Was Darlington the Season’s Finest Hour?

1. Chase Briscoe Gave Us The Season’s Best Moment

Last June in the media center at World Wide Technology Raceway, when drivers filed in for their media availabilities, Chase Briscoe and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates were among the more anticipated ones for the sport’s media to hear from.

It had nothing to do with a race win or prospects to win at Gateway.

It had everything to do with the news that at the end of the season, Stewart-Haas would cease operations.

Ten weeks from now, more than a couple hundred individuals — drivers, crew members and other team personnel — will be seeking new jobs aside from those yet to line something up for 2025. Back in June, Briscoe conceded the challenge of losing employees to other teams and not being replaced.

SHR has not just had to battle back and get one of its drivers into the postseason. It has had to do so under the cloud of despair. It would have been incredibly easy to run the season out and log laps. But like many in the garage, these people at SHR are racers to the core.

With everything else swirling around, Stewart-Haas had one last shot to get to the postseason. And Briscoe didn’t just win a race. He did it the hard way at one of the sport’s toughest tracks. Oh, and he had to outrun Kyle Busch to do it, as well.

The Daytona 500 may be full of prestige.

But its current drafting package is a race decided by a game of chance. If you want to be somebody in NASCAR, you have to win the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Briscoe did that and given all going on away from the track, it may have been the best moment of the season.

2. Is the No. 23 Team’s Disappointment a Blessing in Disguise?

You won’t find anybody this morning at 23XI Racing happy about the No. 23 team missing the postseason.

For any team, having 100% of your cars in the postseason is a huge deal and no amount of ‘we’ll build momentum for February’ talk will soften that disappointment.

But Bubba Wallace missing the NASCAR playoffs could be a blessing in disguise for the No. 23 team.

Here’s why.

When your teammate is the regular-season champion and you are the only other full-time team in the organization, missing the postseason is — to quote Wallace’s own words at Daytona International Speedway regarding his postseason pursuit — “unacceptable.”

Making it into the postseason would have taken some of that dread away.

Now?

Very valid questions are…