September 1, 2025 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Chase Briscoe wins second straight Southern 500

DARLINGTON, S.C.—Chase Briscoe was perfection in a world of mistakes, a no-funny-business driver in a comedy of errors.

And at the end of the final green-flag run on Sunday night at Darlington Raceway — after a 20-lap stint of unrelenting tension — Briscoe was a back-to-back winner of the Cook Out Southern 500 and a guaranteed participant in the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Briscoe led 309 of 367 laps and swept the first two stages, but he had to hold off a determined charge by Tyler Reddick after the race restarted on Lap 319. Reddick got close in the final 10 laps, driving beneath Briscoe entering Turn 3 coming to the checkered flag, but didn’t have the impetus necessary to complete a winning pass.

Briscoe crossed the start/finish line 0.408 seconds ahead of Reddick and 0.537 seconds ahead of non-playoff driver Erik Jones in third to secure his second victory of the season, his second at the “Lady in Black” and the fourth of his career.

“Yeah, I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing,” said Briscoe, who led Toyota drivers to their third 1-2-3-4 finish in Cup Series history, the last coming at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2017. “We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from day one.

Related Story
NASCAR at Darlington, Portland: Key info, links, results for race weekend
NASCAR at Darlington, Portland: Key info, links, results for race weekend
“So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row … A great way to start our playoffs. That was a lot of fun.”

Briscoe is the first driver to win consecutive Southern 500s since Greg Biffle accomplished the feat in 2005 and 2006.

SHOP: Chase Briscoe winner gear

John Hunter Nemechek was fourth in his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Camry. Chevrolet driver AJ Allmendinger ran fifth, followed by Toyota drivers Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin, as Toyota placed six drivers in the top seven positions in a Cup race for the first time.

Driving from the outset with a tire mark on the driver’s side of his car — the result of a Lap 1 collision with Josh Berry — Reddick kept the pressure on Briscoe for the final 20 laps, but Briscoe didn’t buckle.

“We were better than he was on long runs,” Reddick said. “He could fire off a whole lot better. I think that was the difference tonight. I could get close. Yeah, I know we had a long run there, but it just unfortunately seemed like the last run, the balance wasn’t quite as good as it had been the rest of the night on the long run.

“All in all, a really solid night for points in the playoffs. Really want to win here. It’s frustrating to finish second …”

With Briscoe already qualified for the Round of 12 with the victory, Reddick improved his position to 35 points above the cutline.

If Briscoe had a night to remember, most of the other 15 playoff drivers spent the evening recovering from mistakes — or failing to do so.

WATCH: Briscoe on high-pressure situations | James Small on No. 19 team’s pre-race message

Wallace had a solid day in finishing sixth in the playoff opener, ending the evening 25 points above the current cutline with two races left in the Round of 16.

Hamlin, a four-time winner in the regular season, overcame a slow pit stop on Lap 154 and spent the rest of the race clawing his way back to seventh at the finish.

Playoff drivers Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric came home 11th and 12th, respectively. Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Camaro was the highest-finishing playoff Chevrolet; all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers scored outside the top 15.

Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champion, was the best of the Hendrick lot in 17th and heads for next Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) just nine points above the cutline.

Top-seeded Kyle Larson and teammate William Byron ran 19th and 21st, respectively, to hold third and fifth in the playoff standings, but others weren’t as fortunate.

On the first lap of the race, the “Lady in Black” struck quickly, and Berry’s championship hopes took a nosedive.

Moments after taking the green flag in the third starting spot, Berry’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford broke loose beneath Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota in Turn 2.

After contact with Reddick’s Toyota, Berry’s Mustang slammed into the outside wall, severely damaging the left rear and the undercarriage. After completing two laps, Berry drove his car to the garage for extensive repairs.

Berry returned to the track 119 laps down but finished last (38th) and fell to 16th in the playoff standings, 19 points below the cutline.

“The car bottomed out five or six times and just wrecked,” Berry said. “It was definitely unexpected. We didn’t really fight that too bad in practice. I saw a replay of it when I was sitting in the car while they were fixing it, and you could tell that it bottomed out four or five times, and you can’t save them when they’re like that.”

Alex Bowman was the next of the playoff drivers to suffer brutal misfortune. Thanks to a malfunctioning air supply to the front tire changer’s pit gun, Bowman spent 40 seconds on pit road during his second green flag stop and was down a lap when pit stops cycled out.

On Lap 93 of the first stage, Briscoe passed Bowman to put the No. 48 Chevrolet two laps in arrears. After three wave-arounds, Bowman finally returned to the lead lap as the beneficiary under caution at the end of Stage 2 (Lap 230).

The No. 48 Chevrolet pilot couldn’t hold his position in the final stage and finished the race two laps down in 31st, tied with Berry in the standings.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

Christopher Bell’s Toyota collided on pit road with the Chevrolet of non-playoff driver Carson Hocevar on Lap 154. With the handling of his car destroyed, Bell finished 29th, two laps down, and fell to 10th in the Playoff standings, 11 points above the cut line.

Road course titan Shane van Gisbergen was burned by an inopportune caution after running long before pitting in the final stage and finished 32nd, spending most of the 22 playoff points he earned with four wins during the regular season.

Van Gisbergen is 12th in the standings, just three points ahead of 20th-place finisher Joey Logano, the first driver below the cutline. Richmond winner Austin Dillon came home 23rd and is 14th on the playoff grid, eight points behind van Gisbergen.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Briscoe as the Darlington winner. No cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 27
Race Results for the Cook Out Southern 500 - Sunday, August 31, 2025
Darlington Raceway - Darlington, SC - 1.366 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 367 Laps - 501.322 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 8/31/2025 @ 10:04 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 19 Chase Briscoe (P) Bass Pro Shops Toyota 367 1 1 60 Running 9 309 7
2 4 45 * Tyler Reddick (P) Pinnacle Toyota 367 2 2 53 Running 1 3
3 19 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 367  3 42 Running  
4 30 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 367 9 8 38 Running 2 15
5 22 16 AJ Allmendinger Black's Tire Chevrolet 367  5 38 Running  
6 8 23 * Bubba Wallace (P) U.S. Air Force Toyota 367 5 7 41 Running 2 10
7 1 11 Denny Hamlin (P) Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 367 3  38 Running 3 12
8 23 8 Kyle Busch Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet 367   29 Running  
9 26 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 367   28 Running  
10 15 17 Chris Buescher Kroger/Tree Top Ford 367   27 Running  
11 6 1 Ross Chastain (P) Busch Light Retro Chevrolet 367 4 6 38 Running 1 3
12 10 2 Austin Cindric (P) Discount Tire Ford 367 8  28 Running  
13 24 38 * Zane Smith TitleMax Ford 367   24 Running  
14 34 4 * Noah Gragson Long John Silver's Ford 367   23 Running  
15 32 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 367   22 Running  
16 27 60 Ryan Preece Trimble Ford 367  9 23 Running  
17 21 9 Chase Elliott (P) NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 367   20 Running 1 8
18 12 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 367 10  20 Running  
19 5 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 367 6 4 30 Running 1 2
20 14 22 Joey Logano (P) Shell Pennzoil Ford 367   17 Running  
21 11 24 William Byron (P) All-Pro Auto Reconditioning Chevrolet 367  10 17 Running  
22 16 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 367   15 Running  
23 9 3 Austin Dillon (P) BPS/Winchester Deer Season XP Chevrolet 367   14 Running  
24 18 41 Cole Custer Autodesk/HaasTooling Add-In Ford 367   13 Running  
25 17 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 366   12 Running  
26 28 34 * Todd Gilliland Grillo's Pickles Ford 366   11 Running  
27 13 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 366   10 Running  
28 33 35 * Riley Herbst # Chumba Casino Toyota 366   9 Running  
29 7 20 Christopher Bell (P) Rheem Toyota 365 7  12 Running 1 2
30 35 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Pudgy Penguins Chevrolet 365   7 Running  
31 29 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 365   6 Running  
32 20 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # (P) WeatherTech Chevrolet 365   5 Running 3 3
33 25 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 365   4 Running  
34 31 10 Ty Dillon Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 365   3 Running  
35 38 66 * Timmy Hill(i) Garage 66 Ford 354   0 Running  
36 37 44 * Derek Kraus  Chevrolet 282   1 Mechanical  
37 36 51 Cody Ware Parts Plus Ford 249   1 Suspension  
38 3 21 Josh Berry (P) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 239   2 Running  

Fastest Lap Bonus:  # 21 lap 114 / 29.038

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 51 Mins, 7 Secs. Average Speed: 130.148 MPH Margin of Victory: .408 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 45, 11, 1, 23, 5, 20, 2, 42, 12
Stage 2 Top 10: 19, 45, 43, 5, 16, 1, 23, 42, 60, 24

Race Comments: Chase Briscoe won the Cook Out Southern 500, his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following cars dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: Nos. 34, 51 (unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 7 for 37 laps; Laps: 2-6 (#21, 45, 8, 17, 99 incident turn 2 [None]); 117-122 (Stage 1 Conclusion [88]); 153-157 (#77 spin turn 4 [41]); 204-208 (#51,
60 incident backstretch [47]); 211-214 (#3, 12 incident frontstretch [99]); 232-237 (Stage 2 Conclusion [48]); 314-319 (#44 stalled on track [9]).

Lead Changes: 24 among 10 drivers; D. Hamlin (P) 0; C. Briscoe (P) 1-34; *. Wallace (P) 35-43; J. Nemechek 44-55; C. Briscoe (P) 56-74; *. Wallace (P) 75; K. Larson (P) 76-77; C. Bell (P) 78-79; S. Van Gisbergen # (P) 80; J. Nemechek 81-83; C. Briscoe (P) 84-121; D. Hamlin (P) 122; C. Briscoe (P) 123; D. Hamlin (P) 124-131; C. Briscoe (P) 132-187; C. Elliott (P) 188-195; C. Briscoe (P) 196-205; S. Van Gisbergen # (P) 206; C. Briscoe (P) 207-236; *. Reddick (P) 237-239; C. Briscoe (P) 240-273; R. Chastain (P) 274-276; D. Hamlin (P) 277-279; S. Van Gisbergen # (P) 280; C. Briscoe (P) 281-367.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: September 7, 2025 - World Wide Technology Raceway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875



NASCAR CUP SERIES PLAYOFF STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 19 Chase Briscoe  Toyota    1 PLAYOFF WIN
2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota +43
3 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet +38
4 45 Tyler ReddickToyota +35
5 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota +25
6 24 William Byron Chevrolet +25
7 12 Ryan Blaney Ford +22
8 1 Ross ChastainChevrolet +21
9 2AustinCindricFord +12
10 20ChristopherBellToyota +11
11 9ChaseElliottChevrolet +9
12 88ShaneVan GisbergenChevrolet +3

CUTOFF LINE

13 22 Joey LoganoFord -3
14 3 AustinDillon Chevrolet -8
15 48 Alex BowmanChevrolet -19
16 21 JoshBerryFord -19