{"id":123251,"date":"2025-08-31T18:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/123251\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:04:24","slug":"defending-southern-500-champ-chase-briscoe-seeks-repeat-as-cup-playoffs-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/123251\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Southern 500 champ Chase Briscoe seeks repeat as Cup playoffs begin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2014 A spot in the playoffs already secured, Chase Briscoe focused on a bigger prize when he talked with his wife a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really the first time I\u2019ve ever legitimately thought I could win a Cup championship,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n<p>Briscoe\u2019s third Cup playoff appearance begins with tonight\u2019s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (pre-race coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network). The defending Southern 500 winner will start second, and join Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on the front row.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"Denny Hamlin claims Southern 500 pole as playoff drivers take top 12 starting spots\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nascar\/news\/denny-hamlin-claims-southern-500-pole-as-playoff-drivers-take-top-12-starting-spots\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG - Practice\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756663457_180_\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin will be joined on the front row by teammate Chase Briscoe, who won last year\u2019s Southern 500.<\/p>\n<p>Briscoe\u2019s chances of repeating in this crown jewel event could be a result of what the team learned at Darlington in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson was that the No. 19 team with crew chief James Small has the right package for this track and not to veer from it as the team did in the spring when Briscoe finished 28th after starting fourth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we got derailed a little bit here in the first race, honestly, chasing some of the things (Briscoe) wanted,\u201d Small told NBC Sports. \u201cWe were just off a little bit on the intermediate program at that point in the year trying some stuff. I think this race and how we\u2019ve approached it this week and all the work we\u2019ve done is back to the fundamentals I feel that have made us good as a 19 team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Briscoe calls the spring Darlington race the team\u2019s worst of the season and explains what went wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI run a really unique line (in Turn 1 at Darlington) compared to a lot of guys, I run really low,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cWe kind of got ourselves, I thought, in a bad spot definitely in the spring with how I was driving and the setup and stuff. It wasn\u2019t meant to be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"What to watch for in tonight\u2019s Southern 500 NASCAR Cup race at Darlington\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nascar\/news\/what-to-watch-for-in-tonights-southern-500-nascar-cup-race-at-darlington\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 - Practice\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756663458_743_\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The NASCAR Cup playoffs begin with tonight\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p>The spring Darlington race was an example of a new driver\/crew chief pairing needing time to develop. Briscoe joined the team this season, taking over for Martin Truex Jr., who retired from full-time Cup competition last season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like earlier in the year we maybe didn\u2019t know each other that well and were kind of listening a little bit to what he said and maybe that was getting us off path from what we fundamentally thought,\u201d Small said those first few races with Briscoe. \u201cAnd then I feel like we went through a stage where we just went back to doing what we felt was right. He adjusted more, got used to it and since we\u2019ve been running better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the final 10 races of the regular season, Briscoe won one race, finished second three times and had five top-five finishes. That\u2019s helped build momentum in his first playoff appearance with Joe Gibbs Racing. Briscoe made the playoffs in 2022 and \u201924 with Stewart-Haas Racing. He reached the round of 8 in 2022 and was eliminated after the Round of 12 last season.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"The future is now for core group of NASCAR drivers coming of age in the sport\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nascar\/news\/the-future-is-now-for-core-group-of-nascar-drivers-coming-of-age-in-the-sport\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"AUTO: JUN 28 NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756663464_389_\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace are among a group of playoff drivers who began racing full-time in Cup between 2016-2022 making an impact in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to go and perform in the playoffs,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cThat\u2019s the difference now is that (at) SHR, did you want to get knocked out of the Round of 16? No, but if you did, there was nobody like, \u2018Man, that was a disappointing season.\u2019 They were still excited they made the playoffs. Where here (Joe Gibbs Racing), it\u2019s almost like if you don\u2019t make the Round of 8, that\u2019s kind of a failure on the year and really the final four even, right?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a different mentality. For me, I think we\u2019re fully capable of making it to the final four. From a speed standpoint, I would say arguably we are one of the better cars kind of week in and week out, it\u2019s just a matter of putting the whole race together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2014 A spot in the playoffs already secured, Chase Briscoe focused on a bigger prize when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-123251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}