Chase Briscoe victorious at Darlington

Chase Briscoe held off a late charge from Kyle Busch to win Thursday (May 21) in the return of the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway in the Toyota 200.

Briscoe and Busch were side-by-side as they approached the Start/Finish Line to take the white flag with Busch leading the duo.

However, Briscoe prevailed on the high side, overtaking the 2009 series champion into Turn 1 of the final lap and maintained the lead to emerge victorious in the fifth race of the season.

“This is the best thing that could happen, honestly,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe and wife Marissa had a miscarraige Tuesday. Their daughter was expected December 1.

“This is for my wife,” he said. “This has been the hardest week I’ve ever had to deal with and God is so good.  Even when I took the lead with 50 to go I was crying inside the race car and just emotionally I wasn’t there at all.  There’s nothing else to say other than God is just so glorious.”

Busch, who has won the most Xfinity Series races in history with 96 victories, clawed back from a pit road speeding penalty to finish runner-up, .86 seconds behind Briscoe.

“We’ll take second I guess, have no other choice, right,” Busch said. “Topped the list or maybe I already did that for the most second-place finishes. I might have beat Mark Martin for second-place finishes so that’s something I guess.”

For the record, Busch has recorded the most second-place finishes in the series’ history 54 times. Martin did it 24 times.

Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson — who drew the pole and won the first stage — rounded out the Top-5 finishers.

For Briscoe, the win was his second victory in the Xfinity Series this year and the fourth of his career.

Briscoe is now tied with 10 other drivers who have scored four wins in the series, including William Byron, Reed Sorenson and Mike Wallace. They are tied for 69th all-time on the series’ wins list.

Prior to the Darlington race, it was 75 days since the last second-tier series race.

Barring any delays or postponements, the next race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be held four days from now at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday, May 25.

Briscoe will enter as the points leader (223) over rookie Harrison Burton (204), Cindric (197), Gragson (188) and Allgaier (186).