Excelling on a night when most of the playoff field was struggling, Chase Briscoe won his second consecutive Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing star swept both stages of the playoff opener and led a race-high 309 of 367 laps on the 1.366-mile oval. It’s the second victory this season for Briscoe, who became the first driver to advance to the second round.
Briscoe held off a late charge by Tyler Reddick, who finished 0.408 seconds behind in second. Erik Jones finished third, followed by John Hunter Nemechek and AJ Allmendinger.
Bubba Wallace was sixth and Denny Hamlin seventh — the only other playoff drivers in the top 10.
The “Track Too Tough To Tame” took a brutal toll on the playoff field. Only four of the 16 championship-eligible drivers finished in the top 10 at Darlington, which opens the 10-race run to the title.
Among the playoff drivers who failed to finish on the lead lap were: Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry.
It took less than a lap for the first championship contender to encounter misfortune.
Josh Berry’s playoff debut went awry on his first trip into Turn 2 at full speed, losing control of his No. 21 Ford and drifting up into Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota. After completing only two laps under yellow, Berry went to the garage for repairs and returned after 125 laps to finish last (and record the race’s fastest lap).
Reddick soldiered on to second-place finishes in the first two stages despite right-side damage from Berry’s crash, which also led to minor impacts for Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher.
Berry was the first of several playoff drivers involved in incidents at Darlington, including several occurring in the pits during a yellow that began on Lap 153:
—Ryan Blaney spun his No. 12 Ford on the frontstretch after a Lap 209 restart but deftly avoided making contact with the inside wall.
—Denny Hamlin, who started from the pole position and led nine laps, fell to 25th after a poor pit stop on Lap 154. Hamlin had speculated earlier that the handling of his No. 11 Toyota might have suffered from damage (possibly from contact on a restart with Briscoe).
—Also during the Lap 154 stop, Christopher Bell suffered significant right-front damage after colliding with Carson Hocevar while exiting the stall.
—Regular-season champion William Byron also had a problem on his Lap 154 pit stop, stopping to have a wheel tightened.
—Alex Bowman, who entered the playoffs as the 16th and last seed, fell three laps down after a disastrous 40-second pit stop. His No. 48 Chevrolet finished XXth and likely will need to a win in the next two races to advance to the second round.
—Bubba Wallace, who led 10 laps, lost several positions on Lap 76 when he had to stop his No. 23 Toyota while exiting the pits to avoid the No. 38 Ford of Zane Smith.
WILL BE UPDATED
Stage 1 winner: Briscoe
Stage 2 winner: Briscoe
Next: Sunday, Sept. 7, 3 p.m. ET at World Wide Technology Raceway on USA
