Briscoe Wins Dega!

Chase Briscoe celebrates his win in Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway! (John K Harrelson/Lumen Digital Agency for TGR)

YellaWood 500:

Chase Briscoe captured his third win of the 2025 season on Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway with a last-lap pace and charge to the checkered flag. Briscoe's win locks him into the Round of 4 with a shot to win the NASCAR Cup Series title at Phoenix next weekend. The win was also Briscoe's first win at a drafting track and first win at Talladega. The exuberant Briscoe is looking forward to the chance to compete for his first NASCAR Cup Series title.

The race was great. I was highly skeptical of Talladega being in the Round of 8 when I initially saw the schedule, and was even skeptical all the way up and through the race. However, I think Talladega fits nicely in the Round of 8. Now, I know I say that, and there was no BS ending with a plethora of cautions. And I know it was practically all playoff drivers in the hunt all day, and I'm aware some playoff drivers (aside from Erik Jones' potentially stupid bump drafting) didn't cause any massive shakeups to the playoff leader board. So, if any of that had happened, then yes, maybe my opinion would be different. However, the vibe I got from the race was that everyone was racing with cautious chaos. It was intense racing, but you could tell everyone had in mind to be respectful of playoff drivers (again, with the exception of maybe Erik Jones) and the instinct to survive until the end. Which, I believe, has been missing from drafting track racing for some time. So, to have a race like we had Sunday was refreshing. Now, I was a little worried about how it would end once Buescher was wrecked on the backstretch. Overtime finishes can either be straight up or bananas. Fortunately, we got a pretty straightforward finish, and Briscoe had an impressive last-lap move to steal the win from Bubba Wallace (with help from teammate Ty Gibbs) after Kyle Larson ran out of gas. He held off some hard chargers and took the checkered flag to secure his chance at the title.

Next up, all three national touring series head to Martinsville Speedway. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the action tonight, Friday, with the Slim Jim 200 at 6 p.m. on FS1. The Xfinity Series picks up the action on Saturday afternoon on The CW at 7:30 p.m. with the IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250. The Cup Series headlines the weekend on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. on NBC with the Xfinity 500.

Martinsville Picks:

Trucks = Corey Lajoie

Xfinity = Sheldon Creed

Cup = Chase Elliott