Chase Briscoe reacts to dominant Southern 500 run, advancing to Round of 12 of NASCAR playoffs

Chase Briscoe was seen as a dark horse championship contender heading into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. After Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Briscoe is no longer flying under the radar.

Briscoe, who started on the front row, was as dominant as you can be at this level of motorsports. He led 309-of-367 laps, becoming the first driver to win back-to-back Southern 500s since Greg Biffle in 2005 & ’06. Last year, Briscoe’s win put him into the playoffs. This year, it’s clinched him a spot in the Round of 12.

“Way harder than it needed to be,” Briscoe told Marty Snider of NBC Sports. “Man, just an incredible Bass Pro Shops Toyota. As a fan, I watched Martin [Truex Jr.] dominate a lot of races, and it was fun to finally be behind the wheel of it. It’s so cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year. Every time we come here, the race is sold out. Just the atmosphere here is unlike anywhere else. Great way to start our playoffs and man, that was a lot of fun.”

Chase Briscoe too good to beat at Darlington

For most of the night, it was Briscoe and everybody else. Tyler Reddick came close on multiple occasions in the closing laps of passing Briscoe, but to no avail. Briscoe’s 309 laps led were the most in a Southern 500 since Bobby Allison in 1971.

He was that good. Toyota across the board had a great night. In fact, not one Chevrolet for Ford playoff driver finished inside the top 10. Toyota had four — Briscoe, Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin.

Briscoe has been one of the most consistent drivers in the series over the last couple of months. The one thing missing was a truly dominant showing. Briscoe finally did that at Darlington.

“I feel like this is definitely what we’re capable of doing,” Briscoe said. “We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that, but the potential has been there from day one.”