2025 Southern 500 results: Chase Briscoe holds off Tyler Reddick to secure dominant win in playoff opener

In a dominant performance that he had to earn the right to cap off in the final corner, Chase Briscoe held off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick to win the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, earning his second-straight win in NASCAR’s oldest crown jewel race and his second victory of the 2025 season. Briscoe’s win is the fourth of his Cup career and makes him the first driver in the NASCAR playoffs field to advance to the Round of 12.

After a herculean effort earned him an improbable Southern 500 win in 2024, Briscoe came back one year later with what was prohibitively the best car in the field, driving to the lead multiple times on his way to leading over 300 laps. But on the final run, the handling on Briscoe’s car went away, allowing both Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones to close in and give the driver of the No. 19 all he could handle over the final 20 laps. The deciding moment wouldn’t come until the final corner, when Reddick made one last lunge to Briscoe’s inside but didn’t have the grip or the positioning to do anything with it.

Briscoe becomes the eighth driver in NASCAR history to win the Southern 500 in back-to-back years, joining an exclusive list that includes Herb Thomas (1954-55), Bobby Allison (1971-72), Cale Yarborough (1973-74), David Pearson (1976-77), Dale Earnhardt (1989-90), Jeff Gordon (1995-98) and Greg Biffle (2005-06). In addition, he also becomes the first driver to win back-to-back Southern 500s for two different teams — Briscoe took the checkered flag for Joe Gibbs Racing after winning with Stewart-Haas Racing one year ago — since Yarborough won for car owner Richard Howard in 1973 and Junior Johnson in 1974.

“There at the end, that was way harder than it needed to be,” Briscoe told USA Sports before referencing having watched similar dominant performances by Martin Truex Jr., who Briscoe took over for this year as the driver of the No. 19. “… It’s so cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year … Great way to start our playoffs, and man that was a lot of fun.”

Reddick would settle for second in front of Erik Jones in third (his best finish in two years), John Hunter Nemechek in fourth (his best career finish) and A.J. Allmendinger in fifth. Bubba Wallace in sixth, Denny Hamlin seventh, Kyle Busch eighth, Carson Hocevar ninth and Chris Buescher 10th made up the rest of the top 10.

The Southern 500 was rife with problems for playoff contenders right from the opening set of corners, when Josh Berry’s car bottomed out in Turn 2 and backed hard into the outside wall. Issues for other playoff contenders included a long pit stop for Alex Bowman after an air gun failure, a spin and crash damage for Ryan Blaney, damage from contact on pit road for Christopher Bell, and an overall ill-handling race car for Shane van Gisbergen. Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, had to fight through clutch problems and a loss of track position to make it back into the top 10 by race’s end.

Hamlin will leave Darlington with the biggest advantage of any playoff driver over the Round of 12 cut line, as he is 43 points above the cut line followed by Kyle Larson (+38), Tyler Reddick (+35), Bubba Wallace and William Byron (+25), Ryan Blaney (+22), Ross Chastain (+21), Austin Cindric (+12), Christopher Bell (+11), Chase Elliott (+9) and Shane van Gisbergen (+3). Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano (-3), Austin Dillon (-8), Alex Bowman and Josh Berry (-19) are all below the cut line with still two races left in the Round of 16.

Cook Out Southern 500 results

1. #19 – Chase Briscoe
2. #45 – Tyler Reddick
3. #43 – Erik Jones
4. #42 – John Hunter Nemechek
5. #16 – A.J. Allmendinger
6. #23 – Bubba Wallace
7. #11 – Denny Hamlin
8. #8 – Kyle Busch
9. #77 – Carson Hocevar
10. #17 – Chris Buescher
11. #1 – Ross Chastain
12. #2 – Austin Cindric
13. #38 – Zane Smith
14. #4 – Noah Gragson
15. #6 – Brad Keselowski
16. #60 – Ryan Preece
17. #9 – Chase Elliott
18. #12 – Ryan Blaney
19. #5 – Kyle Larson
20. #22 – Joey Logano
21. #24 – William Byron
22. #54 – Ty Gibbs
23. #3 – Austin Dillon
24. #41 – Cole Custer
25. #99 – Daniel Suarez
26. #34 – Todd Gilliland
27. #7 – Justin Haley
28. #35 – Riley Herbst (R)
29. #20 – Christopher Bell
30. #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
31. #48 – Alex Bowman
32. #88 – Shane van Gisbergen (R)
33. #71 – Michael McDowell
34. #10 – Ty Dillon
35. #66 – Timmy Hill
36. #44 – Derek Kraus
37. #51 – Cody Ware
38. #21 – Josh Berry