Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe finally pulled off the breakthrough performance that he seemed to be on the verge of throughout his first regular season behind the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota, and he did it to open up the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Darlington Raceway.
Briscoe tamed the track "Too Tough To Tame", winning stage one, stage two, and the Cook Out Southern 500 itself. He led 309 of 367 laps around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval, a track where leading the most laps has historically not been a great omen in terms of the actual race result.
It marked the second consecutive Southern 500 win for the 30-year-old Mitchell, Indiana native, who won it last year for Stewart-Haas Racing and snuck his way into the playoffs since Darlington hosted the regular season finale due to NASCAR's schedule shift caused by NBC's Summer Olympics commitment.
Chase Briscoe is NASCAR's newest points leader
Now Briscoe is the only driver to be locked into the round of 12, thanks to his win. And because he secured a perfect 60-point evening by sweeping both stages and winning the race, he is now officially the points leader for the first time in his five-year Cup Series career.
Briscoe finds himself with 2,070 points, having started the playoffs with 2,010 thanks to the playoff points reset, and that puts him three markers ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin, who won at the "Lady in Black" back in April but could only finish seventh on Sunday night.
Only four drivers had led the point standings at any point this season: Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (regular season champion), Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott, as well as Team Penske's Ryan Blaney.
Though in terms of total points scored, Briscoe is not P1 overall, the playoffs exist for a reason, whether we like it or not. And right now, Briscoe is on top, and with the seven playoff points he collected on Sunday night alone (17 total for 2025), he might well have put himself position to have a shot to remain there as the playoffs progress.
The season's second playoff race is scheduled to take place this Sunday, September 7 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The Enjoy Illinois 300 is set to be shown live on USA Network beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!