Chase Briscoe clinches first Championship 4 berth with thrilling overtime victory at Talladega

In a season filled with a new beginning by driving for a new organization, Chase Briscoe is a first-time NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 finalist. He earned a thrilling overtime victory in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 19.

The two-time Southern 500 champion from Mitchell, Indiana, led seven times for 16 of 193 over-scheduled laps. He started on the front row and was racing upfront in the early stages before he was penalized for speeding on pit road during an early cycle of green flag pit stops just past the Lap 40 mark. Briscoe rallied by leading on three occasions late in the second stage period. He also had to fend off challenges from Kyle Larson and the field to capture the stage victory.

As the event progressed, Briscoe was dicing the competition within the draft from the midpoint to the front, was scored in sixth place. But a late-race caution for Chris Buescher’s accident sent the field into overtime. During the overtime shootout, Briscoe drafted Bubba Wallace for the lead before the final lap. He then executed his race-winning pass on Wallace exiting the backstretch.

With a push from teammate Ty Gibbs through the frontstretch, Briscoe had enough horsepower and fuel to fend off the field and score a victory. It was not only his third of the 2025 season. But it also enabled him to achieve a guaranteed berth to contend for his first Cup Series championship.

On-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurred on Saturday, October 18. And, Michael McDowell was the Playoff spoiler during the session. He notched his second Cup Series pole of the 2025 season. It was also his third at Talladega and the eighth of his career. The pole-winning lap was at 182.466 mph in 52.481 seconds. Joining McDowell on the front row was Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, with a lap at 182.400 mph in 52.500 seconds.

Prior to the event, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, along with 23XI Racing’s Riley Herbst, were dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective Toyota entries.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Michael McDowell and Chase Briscoe dueled against one another in front of a stacked field through the first two turns. As the field began to fan out to three lanes, McDowell was able to lead the first lap, But he was soon challenged by Josh Berry and a host of front-runners during the second lap.

Over the next four laps, three lead changes occurred. Berry, Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace each led at least a lap ahead of a stacked field of competitors that had fanned out from three lanes to four. Wallace, who led the fifth lap mark, led the next two laps. However, Berry was drafted to the lead from the outside lane by the eighth lap. Berry would then proceed to lead at the Lap 10 mark. 

Through the first 15 scheduled laps, all 40 competitors entered for the event were separated by two seconds. And, the top 22 were separated by under a second. At the front, Berry, who has led since the eighth lap, retained the top spot in front of Joey Logano, Shane van Gisbergen, Justin Haley and Ryan Preece. Austin Hill, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Antony Alfredo and Chase Briscoe were racing in the top 10.

By then, Logano, Bell and Briscoe were the only Playoff contenders racing in the top-10 mark. The remaining contenders that included Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin were mired back in 25th, 26th, 30th, 31st and 39th, respectively.

By Lap 25, Berry, who had lost the lead on Lap 16 before he regained it on Lap 23, was leading ahead of Logano, Busch, van Gisbergen and Haley as the field fanned out to double-wide racing. By then, the field of 40 competitors was separated by four seconds, while the top 11 were separated by under a second. Berry proceeded to lead the next two laps. Then, Cody Ware, who initially drafted Briscoe to the front before Briscoe transitioned lanes, navigated his way to the lead. Shortly after, John Hunter Nemechek and Noah Gragson battled for the lead, with the former leading at the Lap 30 mark.

Then on Lap 42 and with Brad Keselowski leading Kyle Busch, green flag pit stops commenced. Briscoe, Nemechek, McDowell, Berry, Ty Gibbs, Cody Ware, van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones and BJ McLeod pitted, primarily for fuel. Another wave of competitors led by the leader Busch along with Wallace, Hamlin, Bell, Haley, Carson Hocevar, Anthony Alfredo, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Reddick, Casey Mears and the Dillon brothers of Austin and Ty pitted during the next lap.

Amid the pit stops, Keselowski, who was among 18 competitors who had yet to pit. He continued to lead by Lap 45 while Briscoe was penalized for speeding while entering pit road. During this time, Kyle Busch and McLeod were also penalized for speeding on pit road.

During Lap 46, Keselowski led Logano, Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher and Cole Custer went to pit road for service under green. Then, another wave that included William Byron, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson pitted during the next lap.

This left the leader Cindric, teammate Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith and Todd Gilliland as the only competitors that had not yet pitted before they did so prior to Lap 48. When the pit stops cycled through, Allmendinger emerged as the leader before he was locked in a battle with Gragson for the top spot by Lap 50. Meanwhile, Hocevar fell off the pace with a flat tire in Turn 3, but he managed to limp his entry to pit road without throwing a caution.

Then on Lap 51, the event’s first caution flew. Gragson, dueling Allmendinger for the lead, received a tap from Erik Jones from the outside lane in Turn 3. The contact turned Gragson into Allmendinger, with the latter driving dead straight into the outside wall as his entry caught on fire. Gragson veered right back up the track and piled into the outside wall hard, along with Jones and Stenhouse. As the field scattered to avoid the carnage, more names that included Haley, Cindric, Austin Dillon and Elliott, a Playoff competitor, were collected. Amid the carnage, Logano escaped with the lead.

With two laps remaining in the first stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Logano and Gibbs dueled in front of McDowell, Nemechek and the field through the first two turns before Gibbs received a huge push from Nemechek and a bevy of competitors racing on the outside lane through the backstretch. With the inside lane led by Logano struggling to maintain pace, Gibbs proceeded to lead Reddick, Blaney and Nemechek back to the frontstretch during the next lap.

When the first stage period at Talladega concluded on Lap 60, Gibbs edged Reddick in a photo finish, capturing the stage victory. It was his second of the 2025 season. Nemechek, Blaney, Wallace, Logano, Zane Smith, McDowell, Carson Hocevar and Bell followed suit in the top 10, respectively. Blaney, Logano and Bell were the only Playoff competitors to rack up the event’s first round of stage points. They settled in the top 10 on the track. The remaining Playoff competitors on the track that included Byron, Larson, Briscoe and Hamlin were mired in 13th, 14th, 21st and 28th, respectively.

Under the first stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service. The rest, led by Daniel Suarez, remained on the track. Soon after, more drivers, including Suarez, pitted to top off their entries for fuel. Ty Dillon opted to remain on the track.

The second stage period started on Lap 65 as Ty Dillon and Chris Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, both Dillon and Buescher briefly dueled for the lead through the first two turn. But then, the outside lane led by Buescher muscled ahead through the backstretch. As the field started to fan out to three lanes, Buescher proceeded to lead the next lap over Busch. Berry, Preece, Hamlin and Briscoe followed suit.

By Lap 75 and with the field fanned out to three-stacked lanes, Buescher, Berry and Busch all took turns leading over the previous 10 laps, with Busch leading by Lap 75 ahead of Berry, Briscoe, Herbst and Buescher. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in sixth place while Byron, Bell, Larson, Logano and Blaney were mired in 17th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd and 25th, respectively.

Busch, who was battling Herbst, proceeded to lead the next two laps before Alfredo navigated his way to the lead. Not long after, Briscoe received a draft from teammate Hamlin in Turn 3, rocketing past Alfredo to assume the lead on Lap 80.

At the halfway mark of the Talladega race, on Lap 94, Busch was leading. He was ahead of Berry, McDowell, Buescher and Logano. Keselowski, Blaney, Austin Hill, Gilliland and Preece were scored in the top 10 amid a stacked field. By then, the event featured 37 lead changes for 20 different leaders while the top-30 competitors were separated by nearly two seconds.

Then on Lap 105, a second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Dillon and Anthony Alfredo pitted their respective entries. During the following lap, Busch, who was leading and had led four of the previous five laps, pitted along with Berry, Austin Hill, McDowell and Cody Ware. More drivers, including the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing trio of Buescher, Keselowski and Preece, pitted on Lap 109. 

On Lap 110, van Gisbergen, who was among a bevy of competitors preparing to peel off the track and enter pit road under green, got sideways and spun through the entrance of pit road. He barely made light contact with Byron before he then slid through the pit road entrance and back onto the track and to the frontstretch’s tri-oval grass. Despite getting dodged by the field, van Gisbergen drew a caution due to getting stuck in the grass. 

At the moment of caution, Reddick, who was among a handful who had not yet pitted, was scored the leader. In contrast, a bevy of names led by the initial leader Briscoe and including Bell, Suarez, Byron, van Gisbergen, Larson, Hocevar, Gibbs, Chastain, Blaney, Wallace, Bowman, Nemechek, Gilliland, Hamlin, Zane Smith, Cole Custer and Herbst all pitted.

Meanwhile, and amid the pit stops before van Gisbergen’s incident, Buescher and Suarez were penalized for speeding on pit road. Bubba Wallace was also penalized for a safety violation.

With four laps remaining in the second stage period, the event restarted under green. Briscoe, who cycled to the lead and shared the front row with Hocevar, battled for the top spot. Larson, Byron and Bell joined the battle. Larson then led for the first time on Lap 118 before he dueled with Briscoe for the following lap.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Briscoe, who saved his entry from wrecking in the tri-oval after being bumped by Larson, fended off the field to capture the stage victory. It was his sixth of the 2025 season. Larson settled in second ahead of Hocevar, Byron, Bell, Gibbs, Gilliland, Blaney, Nemechek and Bowman. Logano and Hamlin were mired in 18th and 22nd, respectively.

During the second stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Briscoe returned to pit road for service. The rest, led by Chastain, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Hocevar was penalized for speeding on pit road. Soon, more front-runners, including Zane Smith, Berry and Hill, pitted. Then, more drivers, including the leader Chastain, Hamlin, Suarez, Larson, Bell, Blaney, Byron and Briscoe pitted again to top off with fuel.

Meanwhile, Berry took his entry to the garage due to mechanical issues.

With 62 laps remaining, the third and final stage period commenced as Nemechek and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek retained the lead over Busch and proceeded to lead the following lap. Reddick, Busch, Logano, Alfredo and Preece trailed through close-quarters racing within the top-six mark.

With 55 laps remaining, Herbst navigated his way to the lead over Suarez, Wallace, Logano, Gibbs and Blaney. A lap later, teammates Logano and Blaney, both of whom were dealing with race-long temperature concerns to their respective Ford entries, moved up to first and second. By then, Hamlin, who was mired outside the top 25 two laps earlier, was up to 12th. Byron was in 16th, Larson was back in 24th and both Briscoe and Bell were mired in 27th and 28th, respectively.

Down to the final 40 laps of the event, the top-20 competitors were separated by less than a second. Meanwhile the top 28 were separated by nearly two seconds. Logano, who had led since Lap 134, retained the top spot ahead of teammate Blaney. McDowell, Keselowski and Buescher. Alfredo, Preece, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs and Chastain were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Herbst, who fell off the pace six laps earlier and took his car to the garage due to a mechanical issue, was scored in 31st place.

Ten laps later, Gilliland, who assumed the lead during the previous lap, was leading ahead of Logano, Hamlin, Blaney, Byron, Keselowski, Buescher, Larson, Preece and Suarez. Bell and Briscoe were down in 15th and 16th, respectively. By then, the top-21 competitors were separated by less than a second. The top 26 were separated by within one-and-a-half seconds.

Then, with 23 laps remaining, the caution flew when Cody Ware blew an engine and spun in Turn 1. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Logano pitted while Nemechek and Hill remained on the track. Nemechek and Hill would eventually pit during the caution laps. Blaney and Logano cycled back to first and second, respectively.

During the pit stops, van Gisbergen was penalized for speeding on pit road, while Hamlin had his hood lifted in his pit stall to have a stuck throttle issue addressed. Hamlin’s issue dropped him out of the lead lap category.

The beginning of the next restart, with 17 laps remaining, featured Gilliland navigating his way to the lead over Blaney and Logano. Gilliland proceeded to lead with 15 laps remaining as he was pursued by Larson, Blaney, Suarez and Logano. Buescher, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Preece and Briscoe were racing in the top 11, respectively. 

Down to the final 10 laps of the event and the field fanned out to three lanes. Zane Smith, who boosted his way to the lead with drafting help from Chastain amid a three-wide move a lap earlier, was leading ahead of Chastain and teammate Gilliland. Blaney, Buescher, Larson, Byron, Logano, Bell, Wallace and Keselowski pursued in the draft.

Over the next four laps, Zane Smith, Larson and Briscoe took turns leading in front of a stacked field that had fanned out to three heavy drafting lanes. But with five laps remaining, Larson was out in front ahead of Briscoe. Wallace, Buescher, Bell and Byron while Blaney and Logano dropped to 17th and 25th, respectively.

Then, with two laps remaining, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime. Buescher, who had navigated his way to the front during the previous lap, received a bump from Byron. It sent Buescher spinning from the top to the bottom through the backstretch. He then impacted the inside wall on the driver’s left side and was taken out of contention. 

At the moment of caution, Byron emerged with the lead. He was followed by teammate Larson, Wallace, Hocevar, Bell and Briscoe. During the caution period, some drivers, including Blaney, Logano, McDowell and Keselowski, pitted. The rest, led by Byron, remained on the track.

The start of overtime featured teammates Byron and Larson dueling in front of Hocevar, Wallace, Bell and Briscoe through the first two turns. As the field began to fan out to two lanes through the backstretch, Byron and Larson continued to duel for the top spot until Larson started to muscle ahead entering the frontstretch. Wallace then made a move to the outside of Larson through the frontstretch and muscled his way to the lead with drafting help from Briscoe.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Wallace was leading ahead of Larson, Briscoe, Byron, Hocevar, Gibbs and the rest of the field. Then, as both Wallace and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the first half of the backstretch, Larson steered his entry off the course and fell off the pace as he ran out of fuel.

With the inside lane clear, Briscoe made his move beneath Wallace while entering Turn 3 with teammate Gibbs and Byron pushing him while Wallace was trying to get drafting help from Gilliland on the outside lane. 

Entering the frontstretch, Wallace mounted a final charge to Briscoe’s outside, but the latter received a boost from Gibbs that launched Briscoe ahead. As Byron spun through the frontstretch, Briscoe had enough momentum to fend off Gilliland, Gibbs and Wallace to claim the checkered flag by a tenth of a second over the latter three.

Victory

With the victory, Briscoe notched his fifth NASCAR Cup Series career win in his 178th start. It was his first at both Talladega and on a superspeedway venue and his third of the 2025 season. Briscoe’s Talladega victory was also the 13th of this season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 14th for the Toyota nameplate.

By winning the second Round of 8 event at Talladega, Briscoe, who commenced this year’s Playoffs by winning the opener during the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway seven weeks ago, earned an automatic berth to this year’s Championship 4 round. He will contend for his first Cup Series championship two weeks from now during the finale at Phoenix Raceway.

“Ty Gibbs, [what an] incredible teammate there,” Briscoe said on the frontstretch on NBC. “I honestly would not have won that race without Ty. Just an amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race. I haven’t done it at any level anyways. This is an unbelievable atmosphere. I cannot believe I won here [at Talladega]. It’s not hitting me. We’re going to Phoenix.”

“So thankful that the Lord’s blessed me, opening doors and even closing doors at times, but certainly, open an incredible door here with Joe Gibbs Racing,” Briscoe added. God is so good. I say it all the time, and even today, I just had such a piece. Normally, I’m scared to death, nervous wreck around this place and I just had such a piece that regardless of the finish, He was going to use it somehow for His glory and pretty cool that it ends up in Victory Lane.”

Todd Gilliland, who led 11 laps, claimed a career-best runner-up result while Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace finished third and fourth, respectively. Cole Custer came home in fifth place, while Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick. Christopher Bell, Zane Smith and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 on the track.

Notably, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, both of whom opted to pit prior to the overtime shootout for fuel, ended up 16th and 23rd, respectively, while Denny Hamlin, who cycled his way back on the lead lap before overtime, ended up 24th. Byron, who spun approaching the start/finish line, dropped to 25th while teammate Larson coasted to 26th.

Playoffs

As a result, Larson occupies the fourth and final transfer berth to the Championship 4 round by 36 points over Byron, while Logano, Blaney and Elliott also trail in a “must-win” situation entering next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.

“It’s probably one of the more bummer superspeedway finishes I’ve had just because we were, once again, in contention and it was right where I wanted to be,” Larson said. “[The finish] didn’t work out, so we’ll keep putting ourselves in contention and it’ll eventually work out.”

“It’s just the way that it goes [spinning on the frontstretch],” Byron, who trails the cutline by 36 points, said. “[I] just felt like I was in the right position there on the bottom lane and we just couldn’t get linked up off [Turn] 4, and those guys pushed past us.

“Then, [Larson] ran out of fuel there down the backstretch. It just kind of broke up all the energy. [I] Just couldn’t quite get the pushes to go our way there at the very end. It looks like [I] definitely got to go [to Martinsville] and try to win the race. We’ve put ourselves in position to win these last two, so I don’t see why it would be any different there. Just got to go there and regroup and try to win.”

“I thought we did a great job, me and Joey [Logano] getting ourselves in the position we needed, and then it just fell apart and finished terrible,” Blaney, who trails the cutline by 47 points, said. “[We’ll] Try to go have a big day next week. That’s all we can do.”

“The laps that mattered, we weren’t there, unfortunately,” Logano, who trails the cutline by 38 points, added. “Really frustrating because you’re so close and see in front of you what you’ve got to do, and you can’t do anything about it. It’s frustrating. We know what we’ve got to do now. It’s pretty simple. (The car) was a little off, but it made it, so that part’s good.”

The Talladega fall race produced 77 lead changes for 27 different leaders, and six cautions for 28 laps. In addition, 26 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results:

1. Chase Briscoe, 16 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Todd Gilliland, 11 laps led

3. Ty Gibbs, four laps led, Stage 1 winner

4. Bubba Wallace, five laps led

5. Cole Custer

6. Carson Hocevar

7. Tyler Reddick, three laps led

8. Christopher Bell

9. Zane Smith, two laps led

10. Brad Keselowski, seven laps led

11. Shane van Gisbergen

12. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

13. Ross Chastain, three laps led

14. John Hunter Nemechek, 11 laps led

15. Ryan Preece, one lap led

16. Joey Logano, 35 laps led

17. Michael McDowell, five laps led

18. Casey Mears

19. Kyle Busch, 26 laps led

20. Ty Dillon, two laps led

21. Anthony Alfredo, two laps led

22. Austin Hill

23. Ryan Blaney, three laps led

24. Denny Hamlin, three laps led

25. William Byron, four laps led

26. Kyle Larson, six laps led

27. Austin Dillon, two laps down

28. BJ McLeod, six laps down

29. Alex Bowman, six laps down

30. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, four laps led

31. Cody Ware – OUT, Engine, five laps led

32. Riley Herbst – OUT, Engine, one lap led

33. Josh Berry – OUT, Drivetrain, 27 laps led

34. Austin Cindric, 116 laps down, two laps led

35. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

36. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident, two laps led

37. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident, one lap led

38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

39. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

40. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings:

1. Chase Briscoe – Advanced

2. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

3. Christopher Bell +37

4. Kyle Larson +36

5. William Byron -36

6. Joey Logano -38

7. Ryan Blaney -47

8. Chase Elliott -62

Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, which will officially determine this year’s Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, October 26, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.