Excelling on a night when most of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field was struggling, Chase Briscoe won his second consecutive Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing star swept both stages of the playoff opener and led a race-high 309 of 367 laps (including the final 87) on the 1.366-mile oval — the most in the Southern 500 since Bobby Allison led 329 in 1971.
It’s the second victory this season for Briscoe, who became the first driver to advance to the second round with his career playoff win and is the eighth driver to win consecutive Southern 500s (the first since Greg Biffle in 2005-06)
“At the end, that was way harder than it needed to be,” Briscoe told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Man, what an incredible Toyota. I’ve watched Martin (Truex Jr.) dominate a lot of races. It was fun to finally be behind the wheel of it. So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year. Just because every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else.
“A great way to start our Playoffs. That was a lot of fun. I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing. We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from Day One.”
Briscoe held off a late charge by Tyler Reddick, who finished 0.408 seconds behind as playoff drivers took the top two spots and Toyotas swept the top four. Erik Jones finished third, followed by John Hunter Nemechek and AJ Allmendinger.
Reddick got within a few car lengths of Briscoe multiple times in the last 20 laps but wasn’t able to grab the lead as the race went green for the final 48 laps.
“The one time we got ahead of him, we were just a little too tight, and he was able to get back by us,” Reddick told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “I think we were better than he was on long runs, he could just fire off a lot better. That was the difference tonight. I could get close. It unfortunately seemed that last run, the balance wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Overall a really solid night for points in the playoffs. But man yeah, I really want to win here. It’s frustrating to finish second going for it. I wish I could have been just a little bit closer.”
Bubba Wallace was sixth and Denny Hamlin seventh — the only other playoff drivers in the top 10.
The “Track Too Tough To Tame” took a brutal toll on the playoff field. Only four of the 16 championship-eligible drivers finished in the top 10 at Darlington, which opens the 10-race run to the title.
Outside the top 10 were for Ross Chastain (11th, the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver in the playoffs), Austin Cindric (12th), Chase Elliott (17th), Ryan Blaney (18th), Kyle Larson (19th), Joey Logano (20th), William Byron (21st) and Austin Dillon (23rd).
“It was a really long night,” Elliott told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman.
Playoff drivers who failed to finish on the lead lap: Christopher Bell (29th), Alex Bowman (31st), Shane van Gisbergen (32nd) and Josh Berry (38th).
It took less than a lap for the first championship contender to encounter misfortune.
Josh Berry’s playoff debut went awry on his first trip into Turn 2 at full speed, losing control of his No. 21 Ford and drifting up into Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota. After completing only two laps under yellow, Berry went to the garage for repairs and returned after 125 laps to finish last (and record the race’s fastest lap).
Reddick soldiered on to second-place finishes in the first two stages despite right-side damage from Berry’s crash, which also led to minor impacts for Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher.
Berry was the first of several playoff drivers involved in incidents at Darlington, including several occurring in the pits during a yellow that began on Lap 153:
—Blaney spun his No. 12 Ford on the frontstretch after a Lap 209 restart but deftly avoided making contact with the inside wall.
—Hamlin, who started from the pole position and led nine laps, fell to 23rd after a poor pit stop on Lap 154. Hamlin had speculated earlier that the handling of his No. 11 Toyota might have suffered from damage (possibly from contact on a restart with Briscoe).
—Also during the Lap 154 stop, Bell suffered significant right-front damage after colliding with Carson Hocevar while exiting the stall.
—Byron, the regular-season champion, also had a problem on his Lap 154 pit stop, stopping to have a wheel tightened.
—Bowman, who entered the playoffs as the 16th and last seed, fell three laps down after a disastrous 40-second pit stop.
—Wallace, who led 10 laps, lost several positions on Lap 76 when he had to stop his No. 23 Toyota while exiting the pits to avoid the No. 38 Ford of Zane Smith.
Stage 1 winner: Briscoe
Stage 2 winner: Briscoe
Next: Sunday, Sept. 7, 3 p.m. ET at World Wide Technology Raceway on USA
