Darlington – Chase Briscoe dominates the playoff kickoff

In 2024, when Briscoe first won the Southern 500 at Darlington, the victory gave him a chance to make the playoffs and saved the day for a Stewart-Haas which would close at the end of the season. This time, the Mitchell, Indiana native arrived in South Carolina with another status, that of driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, in the Toyota No. 19. Victory was no longer hoped for, it was expected.

Chase Briscoe lived up to those expectations perfectly, leading 309 of the 367 laps and winning in a duel with Tyler Reddick (23XI Racing). By winning this opening round of the playoffs, Briscoe advances to the next round, where the top 12 finishers will compete. This gives him plenty of confidence to approach the next two rounds.

"We have never been able to dominate a race in this way, yet the potential has been there from day one.", the winner was satisfied. “It’s really cool to win two Southern 500s in a row… It’s a great way to start the playoffs. It was a lot of fun!”

The race wasn't fun for all the playoff-qualified drivers, starting with Josh Berry (Wood Brothers Racing). The driver of the #21 Ford spun off in the first corner. While he was able to restart, he finished the race in last place, with a point for fastest lap as his only consolation. He's now 19 points off twelfth place, behind Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports), who had a very long pit stop due to an air gun that simply wasn't connected...

Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Joey Logano (Team Penske) are currently the two other drivers behind twelfth place, currently occupied by Shane van Gisbergen (Trackhouse Racing), who struggled in this first round of the playoffs on a particularly demanding oval track. The second round will be held next weekend at Gateway.

NASCAR – Darlington
The classification of the race

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