When the dust, parts and pieces settled in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, it was Chase Briscoe taking the overtime victory. With the win, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has earned his first bid into the Championship Four.
It was also his first superspeedway win in any series, third victory this season and fifth of his career. It was also the 11th different winner in the past 11 Talladega races in an event with 77 lead changes and six cautions for 28 laps.
Briscoe now joins JGR teammate Denny Hamlin as the only other driver currently confirmed to race for the 2025 championship at Phoenix Raceway. The last chance to make the Championship Four is at Martinsville Speedway this coming weekend, only two positions remain unclaimed.
Briscoe Appreciative of JGR Teammate Gibbs
During the Green White Checkered overtime, leader Kyle Larson ran out of fuel, slowed on the backstretch and dropped below the double yellow out of harm’s way. This changed the scenario for the top runners and Briscoe took advantage.
His teammate Ty Gibbs placed his No. 54 JGR Toyota behind Briscoe and pushed him to the front, and victory.
“Incredible teammate there, would have honestly not won the race without Ty,” Briscoe told NBC-TV. “It was an amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race; I haven’t done that in any level.
Turning to the cheering crowd, “Thank you guys so much. Every time we come to Talladega this place is sold out. It’s an unbelievable atmosphere, I can’t believe I won here. This still hasn’t hit me – we’re going to Phoenix!
“The Lord has blessed me in many ways. He opened an incredible door here at Joe Gibbs Racing. Even today, I just had such a (good) piece here. Normally I’m scared to death and nervous wreck around this place.
“Regardless of the finish, He was going to use it for His Glory. Just pretty cool it ended up in Victory Lane.”
Rounding out the top-five finishers behind Briscoe were Todd Gilliland, Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Cole Custer. To complete the top 10, it was Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Zane Smith and Brad Keselowski. The finish had three JGR cars in the top-10, as Hamlin finished 24th with mechanical problems.
Bell Only Other R8 Driver with Top 10 Finish
The JGR dominance of this race boded well for Bell and the No. 20 Toyota team. With their eighth-place finish, and being only one of two R8 drivers to finish in the top 10, it allowed Bell to leave Talladega third in playoff points with 37 markers above the cut line.
While it looked like Larson would contend for the win, running out of fuel forced him to finish 26th. It was still good enough to keep him fourth in points with a 36-point cushion above the cut line.
“It was flashing at me through (turns) one and two,” Larson said afterwards. “I was just hoping that maybe we could make it. But, down the back it started stumbling and I just got out of the way.
“It’s unfortunate. I’d rather have a bigger points cushion heading into next weekend, but we’ll regroup and focus on Martinsville.”
Points Picture Heading to Martinsville
As the NCS makes its way to the half-mile paper clip of Martinsville, there are four drivers looking to make it back above the dreaded cut line. Three of those drivers are former champions.
Once the points were tabulated after the checkered flag, R8 drivers Joey Logano finished 16th, Ryan Blaney 23rd, William Byron 25th and Chase Elliott was wrecked out early to finish 40th. As a result, Byron is 36 points behind, Logano 38, Blaney 47 and Elliott is 62 points out.
Logano, the reigning NCS Champion put it all in perspective regarding next week at Martinsville when he said, “Stage points aren’t going to matter. Nothing else is going to matter but winning. We know what gotta do now.”
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