NASCAR Live Race Updates: Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington

Welcome to Racing America On SI's live NASCAR race updates post for Sunday night's NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. This post will be updated throughout the day and night on Sunday with key updates leading into and through the opening race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Video highlights of crashes or incidents will be populated along with lead changes, stage and race results, and more. Continue checking back for additional updates on the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway throughout the day.

Pre-Race Updates

Denny Hamlin Thwarts Briscoe's Chance at History for Southern 500 Pole

Denny Hamlin will begin Sunday night's NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway from the pole position. Hamlin bumped Chase Briscoe, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, from the pole position late in the session,

Briscoe, who started from the pole in the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and Brickyard 400, was looking to become the first driver to ever sweep the pole positions in all four crown jewel events in a single season. He came up just short.

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Cook Out Southern 500 Starting Lineup

Click here for the full Cook Out Southern 500 starting lineup.

Cook Out Southern 500 Pre-Race Info

The Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will be televised on USA Network and can be streamed on the HBO Max streaming platform, as well as the NBC Sports App. The race broadcast will begin at 6:00 PM ET.

The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of Sunday's race. For subscribers of the HBO Max streaming service, NASCAR Driver Cam, which streams live in-car camera footage from every car in the field, will be available for today's race.

The overall race purse, which teams will fight for their portion of in Sunday's race, is a total of $10,447,135.

The race distance is 367 laps around the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, which equates to a 501.32-mile race distance.

The Cook Out Southern 500 will be broken up into three Stages. Stage 1 will end at the conclusion of Lap 115. Stage 2 will end at the conclusion of Lap 230. And the race is scheduled to finish at the end of Lap 367, barring an Overtime finish.

The winner of Stages 1 and 2 will be awarded one Playoff Point, and the overall race winner will be awarded five Playoff Points. The Playoff Points will be added to the reseeded point totals in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and will be carried through each round of the Playoffs.

This race is the opening race of the three-race Round of 16 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. If one of the 16 drivers in the Playoffs wins this event, they will automatically advance to the Round of 12 of the Playoffs.

Chase Briscoe, who was driving for Stewart-Haas Racing last season, is the defending winner of this race. He'll look to defend his win in the race behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.