Bubba Wallace got a boost to his playoff hopes heading into Sunday by winning the Southern 500 pole.
Wallace snagged his first pole of 2024 on Saturday by turning a hot lap of 167.146 mph around the famed egg-shaped track of Darlington Raceway to beat Carson Hocevar‘s speed of 167.010.
Wallace has had a fast No. 23 Toyota this summer, posting top-10 finishes in four of the past five races, but he could use a win to ensure a playoff spot. The 23XI Racing driver said he doesn’t feel any more stress than usual but would just like to reach Victory Lane again.
“I think from a bigger picture, I’m stressed about being winless in damn near two seasons,” Wallace said. “Let’s say this was Daytona last year or [the] Bristol [elimination] race. I have no stress compared to those last year, and I think that’s for the better.”
Wallace, who made the playoffs in 2023, is 17th in the standings entering the regular-season finale. He is 21 points behind Chris Buescher, another 2023 playoff driver. Should there be no new winner Sunday — 13 drivers have qualified for the playoffs through race victories — Buescher, who qualified 10th, stands to be in good position to advance on points.
But Buescher knows that victory Sunday is the surest way to continue his championship chase.
“Been really close in a lot of races, but haven’t sealed the deal,” he said. “Didn’t expect to be in this position.”
Kyle Busch has experienced a maddening, frustrating season that has left the two-time Cup Series champion on the outside of a 12th straight NASCAR playoff appearance. A win in the Southern 500 is his only option to keep his postseason streak alive.
“Every week, it just kind of seems like, ‘OK, what’s next?'” Busch said Saturday. “But that’s something that we can’t change.”
Busch, who has not won in 46 races, nearly clinched his spot at Daytona last week but lost out on a wild, final lap duel with Harrison Burton. So Busch sits 19th on the playoff grid, 106 points out of the field and knowing his only chance is his first Darlington victory since 2008.
He said he won’t let his struggles this year steal his focus in the final race of the regular season.
“You can use that as a distraction or a motivation tool,” said Busch, who won the series championship in 2015 and 2019. “We’ll look to make that our motivation.”
That won’t be easy at Darlington, where Busch had a seventh-place finish in May 2023, his best showing since leaving Joe Gibbs Racing two seasons ago to join car owner Richard Childress.
Busch was 27th in the spring event at Darlington and never in contention.
“We don’t come in this weekend holding our heads low and thinking that we’re going to not run well,” Busch said. “We put heads together and try to figure out why and said, ‘We’re going to go there with the best car we can and try kick their butts and get a win.'”
Ross Chastain, who has won four times the previous two years, is 18th in the standings and will start 22nd on Sunday. He too was surprised to be winless this year.
“If you would have had me fill out a bingo card at the start of the season, I wouldn’t have dabbed this block, for sure,” he said.
Martin Truex Jr., the 2017 series champion, is the leading driver without a win currently in the playoffs. He is 58 points above the cutoff and likely safe in his final Cup Series season. But he’s taking nothing for granted.
“I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff happen,” he said.
Rounding out the top five qualifiers were Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Truex.
The race to make the playoffs isn’t the only one going on at Darlington. Points leader Tyler Reddick is just 17 points ahead of 2021 series champion Larson for the regular-season title and 15 bonus playoff points. Second place in standings receives 10 bonus points.
Reddick and Larson don’t plan on tracking each other. Both say they will rely on their successful history at Darlington and their strong teams this season to finish on top.
“Coming at a place like this, it’s pretty much in our control, it’s in mine, it’s in his,” Reddick said.
Larson has led 785 laps in his career at Darlington and won the Southern 500 a year ago. Reddick was second to Larson at Darlington last September and led 174 laps in the May race.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.