Chase Briscoe held off Kyle Busch in a thrilling last lap drag race to the checkered flag to win Thursday’s Toyota 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway.
It capped an emotional last few days for Briscoe. Earlier this week, he and his pregnant wife learned they had lost their first child.
The 23-year-old Briscoe broke into tears after climbing out of his race car, telling FS1: “That’s for my wife. This is the hardest week I’ve ever had to deal with. I was crying in the race car and emotionally I wasn’t there at all.
“This is more than a race win, it’s the biggest day of my life after the toughest day of my life. To beat the best there is just so satisfying.”
Briscoe led 44 laps en route to his fourth career Xfinity triumph and second of the season.
Busch finished second, followed by Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric and pole sitter Noah Gragson.
“You always like to come out on the better end of it, of course,” Busch said. “We had a good showing and put on a little bit of an exciting show at the end there.”
It was the Xfinity Series’ first event since the season was suspended March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The race was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but rain forced its postponement to today at Noon ET. Even with that, rain Thursday morning further compounded issues, causing a 4 ½ hour delay until the green flag.
If there was a comeback award, Busch would have won hands down. Busch won Stage 2 and was coming off pit road on the resulting caution when he was caught speeding, sending him to the back of the field for the restart for the final segment. He quickly began moving up through the field and came up just about one car length short.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Noah Gragson
STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Busch
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Justin Allgaier had a strong car and appeared to be the only challenge for Briscoe and Busch, but couldn’t get back to the front, having to settle for third.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: It was a bad end to what had been a good day up to that point: Michael Annett was running fourth and charging toward the lead when a tire went down on him with 15 laps to go, leading to a spin that caused significant damage to the right front of his car.
NOTABLE: Brett Moffitt made his first race start since suffering two broken legs in a motocross accident in mid-March and didn’t look too worse for the wear, finishing 11th.
WHAT’S NEXT: Alsco 300, Monday March 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
