Analysis: Briscoe delivers at Darlington in heartfelt Southern 500 triumph

Chase Briscoe has battled Kyle Busch for a Darlington win before. But for a Southern 500 trophy — in the regular-season finale?

Turns out that wasn’t a problem for Briscoe either, who muscled up to put his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in a walk-off win at Darlington Raceway, the track known for being “Too Tough to Tame.”

A daring performance by the 29-year-old surges the outgoing team into postseason glory, along with it a crown-jewel victory to boot.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington 

Four years ago, Briscoe battled tooth-and-nail with Busch in an emotional NASCAR Xfinity Series win as the sport returned from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Days prior, Briscoe’s wife Marissa suffered a miscarriage, adding immense emotion to Briscoe’s triumph that shined in his post-race celebration — a kneel in prayer next to his race car, sponsored by High Point.

In the present day, his family is blooming, with 2-year-old son Brooks on-site for Briscoe’s win along with Marissa, who is currently pregnant with twins. Briscoe was able to celebrate with them all, all after kneeling next to another High Point car for Stewart-Haas Racing.

The coincidences weren’t lost on Briscoe.

“Funny how it all works out, right?” Briscoe said. “Just to have them here. Brooks has never seen me win. Obviously watched (Briscoe’s first win) at Phoenix on TV. For him to get to experience this, for Marissa to be here. When I won all those races during COVID, she was never there. Obviously when I won at Phoenix, she wasn’t there. The last race she’s coming to. Yeah, she’s been telling me all weekend, You got to get it done. Think of that as motivation.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool to win with them here. Brooks has actually been telling me the last three days I’ve got to beat Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. That’s all he told me. To come out where I have to beat Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, it’s pretty ironic.”

Adding significance to Sunday’s win is that Stewart-Haas Racing is shuttering operations at the end of 2024. Crew chief Richard Boswell made sure his driver was conscious of everything on the line before one of the final restarts.

“As a group at SHR, one last time — 323 employees,” Boswell said on the team radio. “Three-hundred-twenty-three employees counting on us. We can do this. (Be) thinking about what you need on that restart here.”

Briscoe, who grew up idolizing his current team co-owner Tony Stewart, put it on his shoulders.

“I think I definitely run better under heavy pressure. For whatever reason, I’ve always been like that,” Briscoe said. “When Richard told me that, I’m like emotional. Everybody knows that. I started tearing up in the car thinking about how much was riding on my shoulders at that point. But yeah, I love that stuff. Like, I love the Game 7, heavy-pressure moment. For whatever reason, I feel like I do a lot better under those situations than not having a lot of pressure.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself just going into this week. Last week at Daytona was the worst race by, I mean, a mile I’ve ever raced in my entire career. I was embarrassed, so embarrassed. I texted Richard literally before we got on the plane. I said, ‘I don’t ever want to talk about this race again. We’re not going to talk about it this week. I promise you I’ll make it up to you next week.\"”

Did he ever. The Indiana native rocketed from fourth to first in a three-wide move entering Turn 3 with 26 laps remaining, shooting past Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain and into the lead. Another yellow flag flew shortly thereafter to set up one last restart with Busch chasing him down on fresher tires, but with team and playoffs in mind, Briscoe mustered enough machismo to defend the spot and claim the win.

“My car was the only one that could run the bottom in (Turns) 3 and 4.” Briscoe said. “I knew early in a run I had that kind of in the back of my mind. I had that big run, went to the inside. I felt like I was going to be OK even if I had to run the bottom. I was surprised Kyle didn’t cover and block me farther left. Yeah, I knew we were three-wide, but I knew Ross was leading. Stack that middle lane up. I went in there wide open. I knew I was going to literally clear Larson by like an inch.”

Any opportunity to clear Larson for a crown-jewel win, Briscoe said, is one he would take every time moving forward. A decision not to do so during the Coca-Cola 600 in 2022 cost him a shot at the victory that day at Charlotte and sent Briscoe spinning. Not Sunday in Darlington.

“I was just taking it all the way to the wall,” Briscoe said. “I knew that was my only shot to win the race. Like I said, I watched him lead (263) laps right behind him. I knew my car was just as good as his. It was a matter of who was going to get clean air, and that was the only opportunity I had.”

Now, Briscoe gets to lead the famed No. 14 into an improbable playoff run in his boyhood hero’s swan song as a NASCAR team owner.

“I’m a diehard Stewart-Haas fan, right? That’s the car I cheered for growing up,” Briscoe said. “I’ve seen that car win time and time and time again, win a championship. It’s been 90 something races since that car has been in Victory Lane. We had 11 chances left to do it. We’ve been decent this year. Been close a couple times. To be able to do it…

“It would have been awesome if we won next week, but it would have stunk (without being part of the postseason). At least now we have a chance to go win a championship. We don’t have any playoff points or anything like that. At the same time we were below the (elimination) line the whole time last time, we went to the Round of 8 (in 2022).

“We were talking earlier, I kind of love the back up against the wall thing. That’s certainly what we’re going to have now. We’ve just got to go. If we do what we did tonight, we can beat anybody. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”