DARLINGTON, S.C. — On the final lap, Tyler Reddick pulled all the way to Chase Briscoe’s door in a fight for Southern 500 glory in the final set of corners.
That’s as close as Reddick got to tasting that glory.
A slide through Turn 4 forced Reddick to settle for a hard-fought second-place finish in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, crossing the line 0.408 seconds behind Briscoe, who won the crown jewel for the second year in a row.
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Briscoe dominated the event with 309 laps led, the most led in the Southern 500 since 1971, and advances to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with a statement of an opening salvo. But Reddick found himself on Briscoe’s back bumper multiple times — never closer than in the final set of corners. For him, Darlington continues to live up to its nickname: “Too Tough to Tame.”
“Makes me sick,” a dejected Reddick said. “I feel like late in this race, especially this one, the Southern 500, I always find myself second or third in the last green flag run, trying to pass the leader and just don’t get it done.”
There were plenty of bright sides to Reddick’s result: His 53 points scored were second only to Briscoe’s 60, and he leaves the track fourth in the standings, 35 points above the provisional cutoff line. That was of very little consolation to Reddick after working lap after lap to chase down Briscoe.
“I think Monday morning, I’ll wake up and be thinking playoffs. Right now, I’m just thinking about this race, Darlington,” Reddick said. “Yes, those things are great for us, but, man, I’ve done everything but win at this place, and it’s really starting to drive me nuts.”
His last-gasp effort was reminiscent of his attempt in the 400-mile spring race in 2024. That day, a desperate move into Turns 3 and 4 put both him and Chris Buescher into the outside wall and handed the win to Brad Keselowski. That experience wasn’t lost on Reddick this time around.
“Last year, in the spring, I gave it my best effort, and it didn’t stick,” Reddick said. “And that time (Sunday), it didn’t stick either. It’s just a pretty similar story last spring with Buescher. This time, I remembered what happened in the spring, and I was able to get ahead of it just a little sooner and not wipe out Chase.”
Despite the dive, Briscoe had confidence he could fend off any of Reddick’s advances.
“I just knew that I could not let him (Reddick) get to the inside of my bumper,” Briscoe said. “So in (Turns) 1 and 2, he almost got there twice and I would just have to force my car down there, even though it was not the proper lane that it wanted to be in.
“I just had to take his air away because that’s a huge thing, obviously, in these cars, and it would give me a big enough gap to where I could back up my Turn 3 and just try to run the fence.”
WATCH: Reddick makes incredible save after contact with Berry
And while he was distraught over his missed opportunity Sunday night, Reddick nearly had his night come to an end on Lap 1. Josh Berry started alongside Reddick in Row 2 but bottomed out through Turn 2, sending the No. 21 Ford into Reddick’s door and nearly into the wall as Berry crashed behind him.
After the race, 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan greeted Reddick and immediately brought that perspective into Reddick’s focus.
“He just reminded me, Lap 1, it looked like we were going to be wrecked,” Reddick said. “And we fought back from it, got the damage where it needed to be on that first pit stop. Lost some time but drove back up there.
“This day could have went really, really bad on Lap 1 and we didn’t let it. I think I can hang onto cars pretty good, but I think I got pretty fortunate on that one.”