After a much anticipated race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Tuesday was postponed until Thursday, the skies finally cleared as Chase Briscoe led 45 laps to win the Toyota 200 at Darlington Raceway.
Briscoe was in tears post-race, after news earlier in the week that his wife miscarried their first child.
“This is for my wife, this is the hardest week I’ve ever had to deal with. This God is so good, even when I took the lead with 50 to go, I was crying inside the racecar,” Briscoe said in his post-race interview with FOX Sports.
“You know, emotionally I wasn’t there at all. There’s nothing other to say than this God is so glorious… This is more than a race win, this is the biggest day of my life, after the toughest day of my life. Just to be able to beat the best there is [Kyle Busch] is so satisfying.”
The No. 54 of Kyle Busch was quick to get to the front, he started 26th and was able to make his way up to the top-five before the competition caution. This modified competition caution by NASCAR gave the teams the window to work on their cars without losing a spot, as long as they didn’t go a lap down.
The No. 39 of Ryan Sieg showed a lot of speed early, battling for the lead before the competition caution was thrown.
On lap 33, the No. 61 of Timmy Hill tagged the rear of the No. 93 machine of Myatt Snider, sending him into the outside wall, bringing out the second caution.
The No. 9 of Noah Gragson led every lap en route to the Stage One victory, giving him ten championship points and one playoff point.
Stage Two began with Gragson leading the field to green, but before they could make it to turn-three, Busch already stole the lead. A battle for fourth place between the No. 10 of Ross Chastain and the No. 98 of Chase Briscoe carried on for much of the 45 lap stage; it settled down when Chastain got the air taken off of his car and resulting in him falling to seventh when the green/white checkered flag flew for the second time. Busch went on to win Stage Two.
Busch had to start at the rear of the field to begin the final stage due to a speeding on pit road penalty. Briscoe took the lead off the restart, passing the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier for the top spot. With 25 to go, Busch made his way up to eighth and was constantly running laps faster than the leader. With 18 to go, Allagier took the lead from Briscoe and was looking to stretch it. A caution with 15 to go halted that process for Allgaier when his teammate, the No. 1 of Michael Annett, spun in turn-four.
When the flagman waved the green flag with nine to go, it was all Briscoe. With two laps to go Busch got to his back bumper and it looked like Busch would take the win; but Briscoe fought back to win in the Xfinity Series return at Darlington.
Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric, and Noah Gragson rounded out the top-five. A strong day from JR Motorsports had three of their four drivers finish in the top-ten with the No. 8 of Daniel Hemric finishing 8th.
Tune in to FOX Sports 1 on Monday, May 25th at 7:30 for your coverage of the Alsco 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
