DARLINGTON, S.C. — Chase Briscoe liked Darlington Raceway from the moment he first drove on its asphalt seven years ago.
Briscoe will like it a lot more if he can make history with his third straight Southern 500 victory Sunday, when the 10-race Chase to determine the NASCAR Cup Series champion for the 2026 season begins.
Only NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Jeff Gordon would have more consecutive wins in the crown jewel race, with four straight victories from 1995-98 in the September race at the track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame.”
Briscoe recalled his first practice at Darlington back in 2019, when he was preparing for a race in NASCAR’s second-tier national series that’s currently sponsored by O’Reilly Auto Parts.
“After the first five laps, I thought, ‘Man, this place is awesome,'” recalled the 31-year-old Indiana native, who is in his second year behind the wheel in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota after spending his first four Cup Series seasons in the No. 14 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing before that team shut down.
Briscoe’s affinity for Darlington has only grown since then. He won the second-tier series race at the track in 2021, then took the past two editions of the Southern 500 to match a feat only seven other drivers had ever achieved, with that exclusive group including Gordon and fellow NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough.
Winning three in a row?
“That’s definitely on the radar,” Briscoe said with a grin. “To do that three times in a row would be something really, really special.”
It also would be a strong start for his latest attempt at a first Cup Series championship.
Briscoe is fifth in the standings, 45 points behind regular-season champion Denny Hamlin, who is one of his teammates as the driver of the JGR No. 11 Toyota. The margin is manageable, especially with the format change, where none of the 16 competitors in the Chase will be eliminated as both consistency and winning are rewarded.
Briscoe brings with him an understanding of how to make his car better during his time on Darlington’s oddball layout. While others may complain about the egg-shaped 1.366-mile oval’s tight corners and tire-chewing surface, Briscoe has pushed all the right buttons to get to victory lane the past two years at a venue so iconic it has two nicknames (the other is “The Lady in Black”).
He used a drama-filled, three-wide pass late in the race to win in 2024 and qualify for that season’s playoff field. Last year, Briscoe had a dominant machine as he led 309 of 367 laps to win.
“When you’re able to win two years in a row, that confidence just builds more and more every single time,” Briscoe said. “So this is always one I’ve got circled on the calendar and one where the circle gets bigger.”
Hamlin enters the postseason as the favorite and with experience in the reset format, but what if the 45-year-old with 64 career wins (including four this season) on NASCAR’s top level doesn’t win the season championship this year — or at any point before he chooses to retire from racing?
“It would mean a lot personally,” Hamlin said of a potential title while previewing the playoffs this past week. “But also if I quit today, I’m still really happy with the stats we were able to put on the stat sheet and the wins we’ve been able to get. It certainly would be very gratifying, but what matters to me is my dad saw me when I was at my absolute best, and that was at Phoenix last year.”
Dennis Hamlin was his son’s biggest supporter, and Denny said his dad’s sacrifices helped him achieve all he has in racing. Dennis died last December at 75, a few weeks after his son was one of the four title-eligible drivers under the old format in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Hamlin’s 19 playoff berths and 14 playoff race wins are Cup Series records, and last year was the fourth time he was one of the final four racing for the championship. Title or not, he continues to move up the career wins list and is currently ninth — but when the season wraps up in two months at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he hopes to be celebrating the one achievement that has eluded him.
“I’m a little bit ahead,” he said of his cushion in the standings, “and I’ve got enough races to prove that we’re the best.”
Meanwhile, 35-year-old Ryan Preece won his way into the playoffs with his first Cup Series career victory as he took the checkered flag in last weekend’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the RFK Racing No. 60 Ford plans to stay aggressive in the postseason because it’s the only strategy that makes sense to him.
“We have nothing to lose,” said Preece, seeded last in the 16-driver field. “When I look at where we’re at, if we’re aggressive and it doesn’t work out, we’re still at the bottom.”
Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are the co-favorites to win Sunday’s race, tied at plus-500 odd. Reddick is the driver of the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, the team Hamlin co-owns.
Briscoe is next at plus-600, followed by reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson (plus-850) in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Christopher Bell (plus-1000) in another JGR Toyota, and Ryan Blaney (plus-1100) in a Team Penske Ford.
Reddick will start in pole position after lightning canceled qualifying Saturday. The field was set by NASCAR metrics, with 70% determined from last week’s results at Daytona and 30% based on owner’s points.
Reddick’s five wins in the regular season, including the Darlington race in March, led the Cup Series this year, and he is seeded third for the playoffs, behind Hamlin and Blaney. Reddick welcomed the qualifying rainout, calling it a “best-case scenario” for a team that had the track figured out earlier this year.
“With how we ran last spring, we’re rock solid and expect more of the same tomorrow,” he said.
Fellow playoff driver Daniel Suarez will join him on the front row in the Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevy. Preece in third and Hamlin in fourth will make up the second row.
The others Chase drivers are Penske’s Austin Cindric (who will start sixth), Briscoe (seventh), Bell (11th), Penske’s Joey Logano (13th), 23XI’s Bubba Wallace (17th), Hendrick’s Chase Elliott (18th) and William Byron (20th), Blaney (24th), Larson (25th), JGR’s Ty Gibbs (28th), Spire’s Carson Hocevar (34th) and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher (35th).