with 17 laps to fend off the NASCAR great on a final restart. It’s tough to believe, right? But here’s what happened: On the final restart of the race, Kyle Busch staged a remarkable comeback. Starting ninth with just 17 laps remaining and swiftly ascending through the field. His fresh tires gave him a significant advantage, allowing him to quickly close the gap on the leaders. He passed Kyle Larson, who had led more than 250 laps of the race with unbelievable ease.

Taking P2, it was down to him and Briscoe. A view from Busch’s dashcam revealed the skill Briscoe showed to keep the 63-time Cup Series race winner at bay. Busch struggled to catch him till the very end which pushed Briscoe to become the first driver to eclipse 1000 laps led this season. Busch may been quite hard on himself, (even tagged himself as “a washed-up old dog”) and his wife, who’s been a constant support throughout his downtime, definitely had her fingers crossed. Samantha Busch, who never misses a race, shared some heartfelt photos from the racetrack.

She captioned: “Ugh my heart hurts for the 🎱 team. From the calls to the stops to the driving, they dug hard all night. I wanted it so bad for them 😭

“Proud to see the strides they made over the past few weeks and watching Kyle contend for the win these last few races. 10 more races to keep the win streak alive!”

Although this puts him out of contention for the 2024 season, there was a silver lining afterall. Busch knew they overachieved at the end of the final race of the regular season and that he was positive about the future. And when you have such a strong support system, a comeback becomes inevitable. Busch, too, was relaxed after his run. He said,

“Something to build on and get better for. We just missed a lot in the early part of the year, through the middle part of the year, to put ourselves in this spot, to be on the outside looking in. To come in here for a last-ditch effort and have a shot. Early in the race, I wouldn’t have thought we had a shot.” 

But he isn’t one to grill himself hard on some of the lost opportunities this season. He recalled each one of them: “I wanted it last week. I wanted it this week. I wanted it in Atlanta. I wanted it in Vegas,” Busch said live on air. “There’s been a lot of opportunities. Daytona 500 we were up front all day. I can count ’em at least on a hand. Maybe I need two hands to count opportunities that have slipped away.”

His P2 in Darlington comes after a P2 in Daytona where Harrison Burton took the victory. At Atlanta back in February, he had to settle for a third-place finish by a slim 0.007 seconds behind winner Daniel Suárez. While Busch and the #8 team have a lot to think about, Briscoe couldn’t help reminding his interviewers about a win over Busch from the past while showering Busch for his driver etiquette considering what all was at stake for him.

“After I watched Kyle Busch pick behind me, here he is in second, I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ I’ve worked 300 some laps to get to the lead and now Kyle is going to come and steal it from us. It was definitely Deja Vu, it was the Xfinity race, I was sideways and way loose at the end and he just kept running me down, and I hit the wall, like I did in the Xfinity race with two to go and I was waiting for him to do whatever he had to do to get to the playoffs too.

“So kudos to him for racing me super, super clean. The fact that both of my Darlington wins have come trying to hold off Kyle Busch is pretty cool from a personal note because that guy is one of the greatest of all time.”

Moving on, one man’s loss is another man’s gain. Chase Briscoe gets well-deserved praise from his colleagues.

NASCAR drivers applaud Chase Briscoe’s run

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Briscoe’s win comes at a crucial time. This is the last season for the Stewart-Haas Racing team. Briscoe dedicated his win to all those employees losing their jobs at the end of this season. He said, “For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable.” His words were met with applause from the fans in the stadium, as was his performance from his fellow drivers.

Who better than the ‘best all-round’ driver in the world, “Hats off to Chase Briscoe; that’s amazing. He did such a great job all day long, and all weekend long. This is a super, super tough race to win. To do it with the pressure that they had on their team was pretty amazing,” said Kyle Larson. Echoing Larson’s words was Christopher Bell, who knows exactly what it takes to win on this track, as he did recently in the Xfinity Series race. on Briscoe’s performance, Bell said, “Chase (Briscoe) was awesome all night long obviously. Through stage one and stage two, he was right there in the mix with them. He pounced whenever it mattered the most. I had the best seat in the house for the great shootout between the 14 (Chase Briscoe) and the 8 (Kyle Busch).”

Thanks to Briscoe taking the win, all of Bubba Wallace’s hopes to qualify were shattered. Although Wallace is a believer in giving credit where credit is due. He said, “Hats off to the 14 (Chase Briscoe). I thought I did something yesterday, they one-upped us and showed up when it was game time so that’s pretty badass so congrats to them.”

What did you think of Briscoe’s run? Let us know in the comments below.