A solid race and no surprise winners at Darlington was all Chris Buescher ensure his place in the 2024 NASCAR Cup playoffs, but fate - and Chase Briscoe - had other ideas.
The RFK Racing Ford driver entered the regular season finale with a 21-point buffer over Bubba Wallace, holding the 16th and final spot in the playoffs.
That was trimmed during the race as 23XI Toyota driver Wallace scored 11 stage points while Buescher collected only one, slashing the margin between them.
Surviving contact with Todd Gilliland that put him into the wall with 46 laps to go, before a secondary hit spun the Front Row Motorsports driver around, Buescher then appeared in the ascendancy when Wallace became embroiled in a multi-car pile-up.
But Stewart Haas Racing's Briscoe now posed the greatest threat to Buescher's playoff berth as he was leading the race. Briscoe duly hung on under pressure from Kyle Busch's Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and secured his passage with victory as Buescher missed out despite a sixth-place finish, eliminated by a measly six points.
"It’s frustration and disbelief all together," said Buescher after the race.
The 31-year-old came 0.001s away from victory at Kansas, losing out in the closest photo finish in NASCAR Cup history to Kyle Larson. He also cut down a tyre after contact from Tyler Reddick while leading late on at Darlington in May, which presented victory to his team-mate Brad Keselowski.
But with Briscoe becoming the latest surprise victor after Harrison Burton at Daytona last week, he suddenly found himself as the first man out as the 16-driver playoff grid was set.
"We felt like we did, for the most part, what we needed to do today," he continued.
"We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it. We just didn’t quite get it done again and we’re on the outside looking in.
"It’s just the system we’re all playing in. We had such a great year. Everyone at RFK has worked so hard.
"We’ve been so fast. We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are gonna get to run for a championship, but that’s the system and we didn’t work it right.”
Five drivers below Buescher in the standings jumped ahead of him via race wins this year, showcasing the importance of the 'win and you're in' system that has defined modern NASCAR.
"I’m definitely gonna think back on different times throughout the year and we’ll figure out how to do better next time," lamented Buescher.
Also left on the outside looking in was two-time Cup champion Busch, who misses the Playoffs for the first time since 2012 after finishing runner-up for the second week in a row.
Busch restarted ninth with 17 laps to go, but quickly rocketed up through the field on slightly fresher rubber and soon latched onto Briscoe's tail.
Facing his first winless season since joining the Cup season full-time in 2005, Busch tried to find a way by to progress, but as at Daytona against Burton came up narrowly short.
"When I made it through a few of those guys right there on the start, I thought we had a start to get there," said Busch, believing he had enough life in his tyres to overtake Briscoe.
"I just needed him to have maybe three or four more laps, older tyres to break through the wake.
"Once I got within his air, I really didn't have enough to power through that, to get closer. I was kind of sliding already.
"Hate it for our guys, everybody on our team, everybody at RCR. They turned it around these last four, five weeks and we've run a lot better.
"That's been much improved, beneficial to our team and the organisation."
Busch applauded the team for improvements made throughout the race, commenting that "we really overachieved towards the end".
He too was on the wrong end of an incredibly close finish, as the middle car in a three-wide photo at Atlanta in March when Daniel Suarez won.
"I wanted it last week, I wanted it this week," he said. "I wanted it in Atlanta. I wanted it in Vegas. 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."
