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NASCAR Cup Series Fans Respond To Chase Briscoe’s Dominating Cook Out Southern 500 Playoff Performance At Darlington Raceway

Jeff Hawkins Written by Sports EditorJeff Hawkins
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NASCAR Cup Series Fans Respond To Chase Briscoe’s Dominating Cook Out Southern 500 Playoff Performance At Darlington Raceway

NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Briscoe, in his first season with the No. 19 Toyota team, indicated the unit’s potential had not yet been met. 

He can’t say that now. 

Briscoe led 309 laps to capture the playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. 

“I feel like this is what we’re capable of doing,” Briscoe told USA after his victorious burnout. “We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that, but the potential has been there since Day 1.” 

Briscoe held off Tyler Reddick over the final laps to earn back-to-back Southern 500 titles.  

“That was harder than it needed to be,” Briscoe joked. “It’s so cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. Great way to start our playoffs. That was a lot of fun.“ 

X (Twitter) users responded to the start of the postseason, proving to be a chaotic opening …

After eight wins on the Xfinity Series, including Saturday’s event at Portland with a broken collarbone, Connor Zilisch had nothing else to prove? …

Going green for a short time before the first caution at the track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame.” …

To suggest the obvious, a first-lap spinout/crash is not how Josh Berry wanted to start the postseason …

Brad Keselowski needed help from a friendly Ford team during a Stage 1 pit stop …

On lap 67, Alex Bowman pitted from P26 and experienced problems stemming from an air gun becoming unplugged …

Briscoe: Stage 1 champion …

Along Turn 1 on Lap 125, Carson Hocevar and Chase Elliott make contact while fighting for P14. Both cars continued, but Hocevar was not done causing Stage 2 chaos …

Christopher Bell slammed into Hocevar’s machine along pit row. How many drivers are going to line and want to speak with the 22-year-old pilot? Despite complaining on the team radio that he couldn’t drive the car, Hocevar finished P10 …

Briscoe voiced his concerns, but remained in control to sweep the first two stages, leading 183 of 230 laps. The issues did slow him down …

Resiliency aided Bowman in earning back the two lost laps by the end of Stage 2, but ended up fading at the end of the third stage …

By Lap 251, Briscoe became the fourth driver to reach the milestone of leading at least 200 laps in a Southern 500 crown jewel. The previous three did not visit Victory Lane …

Derek Kraus’ car caught fire on Lap 313 …

The late-race duel was on …

Briscoe proved he could handle the playoff pressure …

Jeff Hawkins Written by Sports EditorJeff Hawkins
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry, in both print and digital media. He joined the Sportscasting team in 2021 following a decade of freelancing. He spent his early career as a reporter for various newspapers in Illinois, New York, Florida, North Carolina, and Michigan, with a particular emphasis as a beat reporter for the Chicago Blackhawks. Jeff earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from Oakland University. Over the course of his career he earned several sports writing awards, including two national awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors for column writing and news reporting. One of the five prized columns included a commentary on NASCAR's increasing corporate influences, particularly in northern racetracks — commentary which you might find Jeff building on as part of the Motorsports writing team at Sportscasting now.  
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