Chase Briscoe wins back to back at Cookout Southern 500 in Darlington

DARLINGTON, SC (WMBF) – The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs starts with the Cook Out Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway on Sunday.

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.

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 320.

Reddick got close in the final 10 laps, driving beneath Briscoe entering Turn 3, but didn’t have the impetus necessary to complete a winning pass.

Briscoe crossed the 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 NASCAR Cup history, the last coming at Bristol in 2017. “We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from day one.

“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.

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.

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