What Happened?
Chase Briscoe absolutely smoked the field at Darlington Raceway, holding off Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones to win his second consecutive Southern 500 on Sunday (Aug. 31).
It’s Briscoe’s second win of the season, the first multi-win season of his still-young NASCAR Cup Series career. Reddick made a last-ditch attempt for the win but couldn’t make his car stick, but he still managed to hold off Jones for second. John Hunter Nemechek and AJ Allmendinger completed a surprising top five for the underdogs.
What Really Happened?
It feels like whenever I fill in on this column, the races I react to involve one driver absolutely stomping the field or finding some insane fuel mileage saving ability to win the race — the two that come to mind instantly are Kyle Larson when he won at Bristol Motor Speedway and Briscoe saving enough fuel to win at Pocono Raceway.
In both of those instances, I’ve given credit where credit is due, and Darlington is no exception. Briscoe was far and away the best car all weekend, and he proved it by leading all but 58 laps at The Track Too Tough to Tame.
But in the same breath, a similar issue as the examples I gave above arose yet again: Dirty. Freaking. Air.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of races that have a complete lack of passing yet are passed off as “good” because drivers are running close together.
Anyone with eyes could see that Briscoe was struggling in the final 20 laps and that Reddick and Jones clearly had the faster cars. But every time either driver mounted a run on Briscoe (or, similarly, if Jones had a run on Reddick), all it took was moving into the lane they were running to kill any and all momentum they had.
Part of the allure of the Southern 500 is managing equipment — a marathon race combined with a uniquely-shaped track and a tough surface is bound to see even the most dominant driver find trouble. And Briscoe did. He definitely lost the handle on his car as the finish neared.
But all he had to do was take the line away from Reddick and/or Jones and he could stay out front.
What’s all the more frustrating? It’s out of the drivers’ control. The Next Gen car is the problem. The Next Gen car is the problem. The Next Gen car is the problem … sorry, I’m getting carried away.
The more teams figure out the Next Gen car and fine tune it to their liking, the worse the dirty air gets. Again, everyone with eyes can see that.
But that’s not what NASCAR sees. NASCAR sees cars tightly packed together and nobody running away with a race by 15 seconds and thinks that the racing is fine. The sanctioning body is so hung up on the optics of the racing that the racing itself is suffering.
What NASCAR fails to realize — somehow — is that “close racing” does not mean they are actually racing. And when one of the biggest races of the year, a crown jewel race, can’t even save the pitiful racing the Next Gen car puts out more often than not, there needs to be alarms sounding.
Additionally, stop trying to make it seem like you could pass. Yes, Nemechek went from a 30th-place starting spot to fourth, but restarts were most drivers’ friend, as well as fresh tires — whenever strategies were different.
It’s quite frankly unacceptable. We could’ve had a legitimate battle for the win at the end, but aero-blocking and dirty air won out yet again to give the leader less of a challenge. Something’s got to change, but I kinda feel the same way as Ross Chastain — we all know it probably won’t.
Who Stood Out?
The trio of Jones, Nemechek and Allmendinger completed a crazy top five in a race that is naturally tough to just finish, let alone win and capture top fives in.
For Jones, it’s his second straight top five after coming oh-so-close to stealing a playoff spot at Daytona International Speedway. While it’s no surprise That Jones Boy is a constant threat to win at Darlington (the same track he got his “Jones Boy’ nickname at), but for some reason, Legacy Motor Club’s performance always begins to pick up toward the end of the season — this is Jones’ fourth consecutive season with at least one top five in the final 10 races of the season.
The theory that Legacy somehow always comes alive at playoff time is further proved by the fact that Nemechek came home right behind his teammate in fourth. It’s Nemechek’s second top five of the season (his first came in the Daytona 500) — and his career for that matter — and marked the second time this season that Legacy put two cars in the top five, which also came at the Daytona 500 with Nemechek and Jimmie Johnson.
It’s just the type of run that the team needs to build off of between themselves and Toyota, who took four of the top five spots at The Lady in Black.
The fifth spot? That went to the Chevrolet of Allmendinger, who got his second top five on an oval this season — his first, coincidentally, came in another long, grueling oval race in the Coca-Cola 600. By most’s standards, it’s been a season from hell for Allmendinger, who was largely expected to contend alongside Shane van Gisbergen for road course wins at the very least.
That hasn’t happened, but it’s still a shot in the arm for the driver of the No. 16, who had just come off of back-to-back finishes outside of the top 20.
The three drivers managed to beat out 14 of the 16 playoff drivers on pure speed. While impressive, it sure doesn’t help that the playoff drivers once again tripped over themselves in the opening race of the playoffs.
Who Fell Flat?
Two corners.
That’s all it took before Josh Berry snapped loose underneath Reddick and spun into the turn 2 wall, putting him behind the wall for over 100 laps before returning to the track.
While Berry did manage to notch the bonus point for running the race’s fastest lap, the singular additional point he earned for a last place finish gave him exactly two points on the night. Not quite the way to start the playoffs.
At least Berry had the excuse that he crashed early for his dismal finish. Alex Bowman’s entire weekend went sideways for almost no reason at all.
The No. 48 camp did not have speed in the events leading up to the race, culminating in a 29th-place qualifying run. Then, after catching a piece of Berry’s spin, a disastrous 40-second pit stop later on in stage one put Bowman two laps down.
After managing to claw his way back onto the lead lap, Bowman just could not find speed still. When all was said and done, he fell back to two laps down with a 31st-place finish to boot.
Hendrick Motorsports as a whole struggled, finishing 17th, 19th and 21st, but Bowman was a step behind all night and is one more bad finish from being in a must-win situation to advance to the Round of 12. For a team that hasn’t found victory lane all year, they’d probably thank Bowman not to find themselves in that situation next week.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Is it hot in here or is it just Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 Spicy Grillo’s Pickles car?
The Grillo’s Hot Pickle car returned for the opening race of the playoffs, and it looked just as good as ever under the lights of Darlington. Who knew red could be such a good transition color between green and white?
It was a rough weekend for Gilliland, as he qualified 28th and only gained two spots overall to finish 26th.
But hey, at least the car’s good looks earned him some aura.
What’s Next?
”Meet me in St. Louis, Louis. Meet me at the fair.”
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to World Wide Technology Raceway for the next race in the opening round of the playoffs. The last three races at Gateway have been held on the first weekend of June, so the move to September could spark some interest on how cars handle.
Austin Cindric is the defending winner of the race.
The Enjoy Illinois 300 will begin at approximately 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7. Television coverage can be found on USA Network, while radio coverage can be found on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.