NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick makes revolting mid-race confession to his pit crew before overcoming illness to win regular-season title and celebrate with car co-owner Michael Jordan

There are no good accidents on a NASCAR track, but the one Tyler Reddick described during Sunday’s Southern 500 was better than a crash.

“I’m going to throw up, shit my pants, and all of the above,” a seriously ill Reddick told his crew chief during Sunday’s race in Darlington, South Carolina.

After receiving some medication during a pit stop, Reddick fought through his illness to finish 10th and win the NASCAR regular season points title, though he has since retracted his comments mid-race. Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported that Reddick denied defecating in his car during the race, but admitted to having a stomach virus.

“My bad, false alarm!” he told reporters, as quoted by Noah Lewis of TSJ Sports.

Whether or not he got his overalls dirty, Reddick still got to celebrate the regular season title with 3XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan.

Tyler Reddick steers through Turn 1 during a NASCAR Cup Series car race at Darlington

Chase Briscoe spent the remainder of the race three-cars wide of Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain to take the lead, then defeated two-time series champion Kyle Busch to win on Sunday, advancing to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Briscoe pulled away on a final restart with 17 laps to go in the final round of the regular season at Darlington Raceway, holding off Busch, who like Briscoe needed a win to reach the playoffs.

“We just won the Southern 500!” an emotional Briscoe said over the car radio.

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas Team announced its closure earlier this season. Briscoe gave the proud program something to fight for in the final 10 weeks of the season.

“Yeah, this group, the day we found out the team was going to be no more, we went to the store sign, looked at each other and said, ‘We’re going to do this until the end,'” Briscoe said. “I’ve been saying all week, ‘We’ve got one bullet left in the chamber.’ That bullet went in.”

An exhausted Tyler Reddick is seen during practice ahead of Sunday’s Southern 500

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. took the final two spots in the postseason on points, while Bubba Wallace and Chastain, both 27 points from the cutoff line at the start of the race, fell short.

Briscoe’s dramatic move ruined another dominant Darlington run by Kyle Larson, who led 263 laps but wasn’t the same after being passed by the winner. Larson tried to overtake Reddick for the regular-season points title — and the 15 bonus points the leader gets — but fell one point short.

Christopher Bell was third, followed by Larson, Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie and Reddick.

Truex, driving his final season before retirement, needed only a solid, trouble-free run at the Too Tough To Tame track to advance. Instead, he left his fate in the hands of others when he crashed on Lap 3 when his car slid and struck reigning NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney.

But after Larson’s Stage 2 victory (he also won Stage 1), NASCAR announced that Truex had secured a spot in the 16-driver playoff field.

Bubba Wallace entered the weekend as the top man out of the play-offs and got a boost when he took his first Darlington pole on Saturday. But with Jordan in his garage to watch both of his 23XI drivers, Wallace was involved in a six-car accident with 24 laps to go.

Jordan, wearing headphones and watching intently, threw his hands in the air and bowed his head when he saw Wallace involved in the accident.

“Wasn’t good enough for 16th this year, awful,” Wallace said. “It’s sad to say that, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.”

Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and Chase Briscoe, driver of the #14 HighPoint.com Ford, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500

Busch came up short for the second week in a row, losing to another driver without a win this season, having been defeated by Harrison Burton last week at Daytona.

“Unfortunately for our guys,” said Busch, who won titles in 2015 and 2019. “Something to build on and get better at. We just missed a lot at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, to be in this spot, on the outside.”

Reddick won the regular season title, with Larson in second. The rest of the playoff field is: Chase Elliott, followed by Christopher Bell, William Byron, Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Briscoe, Gibbs and Truex.

The first round starts in Atlanta and then moves to Watkins Glen and Bristol before narrowing the field to 12 players.

Cale Yarborough, the Hall of Fame driver who died on New Year’s Eve at age 84, was remembered at his home track when Dale Jarrett drove the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass that Yarborough drove to his third consecutive Cup Series title on pace laps in 1978. Yarborough won five of the Labor Day weekend crown jewel races, second only to Jeff Gordon’s six, at Darlington after growing up just a few miles away.

The playoffs begin next Sunday in Atlanta, with the first round continuing the following two weeks in Watkins Glen and Bristol.