Leading into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Chase Briscoe was adamant that the full potential of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team hadn’t yet been put on full display.
With an opportunity to reset for the final 10 events of the season, Briscoe and his crew chief, James Small, changed that fact on Sunday with an incredible, dominant performance in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington.
The Mitchell, Indiana-native started the playoff opener from second-place (barely missing out on securing all four crown jewel poles this season), but instantly took the lead.
After taking over the lead early in the race, Briscoe hardly looked back, pacing the field for 309 of 367 laps — the most dominant Southern 500 performance since Bobby Allison led 329 laps in 1971.
“As a fan, I’ve watched Martin [Truex] dominate a lot of races, and it was fun to be behind the wheel of it,” Briscoe said. “So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year. Just because you race fans, every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else.”
While the race itself featured an impressive 24 lead changes, the majority of them were a result of green-flag pit stops and strategy calls. Briscoe, once things cycled around, found himself back in the lead, every single time.
“I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing,” Briscoe told USA Network after the race. “We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from day one.”
Sunday’s victory will lock Chase Briscoe and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE into the ‘Round of 12’ in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs — which will begin in three weeks at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It’s the fourth victory in the NASCAR Cup Series for Briscoe, two of which have come at the 1.366-mile racetrack. By winning back-to-back Southern 500s, Briscoe joins an elite list of drivers to do so, which includes Herb Thomas, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Greg Biffle.
Despite a high-intensity chase between the top-three (and at times the top-four) drivers, Briscoe was able to hold off some major advances from Tyler Reddick, who made an unsuccessful last corner lunge and came up just short.
Reddick, show showed speed all evening long in his No. 45 Pinnacle Toyota Camry XSE, nearly didn’t get a chance to showcase it after a first-lap incident where Josh Berry crashed from fourth place, which skimmed the left side of Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota, but only caused minor damage.
Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek had a stellar night for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, bringing home a third and fourth-place finish in the No. 43 and No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE. All three major Toyota teams (JGR, 23XI, LMC) came home inside the top-five, and ended up finishing 1-2-3 — the first time that’s happened for the manufacturer.
In fifth place was AJ Allmendinger, who collected the first top-five result for Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series since the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend.
Bubba Wallace finished in sixth, with Denny Hamlin seventh, Kyle Busch eighth, Carson Hocevar in ninth, and Chris Buescher rounding out the top-10, despite some late-race contact with Ross Chastain, who happened to finish just behind in 11th.
Other NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers that finished outside the top-10 include Austin Cindric (P12), Chase Elliott (P17), Ryan Blaney (P18), Kyle Larson (P19), Joey Logano (P20), William Byron (P21), Austin Dillon (P23), Christopher Bell (P29), Alex Bowman (P31), Shane Van Gisbergen (P32), and Josh Berry (P38).
None of the 16 Playoff-eligible drivers failed to finish Sunday’s event at Darlington Raceway, even though Josh Berry finished 128 laps off the pace after a big wreck in the opening corners of the event.
Leaving Darlington and heading to WWT Raceway, the four drivers below the cutline are Joey Logano (-3), Austin Dillon (-8), Josh Berry (-19), and Alex Bowman (-19). The remaining two events of the Round of 16 will take place at WWT Raceway (September 7) and Bristol Motor Speedway (September 13).
Coverage of the EnjoyIllinois.com 300 at WWT Raceway will take place on Sunday, September 7, at 3:00 PM ET on USA Network, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
