For the second year in a row, Chase Briscoe scored a clutch victory in the Southern 500.
Briscoe led 309 laps in Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway, earning his way into the Round of 12 with the most dominant victory of his career. The win is the second of 2025 for Briscoe and the fourth of his career.
“Man, what an incredible Bass Pro Shops Toyota,” Briscoe told USA Network. “Great way to start our playoffs.”
Runner-up Tyler Reddick was able to briefly pull beside Briscoe in the final corner, but was unable to mount a charge on the front stretch.
“The one time we got ahead of him there, we just got too tight,” Reddick told USA Network. “The last run, the balance wasn’t quite as good (as it was) the rest of the night.”
Reddick, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five, with Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher completing the top 10.
Other notable finishers include Ross Chastain in 11th, Austin Cindric in 12th, Chase Elliott in 17th, Ryan Blaney in 18th, Kyle Larson in 19th, Joey Logano in 20th, William Byron in 21st, Austin Dillon in 23rd, Christopher Bell in 29th, Alex Bowman in 31st, Shane van Gisbergen in 32nd and Josh Berry in 38th.
Hamlin leads the playoff standings among drivers in on points. The three-time Daytona 500 winner is 43 points above the cut line going into the second race of the playoffs at World Wide Technology Raceway. Van Gisbergen is the last driver above the cut line, three points above defending-champion Logano for 12th.
