Race report
NASCAR Cup Darlington II
Chase Briscoe goes back-to-back in dramatic Southern 500 Darlington win
Despite a valiant charge from Reddick, Briscoe could not be stopped as he won the 76th running of the Southern 500
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Sep 1, 2025, 6:10 AM
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Chase Briscoe led 309 of 367 laps in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and swept the stages, but he nearly lost it all in the final corner. Tyler Reddick made a huge dive to the inside, but he couldn't quite get there, allowing Briscoe to earn his second consecutive Southern 500 -- doing so with two different teams.
Briscoe is the first driver to go back-to-back in the crown jewel event since Greg Biffle in 2005-2006, and just the eighth ever to do it.
"There at the end, that was way harder than it needed to be," said Briscoe after the race. "Man, just incredible. As a fan, I've watched Martin [Truex Jr.] dominate a lot of races, and it was fun to 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 you race fans, 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."
With the victory, Briscoe is automatically locked into the Round of 12.
Reddick finished second, followed by the Legacy Motor Club duo of Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, while A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top five.
Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carson Hocevar, and Chris Buescher filled out the remainder of the top ten. Ross Chastain, who had to save two laps of fuel due to a fueling issue on his final stop, fell back to 11th.
Other playoff drivers deeper in the field: Austin Cindric in 12th, Chase Elliott 17th, Ryan Blaney 18th, Kyle Larson 19th, Joey Logano 20th, William Byron 21st, Austin Dillon 23rd, Christopher Bell 29th, Alex Bowman 31st, Shane van Gisbergen 32nd, and Josh Berry 38th.
SVG is sitting on the bubble in the playoff battle, and the four drivers in the elimination zone after the Southern 500 are Logano (-3pts), Dillon (-8pts), Bowman (-19pts), and Berry (-19pts).
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Stage 1
It didn't take long for things to get out of control on Sunday night. Berry, who started third, lost control in Turn 1, Lap 1. He slid up into the door of Reddick, and spun into the wall in front of the entire field. Somehow, everyone avoided piling into the No. 21, but Berry will begin the playoffs in a very deep hole.
Bowman started deeper in the field than any other playoff driver, but it didn't get any better after the green flag. He struggled in the pack, and a mistake-filled 40-second pit stop under green where the air gun became detached from the hose and left him trapped two laps down.
The opening stage featured two cycles of green-flag pit stops, but it was Briscoe firmly in control of the race.
Near the end of Stage 1, a thrilling battle for the free pass unfolded around 25th place. SVG, making his first appearance in the playoffs, was desperately running down Todd Gilliland and Riley Herbst for the free pass. On the final lap of the stage, he passed both cars in the same corner, even swapping paint with Herbst.
That was enough to secure SVG the free pass, as Briscoe earned the Stage 1 win over Reddick, Hamlin, Chastain, and Wallace.
Stage 2
Briscoe and Hamlin shared the front row on the restart, but the two teammates actually touched wheels. After a brief battle, Briscoe once again drove off with the lead as Hamlin faded. He openly wondered on the radio if there was something wrong with his car.
Bowman took the wave-around on old tires, hoping for a quick yellow. He did not get it, and remained trapped multiple laps down as he was forced to pit road under green.
Carson Hocevar was involved in some wild battles in the middle of the pack, slamming doors with Chase Elliott before squeezing Chris Buescher into the wall. He spun out on his own soon after, resulting in a caution.
But the drama was not over for Hocevar, who actually collided with Bell as he tried to enter his stall, spinning out. The collision caused damage to the nose of Bell's car, and trapped Blaney in his box as the incident unfolded directly in front of him.
There were more mistakes from playoff drivers, with a slow stop for Hamlin putting him to the rear of the field. Byron had a loose wheel, costing him all of his track position as well.
Briscoe held off Chastain on the restart, as two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones made an impressive charge up into the runner-up spot.
Briscoe was just cruising out front, but he complained about no cool suit and no helmet fan due to a voltage issue, making things very uncomfortable inside his car.
The field made another round of green-flag pit stops with just over 40 laps to go, which saw no mistakes from the playoff contenders.
Cody Ware got punted by Ryan Preece and went for a spin with 28 laps to go, forcing the caution flag to fly.
The field came down pit road for fresh rubber, and on the restart, Jones made a wild three-wide move for the lead. It didn't work out as Briscoe maintained his advantage in front of the field.
When Busch got sideways in front of him, Blaney attempted to lift, only to get run over from behind by Dillon. He spun out, but narrowly avoided slamming the inside wall.
This caution helped Bowman to get one of his two laps back after another wave-around gamble. He got bad on the lead lap at the end of the stage, snagging the free pass as well.
Briscoe swept the stages, followed by Reddick, Jones, Larson, and A.J. Allmendinger in Stage 2.
Stage 3
Reddick got the lead on the restart, but it didn't last as Briscoe quickly moved back ahead.
Legacy Motor Club was having a stellar run, putting two cars inside the top five as the run continued.
The first of two green-flag pit stops began on Lap 274 of 367, but one car decided to jump onto a one-stop plan. That was SVG, who didn't pit until after Lap 300 with no plans to return to pit road.
As battles raged around the track, Chastain and Buescher had quite the moment, with the No. 17 hitting the wall. He then gave Chastain a shot in the rear bumper in a show of disapproval of the hard racing.
Unfortunately, SVG's gamble did not work out for him. Derek Kraus pulled to the side of the track as his No. 44 went in flames, forcing a yellow flag with just over 50 laps remaining in the race.
Briscoe held onto the lead on the restart that followed, but he had to fend off a hard-charging Reddick in the closing laps as a quartet of Toyotas from three different teams controlled the race.
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NASCAR Cup
41
Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info
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4
Main Information Additional Data
1
-
2
Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points Retirement 1 C. Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing 19 Toyota 367
3:51'07.213
11 60 2 T. Reddick 23XI Racing 45 Toyota 367
+0.408
3:51'07.621
0.408 12 53 3 E. Jones Legacy Motor Club 43 Toyota 367
+0.537
3:51'07.750
0.129 12 42 4 J. Nemechek Legacy Motor Club 42 Toyota 367
+1.250
3:51'08.463
0.713 11 38 5 A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 367
+6.158
3:51'13.371
4.908 12 38 6 B. Wallace 23XI Racing 23 Toyota 367
+6.712
3:51'13.925
0.554 12 41 7 D. Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Toyota 367
+12.013
3:51'19.226
5.301 12 38 8 K. Busch Richard Childress Racing 8 Chevrolet 367
+12.140
3:51'19.353
0.127 14 29 9 C. Hocevar Spire Motorsports 77 Chevrolet 367
+15.230
3:51'22.443
3.090 12 28 10 C. Buescher RFK Racing 17 Ford 367
+15.381
3:51'22.594
0.151 13 27 11 R. Chastain TrackHouse Racing 1 Chevrolet 367
+15.791
3:51'23.004
0.410 12 38 12 A. Cindric Team Penske 2 Ford 367
+17.158
3:51'24.371
1.367 12 28 13 Z. Smith Front Row Motorsports 38 Ford 367
+17.886
3:51'25.099
0.728 13 24 14 N. Gragson Front Row Motorsports 4 Ford 367
+19.705
3:51'26.918
1.819 13 23 15 B. Keselowski RFK Racing 6 Ford 367
+23.077
3:51'30.290
3.372 12 22 16 R. Preece RFK Racing 60 Ford 367
+24.184
3:51'31.397
1.107 12 23 17 C. Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 367
+24.395
3:51'31.608
0.211 12 20 18 R. Blaney Team Penske 12 Ford 367
+25.407
3:51'32.620
1.012 14 20 19 K. Larson Hendrick Motorsports 5 Chevrolet 367
+26.858
3:51'34.071
1.451 12 30 20 J. Logano Team Penske 22 Ford 367
+27.533
3:51'34.746
0.675 12 17 21 W. Byron Hendrick Motorsports 24 Chevrolet 367
+28.003
3:51'35.216
0.470 12 17 22 T. Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing 54 Toyota 367
+28.583
3:51'35.796
0.580 12 15 23 A. Dillon Richard Childress Racing 3 Chevrolet 367
+29.462
3:51'36.675
0.879 12 14 24 C. Custer Haas Factory Team 41 Ford 367
+30.388
3:51'37.601
0.926 13 13 25 D. Suarez TrackHouse Racing 99 Chevrolet 366
+1 Lap
3:51'36.142
1 Lap 15 12 26 T. Gilliland Front Row Motorsports 34 Ford 366
+1 Lap
3:51'37.071
0.929 14 11 27 J. Haley Spire Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 366
+1 Lap
3:51'38.360
1.289 12 10 28 R. Herbst 23XI Racing 35 Toyota 366
+1 Lap
3:51'39.232
0.872 12 9 29 C. Bell Joe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 365
+2 Laps
3:51'08.653
1 Lap 14 12 30 R. Stenhouse Jr Hyak Motorsports 47 Chevrolet 365
+2 Laps
3:51'09.061
0.408 13 7 31 A. Bowman Hendrick Motorsports 48 Chevrolet 365
+2 Laps
3:51'10.951
1.890 12 6 32 S. van Gisbergen TrackHouse Racing 88 Chevrolet 365
+2 Laps
3:51'16.498
5.547 11 5 33 M. McDowell Spire Motorsports 71 Chevrolet 365
+2 Laps
3:51'25.192
8.694 12 4 34 T. Dillon Kaulig Racing 10 Chevrolet 365
+2 Laps
3:51'35.095
9.903 11 3 35 T. Hill Garage 66 66 Ford 354
+13 Laps
3:51'21.745
11 Laps 12 36 D. Kraus NY Racing Team 44 Chevrolet 282
+85 Laps
3:17'14.474
72 Laps 12 1 Mechanical 37 C. Ware Rick Ware Racing 51 Ford 249
+118 Laps
2:51'48.395
33 Laps 9 1 Suspension 38
J. Berry Wood Brothers Racing
21 Ford 239
+128 Laps
3:51'11.635
10 Laps 14 2 View full results
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