LINCOLN, Ala. (EETV) – “We’re going to Phoenix,” Chase Briscoe said, elated after climbing out of his Talladega-winning race car.
Briscoe’s third win of the season made him the 11th different winner in the last 11 Talladega races and punched his ticket to the Championship 4 in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). Briscoe joins his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin as the only two cars locked into the finale, with only Martinsville left to try and grab a spot.
“You have to be confident, here especially,” Briscoe said. “You can’t second-guess yourself. You have to do what comes natural… That was arguably the most aggressive I’ve probably looked."
The race came down to an overtime finish after Chris Buescher was spun from the lead with two to go. At this point, the Hendrick teammates of William Byron and Kyle Larson were in control of the field.
Coming to the white flag, Briscoe was positioned fourth, the second car on the top lane. Briscoe, with his teammate Ty Gibbs glued to his bumper, was able to drive to the inside of Bubba Wallace and to the point.
“Was able to make a move and the 54 came with me,” Briscoe said about his help. “Ty was the whole reason I won the race. He was just extremely committed to me from the get-go and really did a good job at keeping me up and tight to Bubba, and when I made a move, he went with me and was really selfless.”
A move like this was only possible after Kyle Larson ran out of fuel leading the inside lane, killing all their momentum.
“I’d say that was basically a quarter gallon, from where we ran out on the back straightaway, to making it back around,” Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels said. “In a game of small margins, it was just a small margin difference.”
One of the biggest questions coming into the race was how aggressive the drivers would be. Would they ride around and save fuel? Or push early for track position?
This was answered very early in the race. The race’s first caution came late in Stage 1 when Erik Jones gave an aggressive push to Noah Gragson, spinning Gragson into the field.
“I felt like it was a little early for that,” Gragson said. "I felt like up until that point, everyone was racing hard, but wasn’t putting anybody in bad spots. Just looked like he [Jones] got him in the right rear side of the bumper and just spun him there.”
This sent him down into the leader, AJ Allmendinger, collecting a handful of cars, including playoff driver Chase Elliott.
“Stage points are so crucial right now,” Elliott said. “So, yeah, I wasn’t really surprised. Everybody was starting to get real aggressive. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it through.”
Elliott, along with the other three drivers currently below the cut – Byron, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney – are all in must-win situations for Martinsville. Meanwhile, Christopher Bell (+37) and Larson (+36) are separated by just one point above the cutline.
Only two races remain in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series: a cutoff race and the Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway, where the top finisher of all remaining playoff drivers will be crowned the champion.
