NASCAR Cup Series Darlington results: Cook Out Southern 500 winner and order

Following Ryan Blaney's thrilling drive from 13th to first to win at Daytona to close out the regular season, the NASCAR Cup Series was at Darlington Raceway on Sunday for the running of the playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500, which saw Chase Briscoe go back-to-back with a dominant performance at The Lady in Black. It was not, however, without a late challenge from fellow playoff driver Tyler Reddick and non-playoff driver Erik Jones.

How the Cook Out Southern 500 unfolded at Darlington

Darlington spring race winner Denny Hamlin led the field to green for the 367-lap, 500-mile race at the challenging track. Trouble quickly struck playoff driver Josh Berry on the opening lap when he got loose underneath Reddick battling for third and made heavy wall contact with the left rear. Non-playoff drivers Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez also received damage.

Disaster struck for playoff driver Alex Bowman during a green-flag stop on Lap 67 when his pit crew had a 40-second stop after dealing with air gun issues. Once he inherited the lead from Hamlin at the time of the opening-lap caution, Chase Briscoe stayed in control throughout the opening stage and picked up the stage win.

Pit road issues were the biggest problem for playoff drivers in the second stage. Following a spin from Carson Hocevar on Lap 152, Hamlin (right rear), Bubba Wallace (right rear), Christopher Bell (contact), Blaney and William Byron each lost track position. Blaney was blocked in his stall by Hocevar while Byron had to back up in his stall to secure a left side tire.

It got worse for Blaney on the Lap 209 restart as he spun off turn 4 after getting hit from behind by fellow playoff driver Austin Dillon.

Briscoe went on to sweep the first two stages. Aside from the final caution of the race for Derek Kraus with 55 laps to go, the final stage was mostly green and came down to a thrilling three-way battle for the win in the closing laps.

Full finishing order and results after Chase Briscoe's dominant showing

Despite getting a late challenge for the win, particularly from Reddick, who made a last-gasp effort underneath Briscoe in turn 3 on the final lap, Briscoe — who battled through some voltage issues throughout the race — prevailed for his second consecutive Southern 500 win. He led 309 laps, becoming the first driver to eclipse 300 laps led in the grueling race since Hall of Famer Bobby Allison in 1971, per NASCAR Insights. The win assures Briscoe a spot in the Round of 12 of the playoffs.

Rounding out the top 10 behind the trio of Briscoe, Reddick and Jones were John Hunter Nemechek, AJ Allmendinger, Wallace, Hamlin, Busch, Hocevar and Buescher. It was not a good night for most of the playoff drivers for one reason or another.

Ross Chastain (11th), Austin Cindric (12th), Chase Elliott (17th), Kyle Larson (19th), Joey Logano (20th), Byron (21st), Austin Dillon (23rd), Bell (29th), Bowman (31st) and Shane van Gisbergen (32nd) all finished outside the top 10. Logano (-3), Austin Dillon (-8), Bowman (-19) and Berry (-19) are the four drivers below the cutline following the first of three races in the opening round.

* Denotes a playoff driver

What race is next in the NASCAR Cup Series?

The Cup Series shifts its focus to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway just outside of St. Louis for the second race in the Round of 16 in the running of the Enjoy Illinois 300 on Sunday, Sept. 7 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). This will only be the fourth Cup Series race at the track and the first playoff race there. Cindric is the defending race winner.