Southern 500 delivers the Game 7 moment NASCAR fans deserved

Entering Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the last four NASCAR Cup Series races in a row had gone to extra "overtime" laps.

That streak would come to an end, and yet the thrilling conclusion to Sunday's race — as well as NASCAR's regular season — may have been more exciting than any finish in the prior month.

Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch, both of whom were in a must-win position to make the Cup Series playoffs, battled it out until the bitter end. Briscoe emerged victorious — not the first time he's outdueled Busch at Darlington — to ensure Stewart-Haas Racing will have a driver competing for the title in its final season.

Even more importantly, though, Briscoe's win proved it's possible for NASCAR to have a Game 7 moment without manufacturing drama.

Briscoe originally took the lead with a wild move to go from fourth to first on a late restart, passing Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain after Larson had dominated the race.

Chastain, who was in his own must-win situation, had taken a gamble by staying out under a caution while everyone else pitted, and then an additional caution allowed Busch to come in for fresh tires in an attempt to run down Briscoe.

It was the perfect balance of high-stakes excitement without the race devolving into a circus show, which has been the case so often in 2024. The Southern 500 is one of the few remaining 500-mile (or greater) events on the Cup Series calendar, and is historically an endurance test of both man and machine in which there is a slow, methodical buildup to an epic climax.

That was on perfect display Sunday night, and the added factor of the playoff implications was just the icing on the cake as Briscoe completed perhaps the drive of his life.

Unfortunately, anytime a great story unfolds for one competitor, there are also those on the wrong end of the narrative. This time, that happens to be Busch, who misses the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

Additionally, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Chastain — all of whom came into the race thinking they were battling for the final spot — will be left out thanks to Briscoe's win. All had good opportunities to find victory lane throughout the year, but the breaks just didn't go their way.

Additionally on Sunday, Tyler Reddick claimed the regular-season championship and a reward of 15 bonus points towards the playoffs, beating Larson by exactly one point in order to do so. Reddick may not have won the race, but he had one of the most impressive drives of the night as he fought to a 10th-place finish while battling a severe stomach bug.

Larson has been the dominant driver of the year, but if losing out on those extra points comes back to bite him, there are several missed opportunities he'll look back on with this race being a prime example.

It all just goes to show how competitive the Cup Series is, where every single moment makes a difference. And, as Sunday night proved, sometimes those moments can occur without being produced by artificial gimmicks.