By PETE IACOBELLI AP Sports Writer
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Martin Truex Jr. qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs after some nervous moments when he crashed out on the third lap of the Southern 500 on Sunday.
Others drivers hopeful of a spot like two-time series champion Kyle Busch and playoff participants last year in Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher weren’t so fortunate after Chase Briscoe used a late-three wide pass to take the lead and hold off Busch down the stretch to win the race.
Busch had a second straight close call in missing the postseason for the first time since 2012, also finishing second to Harrison Burton a week ago at Daytona.
Busch thought he had enough to catch Briscoe and got near his back bumper in the final few laps, but could not move past Briscoe.
“To come in here in a last ditch effort and have a shot,” said Busch, who has not won in his last 47 races. “Early in the race, I wouldn’t of thought we’d have a shot so I really felt like we overachieved.”
Buescher, who won three races to reach the playoffs a year ago, came in last inside the projected field, but could not overtake Truex for the final playoff spot.
“We thought we did what we needed to do today,” the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver said.
“We’ve been so fast and we’ve outrun so many of these cars that are going to run for a championship,” he continued. “But that’s the system we’re in.”
Truex’s playoff grip certainly looked tenuous when he slid up into defending champion Ryan Blaney and both cars went to the garage. But after two stages (230 laps) at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR announced that Truex, the 2017 series champ, was locked into the 16-driver field.
Truex is in his last full season as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. He started the race 58 points ahead of the cutoff line to reach the playoffs, which start next week at Atlanta, and he said Saturday he felt good about his position at 14th on the playoff grid entering the weekend.
The wreck left Truex watching the race unfold and hoping others behind him wouldn’t do enough on the track to knock him out.
“It was all my fault, all my doing,” Truex said outside the infield care center.
Truex said he had a run on William Byron’s No. 24 when the car got away from him.
“I thought everything was going fine and I ran into him. Obviously, that was on me,” he said.
Blaney, like Truex, was taken to the care center. The Team Penske driver said he was hurting at first, but felt like he’d be OK going forward as he prepares to defend his series title beginning next week in Atlanta.
“I saw Martin get loose, and I thought he was going to spin to the bottom, so I kind of gassed up to get around him, but it was just terrible timing,” Blaney said. “He overcorrected, and we were just right there.”
Truex’s JGR teammate, Ty Gibbs, qualified 15th on points.
Wallace, who started from the pole, was the first man out of playoff position, 21 points behind Buescher when the race began. 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan was in his pit box to watch things unfold.
“Got caught up in someone else’s mess,” he said of the multi-car wreck 24 laps from the end. “Unfortunate. I hate it for our guys.”
Truex’s wreck shuffled him out of playoff position temporarily. Despite getting in, he knows he’ll need to turn things around to make a deep playoff run.
“It sucks. We just had a miserable two months,” he said. “Tonight was on me, sorry to my team and all the guys who work so hard.”
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