After decisively dominating one of NASCAR’s most notorious tracks, Chase Briscoe proves he’s an elite talent.
The first race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs started poorly for Josh Berry. Despite qualifying in the second row, he wrecked on lap 1, resulting in a lengthy garage stay. The 21 team went down over 120 laps while performing repairs, still finishing dead last due to low attrition. Despite a rocky start – and Darlington’s notoriously challenging nature – the Southern 500 went off more or less without a hitch.
One bright spot for the Wood Brothers Racing crew was a bonus point for running the fastest lap of the race. They definitely had speed, and it’s a shame that we’ll never know just how fast they could have been throughout the night. The real story of the night, though, was Berry’s former teammate Chase Briscoe.
Briscoe won the 2024 Southern 500 in what would be the final win for his childhood hero Tony Stewart‘s team, Stewart-Haas Racing. For Briscoe, moving to Joe Gibbs Racing was a major culture shock – winning was expected. In his first year with the team, he’s risen to the challenge, capturing six pole awards, and a win earlier in the season at Pocono, holding off teammate Denny Hamlin.
At Darlington, Briscoe lead over 300 laps, holding off Tyler Reddick to win his second race of the season, locking him into the Round of 12. On the final lap, it was clear that Briscoe’s tires were more or less used up, with Briscoe visibly fighting for traction on the backstretch. On the final corner, Reddick sent it in with everything he had, barely holding on. In the end, though, Briscoe prevailed.
There were some surprises in the top 10, however. Kyle Busch finished 8th, despite being involved in the lap 1 wreck that ruined Josh Berry’s night. Another two surprises were Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones (a previous Southern 500 winner himself) and John Hunter Nemechek. The biggest surprise, however, was the total absence of Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Chase Elliott finished the best of them, way back in 17th. It’s unusual to see that organization miss the mark on such a massive scale.
On the flipside, six of the top 10 cars at Darlington were Toyotas. That’s pretty impressive considering that there are just nine Toyotas in the Cup series in total. This week, NASCAR heads to World Wide Technology Raceway. Will another playoff driver lock themselves into the Round of 12?
Photo: AP
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