Briscoe Dominant at Darlington, Earns Second Consecutive Cook Out Southern 500 Win

Chase Briscoe celebrates his Cook Out Southern 500 win at Darlington. Photo Credit: (Fisher Giannotti Motorsports Today)

DARLINGTON, S.C, – The NASCAR Cup Series faced its last crown jewel race of the season at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, August 31, for the Cook Out Southern 500. This race marked the first race of the playoffs, kicking things off with the Round of 16. After a week filled with drama in the 23XI lawsuit, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin scored the second pole of his career at Darlington. Hamlin had won the race at Darlington previously in May, so the pole gave him an extra dose of confidence and momentum. Though the race ended solidly for  Denny, he had an up-and-down day.  At the end of 500 miles, Chase Briscoe scored the win, advancing themself to the Round of 12.

Setting the Grid:

Along with Hamlin's pole, teammate Chase Briscoe came one spot shy of making history of crown jewel perfection, as he had scored the pole in every jewel race previous this season. Behind, followed a brigade of ten playoff cars, before the first non-playoff driver, Justin Haley of Spire Motorsports in 13th. The only playoff cars that qualified outside the top 20 were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott, who started 21st, and Alex Bowman, who clocked in 29th. Both would have a long 500 miles ahead, as passing at Darlington is a very challenging task.

Stage One:

The fans were brought to their feet with a lot of energy for the opening lap. However, the energy changed to screams quickly, as out of turn two, Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry bottomed out under 23XI’s Tyler Reddick, sending himself into a tailspin. As a result, Berry made contact with Reddick, but to Reddick's luck, he was able to make a spectacular save. As for Berry, he was unlucky as he suffered severe left rear damage in the incident, bringing out the caution and sending him behind the wall.

Chase Briscoe had won the battle out of turn two before the caution came out, and led the field to the green on the lap six restart. Briscoe, in the first stage, went on to lead the opening thirty-four laps before surrendering the lead to 23XI’s Bubba Wallace, making a green flag stop. Wallace led nine laps before making his stop, playing the overcut strategy.

No cars except for Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Brad Keselowski had issues on the cycle, as he had pitted outside the box, leading to a pass-through penalty. On lap 54, Briscoe inherited the lead back from Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, who was on a one-stop strategy. Wallace, who pitted eight laps later, cycled to the second position just under five seconds behind.

Another playoff-altering moment happened on lap 66, as Alex Bowman, who was aggressive on pit strategy, came down to make his second stop of the stage. Bowman did not qualify well and was 26th, fighting to stay on the lead lap. Unfortunately, an issue occurred where the air hoses were disconnected on his pit stop. As a result, the pit guns were not working. This led to an over-40-second pit stop costing Bowman multiple laps. He returned to the track, three laps off the lead in 36th.

More pit stops ensued, as Chase Briscoe again led the field pitting on lap 74. His stop was clean, and he eventually found himself back in the lead. Bubba Wallace lost some time exiting his stall as he had a near-collision moment with Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith, who was attempting to enter his stall ahead of Wallace as he was exiting. Luckily, neither made contact, but it cost both drivers time.

Denny Hamlin filled Wallace’s spot in 2nd, as he came within a few tenths of Briscoe, who had some trouble lapping Alex Bowman, but realistically didn’t have enough tire to challenge his teammate. At the stage's end, Chase Briscoe earned his third stage win of the season. Behind, there was a hard battle for the free pass position, and it was won by Trackhouse’s Shane Van Gisbergen, putting 25 cars on the lead lap for the second stage.

An interesting thing to note at the end of the first stage, the Darlington race in May had only seen four total lead changes from start to finish. While it all came from pit strategy in the opening stage, the lead change total was six. The Southern 500 in the previous year had 26 total, the most in 16 years.

STAGE TWO:

When the green flag came back out on lap 122, Briscoe led the field back to the green flag. Unlike the first stage, this time trouble did not happen on the exit of turn two, leading to a really hard race for the lead. In turn, Hamlin made contact with Briscoe, causing him to lose momentum and fall behind Hamlin.

Behind, things got crazy, as Carson Hocevar made contact with multiple drivers, including playoff contender Chase Elliott. Despite all the smoke, there was no caution, allowing the battle for the lead to spice up.

On lap 132, Briscoe prevailed again, going back to the point. On the radio, Denny Hamlin mentioned multiple issues, as he felt he may have had damage as his wheel wasn't fully aligned, and also felt his clutch was not fully engaging. Despite those issues, it didn't impact Hamlin’s pace on the track as he remained in second at that time.

His race would have a changing moment after Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar went for a spin on lap 151, allowing everyone to pit. During the stops, both Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron had issues, causing both to restart outside the top 20.

When the green flag returned, the race saw a pit stop cycle begin for the front runners when Hendrick’s Kyle Larson pitted on lap 185. A lap later, Tyler Reddick, who was 2nd pit, then Briscoe, a lap later. Chase Elliott led eight laps past the halfway point, but eventually Briscoe took the lead back on lap 200.

Two laps later, the stage changed again as Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware spun off the nose of Ryan Preece, causing a caution. On this transition, Alex Bowman took the wave around to put himself one lap down, hoping for a miracle. On the restart, Ryan Blaney went for a spin, staying out of the wall, but damaged his splitter with a flat tire. This allowed Bowman to pit and get fresh tires.

Bowman ultimately became the first car one lap down at the stage's end, putting him back on the lead lap, giving the team another chance. Chase Briscoe swept the stages, as he won stage two. Behind, also displayed a strong showing from two non-playoff contenders, as Legacy’s Erik Jones finished 3rd along with Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger.

THE FINAL STAGE:

Briscoe again led the field to the green with Tyler Reddick restarting to his inside. This time, though, Reddick prevailed; a bad jump for Briscoe put the team in a prime position. But the lead was only brief as Briscoe took it back on lap 240, just three laps later.

Earlier in the race, Bubba Wallace had pit stop issues, but after a grind, he found himself in the mix running third. Denny Hamlin, who had multiple issues about 100 laps earlier, found himself in the mix for getting back into the top ten, as he ran 12th with a solid recovery.

On lap 269, Brad Keselowski began the pit cycle from the back of the field in 30th, opening up the strategy game. Three laps later, Penske Racing’s Joey Logano pitted, then Briscoe a lap later.  Denny Hamlin, as expected, went the longest of anyone, as he made his stop on lap 279. Briscoe cycled back out to a 1.6-second lead while Hamlin returned in 20th.

On lap 296 with 70 laps to go, Briscoe’s lead barely grew to 1.795 seconds. However, it was clear that if the race stayed green, only four cars would have a shot at the win. Both Legacy cars of Nemechek and Jones rounded out the top four, under four seconds behind.

On lap 312, that lead shrank, and seemingly a battle for the lead was about to happen, but a caution would save Briscoe. NY Racing’s Derek Kraus had his car ignite into flames on the apron after an issue, causing him to come to a stop in front of the fire marshals.

During that, Blaney, who spun earlier, came down to the pit to make his scheduled stop. Unfortunately, this trapped him a lap down, not in the lucky dog position, but he had to settle for a wave-around to get back on the lead lap.  Out of the pits under caution, Briscoe beat out Reddick, setting things up for what potentially was the final restart of the race.

This time on the lap 319 restart, Briscoe got a much better restart, but didn't clear Reddick until the exit of turn four. Once Briscoe got clear, it was simply smooth sailing, as he again easily climbed to a 1.5-second lead over Reddick.

Behind, bad luck happened to a few more playoff drivers. After Christoper Bell had an extended stop earlier to repair damage, he lost the pace the car had early, and needed a Hail Mary move to stay on the lead lap. Bell, who pitted on lap 273, opted to take a wave around on the lap 312 caution, but did not get the luck he needed as he had to pit for fresh tires, dropping him to 31st.

The other bad luck, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain was told there was a fueling issue on his pit stop. As a result, he was about two laps short to the end, requiring him to save gas or otherwise need to pit. Chastain opted to save.

As for the leader Briscoe, the lead began to shrink again, as on lap 344, Reddick closed the gap down to .444 on Chase. Erik Jones also began closing in, as he narrowed the gap to under a second.

For Jones, the gap stayed under a second the remainder of the race, but he never got as close to the lead as he did on the final lap. Behind Briscoe,  Reddick closed in. For the final 15 laps, it was bumper to bumper and a battle of grit. But Briscoe was defensive, and strong at that.

When the white flag came out, Reddick took one shot, sending it deep into turn three for a dive attempt. The attempt was hard, but it didn't come close. Chase Briscoe did something that no one had done in nearly twenty years, as he won back-to-back Southern 500s.

After the race, Chase said, “Anytime you can do something in NASCAR that's not been done a whole lot, it's a special feeling.”

Regarding whether this was his best put-together win or not, Briscoe said, “I felt like last year I drove a better race just from start to finish. My car, I didn’t feel like it was necessarily the best car, just the circumstances and everything. I definitely felt like last year I drove a better race and executed.

Regardless if Briscoe thinks this was his best race or not, there is no denying the momentum that is behind him and this Joe Gibbs racing team. He can now be worry-free until the start of the Round of 12 in late September at New Hampshire.

UP NEXT:

The NASCAR Cup Series heads out to the mid-west, as they take on World Wide Technology Raceway, Sunday, September 2nd,  another track where track position is key as it will be hard to pass. This is the first time the track will host a race in the playoffs, and will also be the site of the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season finale. The race can be found on the USA Network at 3:00 p.m. 

Cook Out Southern 500 Results:

Position	Driver	#	Lap #	Delta
1	Chase Briscoe	19	367	0
2	Tyler Reddick	45	367	-0.408
3	Erik Jones	43	367	-0.537
4	John Hunter Nemechek	42	367	-1.250
5	AJ Allmendinger	16	367	-6.158
6	Bubba Wallace	23	367	-6.712
7	Denny Hamlin	11	367	-12.013
8	Kyle Busch	8	367	-12.140
9	Carson Hocevar	77	367	-15.230
10	Chris Buescher	17	367	-15.381
11	Ross Chastain	1	367	-15.791
12	Austin Cindric	2	367	-17.158
13	Zane Smith	38	367	-17.886
14	Noah Gragson	4	367	-19.705
15	Brad Keselowski	6	367	-23.077
16	Ryan Preece	60	367	-24.184
17	Chase Elliott	9	367	-24.395
18	Ryan Blaney	12	367	-25.407
19	Kyle Larson	5	367	-26.858
20	Joey Logano	22	367	-27.533
21	William Byron	24	367	-28.003
22	Ty Gibbs	54	367	-28.583
23	Austin Dillon	3	367	-29.462
24	Cole Custer	41	367	-30.388
25	Daniel Suarez	99	366	-1
26	Todd Gilliland	34	366	-1
27	Justin Haley	7	366	-1
28	Riley Herbst	35	366	-1
29	Christopher Bell	20	365	-2
30	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	47	365	-2
31	Alex Bowman	48	365	-2
32	Shane Van Gisbergen	88	365	-2
33	Michael McDowell	71	365	-2
34	Ty Dillon	10	365	-2
35	Timmy Hill	66	354	-13
36	Derek Kraus	44	282	-85
37	Cody Ware	51	249	-118
38	Josh Berry	21	239	-128