NASCAR officials penalize multiple playoff stars at Darlington

Darlington Raceway provided excellent entertainment under the lights on Sunday night as the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs got underway.

Joe Gibbs Racing star Chase Briscoe ran out as the winner of the Cook Out Southern 500 after a dominant drive in the No. 19 Toyota, leading for 309 of 367 racing laps and sweeping stages one and two. He did, however, have Tyler Reddick for close company at the end, the winning margin just 0.408 seconds.

Whilst it was a busy night for Briscoe defending the lead, it was also a busy night for NASCAR officials, with 22 penalties handed out during the action, including multiple punishments to multiple playoff drivers.

Christopher Bell, for example, was penalized with a tail-end penalty for having 'too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area' on lap 204, whilst three laps later the No. 20 driver received the same punishment again, this time for 'pitting before pit road is open'.

As always, that was a common infringement throughout the night and also one that another playoff driver, Josh Berry, was punished for on Sunday.

In total, Berry was hit with four penalties on what was a disastrous night for the Wood Brothers Racing driver, which started with a lap one wreck. As a result, Berry pitted before pit road was open, receiving a tail-end penalty as a result.

Then, on lap 163, Berry was hit with a pass-through penalty for having 'too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area'. This was followed by two further tail-end penalties on the same lap later in the race (lap 236) for 'pitting before pit road is open', and 'speeding on pit road'.

With that said, whilst we have touched on some of the penalties above, you can see Sunday night's full in-race penalty report below.

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NASCAR Cup Series Darlington penalty report

Provided by NASCAR Statistics.

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