Denny Hamlin bests JGR teammate Briscoe for Southern 500 pole
Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images
DARLINGTON, S.C.—If any active driver has come close to mastering the track “Too Tough to Tame,” it’s Denny Hamlin, who asserted his superiority once again in qualifying for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Gaining enormous time through Turns 3 and 4 on his single qualifying lap at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin knocked Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe off the provisional pole for the first NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race.
A five-time winner at Darlington — most among active drivers — Hamlin covered the 1.366-mile distance in 28.694 seconds (171.381 mph), beating Briscoe (171.255 mph) by 0.021 seconds. Briscoe had won the pole position for the previous three crown-jewel races — Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Brickyard 400.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Hamlin’s second at Darlington, his second of the 2025 season and the 45th of his career. He is the first driver to reach 40 poles in a Toyota, with his first five coming when JGR ran Chevrolets.
“It turned,” Hamlin said of the performance of his No. 11 Camry. “We struggled with balance all through race practice, but we made some good adjustments to run one lap.”
Hamlin acknowledged his car still needs work to enhance its performance in race trim.
After a stellar first two corners on his qualifying lap, Briscoe wasn’t as aggressive as he needed to be at the narrow end of the egg-shaped track.
“That one stings,” Briscoe said. “My 1 and 2 was really good, and I didn’t want to go into (Turn) 3 and hit the wall or something, so I under-drove it.”
Playoff drivers occupy the first 12 spots on the grid for Sunday’s race. Josh Berry qualified third at 170.578 mph in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Tyler Reddick was fourth at 170.466 mph in the No. 45 23XI Toyota, followed by Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports as the top Chevrolet driver.
Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, William Byron and Ryan Blaney will start from positions sixth through 12th, respectively.
The remaining four playoff drivers qualified as follows: Joey Logano (14th), Shane van Gisbergen (20th), Chase Elliott (21st) and Alex Bowman (29th).
Berry’s qualifying performance was his best since starting second at Atlanta nine races ago.
“I’m super proud of that effort,” he said. “Our big focus was trying to qualify better here, and the guys did a great job. I feel like our car is really strong, and I’m excited for (Sunday). The biggest thing I feel like I’ve fought here is starting position, so starting up front, I think we can just manage the race easier and obviously score some stage points.
“That’s going to be important, so just having a mistake-free day by taking care of the car and having good pit stops will help keep us in the hunt.”
McDowell fastest in practice
Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell topped the leaderboard in practice early Friday morning at 169.531 mph over teammate Justin Haley (168.856 mph) and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs (168.850 mph).
Carson Hocevar (168.394 mph) and Noah Gragson (168.135 mph) rounded out the top five.
Todd Gilliland (168.002 mph), AJ Allmendinger (167.653 mph), playoff driver Bubba Wallace (167.243 mph), Kyle Busch (167.203 mph) and John Hunter Nemechek (166.902 mph) completed the top 1o.
Four playoff drivers were outside of the top 30 on the speed charts, with Alex Bowman (31st), Shane van Gisbergen (32nd), Josh Berry (33rd) and Chase Elliott (34th).
Ryan Preece got up into the Turn 3 wall and earned an early Darlington stripe, while Zane Smith spun entering pit road. Neither incident in Group 1 brought out the caution. Group 2 was incident-free.
NOTEBOOK
Chase Briscoe comes to Darlington with great expectations
There’s one huge difference between Chase Briscoe’s approach to the Cook Out Southern 500 last year and his mind-set this year.
The level of expectations is exponentially higher for Sunday’s opening Playoff race at the Lady in Black (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Briscoe believes he has a championship-caliber team.
That wasn’t the case last year when the Southern 500 was the final race in the regular season. Briscoe needed a victory just to make the Playoffs, and after a near-perfect run, he took the checkered flag and qualified for the postseason.
Last year, Briscoe drove for moribund Stewart-Haas Racing. This year, he’s driving the potent No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, an organization that expects to win and compete for championships.
“Last year, nobody expected us (to win), and truthfully, as a race team, we weren’t coming into Darlington and being like ‘This is our weekend,’” Briscoe said. “At SHR (Stewart-Haas), you really couldn’t go to the race track each weekend and say we are going to win this weekend, or we are going to have a shot at it.
“We knew that we would be good, because we had been solid at Darlington, but I don’t think we thought we would have race-winning speed, I would say. So, this (the Playoff race) feels more pressure-packed than a win-or-go-home situation, because we all kind of made up our minds that we were probably going home anyways, and it just so happened that we won the race, and we were in.”
Josh Berry looks for mistake-free performances in first round of Playoffs
In baseball parlance, Josh Berry isn’t looking to hit a grand slam. Three solid singles should do nicely.
That’s Berry’s approach to the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, where Berry believes three well-executed races should be enough to put him in the Round of 12.
“We don’t have to go hit a home run,” Berry said on Saturday morning at Darlington Raceway, site of Sunday’s Playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “We just need to go be solid. I think we feel like three top 10s will be enough points probably to make it to the Round of 12.
“That’s where our head is at, so as long as we keep doing that, there’s not too much to think on until something changes.”
The Playoffs mark a reset of goals for Berry and the No.21 Wood Brothers Racing team. At the start of their first season together, the primary goal was simply to make the Playoffs.
“It’s a big deal,” said Berry, who qualified for the Playoffs by winning the fifth race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “It’s our biggest goal setting out this year. Obviously, to win my first race and if you do that, more than likely, you make the Playoffs, and here we are.
“It’s really cool. It’s been a fun year working with these guys. Everybody at the Wood Brothers has done a really good job. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m proud of the gains we’ve made with the 21 car compared to the last couple of years, and I feel like we’re set up to keep on doing that.
“Making the playoffs is fun, but, obviously, we want to be competitive and have a good start to this deal.”
A Wood Brothers driver hasn’t advanced past the first round since Ryan Blaney made the Round of 8 in 2017. Matt DiBenedetto was eliminated in the first round in 2020, and Harrison Burton suffered the same fate last year.
Kyle Larson must overcome potential pitfalls in first two Playoff rounds
After a lackluster stretch of races during the summer, top-seeded Kyle Larson enters the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs fresh from back-to-back sixth-place finishes at Richmond Raceway and Daytona International Speedway.
Larson expects to be fast in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Darlington Raceway, one of his best tracks, but there are challenges on the horizon in each of the first two rounds—specifically World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (second race in the Round of 16) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (first race in the Round of 12).
“Yeah, I think still the shorter, flatter tracks (are potential weaknesses), so seeing Gateway and New Hampshire in the Playoffs is not something that I was thrilled about,” Larson acknowledged. “But I do think we’ve made our package better on that style of track. You know, I look at Iowa—we were fast and (Hendrick Motorsports teammate) William (Byron) won.
“Chase (Elliott) was fast. Alex (Bowman) was fast. When we went to Richmond, we were all really good again. Alex finished second, and I think I was in sixth. Chase was probably one of the best cars that night. William was good, as well. I do think we’ve gotten our cars better on those places, but we still need to probably be better. We’ll see when we get to Gateway and New Hampshire.”
In three starts at WWT Raceway, Larson has one top five, a finish of fourth in 2023. At New Hampshire, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet has posted six top fives in 14 outings, including third- and fourth-place results in his last two races there.
NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Darlington Raceway
Cook Out Southern 500
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 8/30/2025 @ 11:18 AM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Matt Kenseth 05/11/13 03:32:45 141.383
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 11 Denny Hamlin (P) Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 28.694 171.381
2 19 Chase Briscoe (P) Bass Pro Shops Toyota 28.715 171.255
Row 2: 3 21 Josh Berry (P) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 28.829 170.578
4 45 Tyler Reddick (P) Pinnacle Toyota 28.848 170.466
Row 3: 5 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 28.925 170.012
6 1 Ross Chastain (P) Busch Light Retro Chevrolet 28.933 169.965
Row 4: 7 20 Christopher Bell (P) Rheem Toyota 28.962 169.795
8 23 Bubba Wallace (P) U.S. Air Force Toyota 28.985 169.660
Row 5: 9 3 Austin Dillon (P) BPS/Winchester Deer Season XP Chevrolet 29.004 169.549
10 2 Austin Cindric (P) Discount Tire Ford 29.023 169.438
Row 6: 11 24 William Byron (P) All-Pro Auto Reconditioning Chevrolet 29.025 169.426
12 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 29.032 169.386
Row 7: 13 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 29.060 169.222
14 22 Joey Logano (P) Shell Pennzoil Ford 29.080 169.106
Row 8: 15 17 Chris Buescher Kroger/Tree Top Ford 29.082 169.094
16 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 29.127 168.833
Row 9: 17 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 29.172 168.573
18 41 Cole Custer Autodesk/HaasTooling Add-In Ford 29.196 168.434
Row 10: 19 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 29.216 168.319
20 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # (P) WeatherTech Chevrolet 29.223 168.278
Row 11: 21 9 Chase Elliott (P) NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 29.226 168.261
22 16 AJ Allmendinger Black's Tire Chevrolet 29.234 168.215
Row 12: 23 8 Kyle Busch Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet 29.235 168.209
24 38 Zane Smith TitleMax Ford 29.245 168.152
Row 13: 25 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 29.249 168.129
26 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 29.249 168.129
Row 14: 27 60 Ryan Preece Trimble Ford 29.254 168.100
28 34 Todd Gilliland Grillo's Pickles Ford 29.263 168.048
Row 15: 29 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 29.269 168.014
30 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 29.327 167.682
Row 16: 31 10 Ty Dillon Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 29.338 167.619
32 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 29.401 167.260
Row 17: 33 35 Riley Herbst # Chumba Casino Toyota 29.445 167.010
34 4 Noah Gragson Long John Silver's Ford 29.511 166.636
Row 18: 35 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Pudgy Penguins Chevrolet 29.663 165.782
36 51 Cody Ware Parts Plus Ford 29.997 163.936
Row 19: 37 44 Derek Kraus Chevrolet 30.451 161.492
38 66 Timmy Hill(i) Garage 66 Ford 31.025 158.504
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 16 0 Ford 13 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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