The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway didn’t disappoint when it came to action-packed racing, side-by-side battles and mechanized mayhem in Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
This was the first of 10 Playoff races to decide the 2025 Champion, meaning every point counts for the 16 eligible drivers. When the dust settled, it was Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing in Victory Lane punching his ticket to the Round of 12.
Briscoe Shows the Way Day and Night
For a place called the “Track Too Tough to Tame” because of how it can end a driver’s great run in an instant, Briscoe didn’t get the memo. He led 309 of 367 laps and held off a hard charging Tyler Reddick to go back-to-back as a Southern 500 winner, and his fourth career win.
“That was much harder than it needed to be,” Briscoe said, after climbing from his car. “Man, what a great Bass Pro Shops car, it was a lot of fun to be behind the wheel. So cool to win two Southern 500 race in-a-row, this is my favorite race of the year. That atmosphere here isn’t like any place else.
“It’s a great way to start out our Playoffs, it was a lot of fun. I feel like this is what we are definitely capable of doing. We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that, but the potential has always been there from Day 1.”
In addition to leading the incredible number of laps, Briscoe won both Stage 1 and 2 to gain additional valuable playoff points. He leaves with a trophy and 43-point lead over the second place of Denny Hamlin.
Pit Road Woes Cost Playoff Drivers on Lap 154
Hamlin, a five-time winner at Darlington, was running in the top five after starting on the pole. He was running in the top five when he reported brake issues during Stage 2. While pitting on Lap 154 under yellow, Hamlin entered pit road in fourth place. After sliding into his pit stall, the No. 11 Toyota pit crew had issues changing the right rear tire causing their driver to fall to 23rd place for the restart.
Bubba Wallace entered pit road in fifth, but as he was about to exit pit road the No. 23 Toyota crew had him back up so they could make sure the right rear tire was indeed tight. As a result, he fell to 14th.
Christopher Bell was exiting the No. 20 Toyota pit stall when non-playoff driver Carson Hocevar was entering his No. 77 Chevrolet stall. Hard contact between the two was so significant it spun Hocevar around backwards, as Bell left his stall with heavy right front damage to his splitter.
Ryan Blaney was trying to exit pit road from this No. 12 Ford stall but was blocked in by Hocevar forcing the Playoff contender to fall from ninth to 20th for the restart.
William Byron had to back up into his No. 24 Chevrolet pit stop to make sure a left side tire lug nut was secure enough to return to racing.
Stage 1 Mayhem as Briscoe Dominates
Briscoe, the defending winner of the Southern 500, showed the way by leading 85 of 115 laps in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Coming into the Playoffs, he was slotted eighth four points above the cutoff line.
Meanwhile, Josh Berry came into the race minus 1, but looking to capitalize on his qualifying position of third. All the good vibes from Saturday literally went sideways on the opening lap.
Berry was inside Tyler Reddick coursing through Turns 1 & 2 when his car bobbled over a bump, snapped sideways and spun coming out 2, left rear quarter made contact with outside and then spun down in front of the remaining field.
Others involved were Reddick, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez, who were all able to continue. Berry went to the garage with heavy damage returning to finish last 128 laps down. He heads to World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis in 15th place, 19 points behind the Cutoff Line.
Chase Briscoe Dominates to Win Southern 500 at Darlington