The NASCAR Cup Series was at Pocono Raceway on Sunday for the running of The Great American Getaway 400, which saw Chase Briscoe save enough fuel and hold off Pocono's all-time wins leader, Denny Hamlin, to pick up his first win with Joe Gibbs Racing.
How The Great American Getaway 400 unfolded at Pocono Raceway
After a rain delay of around two hours, Hamlin led the field to green for the 160-lap, 400-mile race at the Tricky Triangle. The highlight of the caution-free opening stage was Carson Hocevar's wild save exiting Turn 3 on Lap 18. Aside from that sideways moment for the second-year Cup Series driver, Hamlin and Chris Buescher battled for the lead throughout the first 30 laps with Hamlin prevailing for the Stage 1 win.
A pair of 23XI Racing teammates brought out the first two cautions for incident on the day, each experiencing brake rotor issues. Riley Herbst hit the Turn 1 wall on Lap 42 while Bubba Wallace made significant contact with the outside wall on Lap 54, significantly impacting his playoff position. During the caution for Wallace, race leader Brad Keselowski came down a closed pit road and had to restart at the tail of the field as a result.
Following a debris caution on Lap 77 due to Michael McDowell's brake rotor issue on the front stretch five laps earlier, the biggest incident of the day took place on Lap 83 when Kyle Busch got loose underneath Zane Smith in Turn 2 battling for 24th and collected Christopher Bell, Shane van Gisbergen and Ty Dillon. Tyler Reddick, the only 23XI Racing driver left in the field, went behind the wall on Lap 84 with brake rotor issues as well, compounding a frustrating day for the organization.
Briscoe came away with the Stage 2 win - his first stage win since 2022 - and stayed in front until a scheduled green-flag stop with 42 laps to go. A spin from van Gisbergen shortly afterward with 36 to go set the stage for the final 30-lap run to the finish. It came down to a battle between Briscoe and Hamlin with Briscoe forced to save fuel over the course of the run after his team reported they did not get the tank full during their final stop.
Chase Briscoe fends off Denny Hamlin for first win of season at Pocono: Full finishing order and results
Even with Hamlin on his heels and fuel-mileage concerns, Briscoe kept the Pocono master at bay and won by 0.682 seconds for his first win of the season, his first at Pocono and the third of his career. Briscoe led a race-high 72 laps. For Hamlin, who returned to action after missing Mexico City due to the birth of his third child, it is the 10th time he has finished first or second in 36 starts at 2.5-mile, triangular track. Keselowski recovered from his pit road mistake to finish ninth.
The Great American Getaway 400 finishing position | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
Winner | Chase Briscoe | 57 |
2nd | Denny Hamlin | 51 |
3rd | Ryan Blaney | 37 |
4th | Chris Buescher | 48 |
5th | Chase Elliott | 43 |
6th | John Hunter Nemechek | 31 |
7th | Kyle Larson | 32 |
8th | Ryan Preece | 29 |
9th | Brad Keselowski | 28 |
10th | Austin Cindric | 31 |
11th | Alex Bowman | 27 |
12th | Josh Berry | 34 |
13th | Erik Jones | 30 |
14th | Ty Gibbs | 23 |
15th | Daniel Suarez | 22 |
16th | Joey Logano | 25 |
17th | Christopher Bell | 20 |
18th | Carson Hocevar | 20 |
19th | Justin Haley | 18 |
20th | Kyle Busch | 17 |
21st | AJ Allmendinger | 16 |
22nd | Cole Custer | 15 |
23rd | Noah Gragson | 14 |
24th | Austin Dillon | 13 |
25th | Zane Smith | 17 |
26th | Ross Chastain | 11 |
27th | William Byron | 19 |
28th | Todd Gilliland | 9 |
29th | Cody Ware | 8 |
30th | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 7 |
31st | Shane van Gisbergen | 6 |
32nd | Tyler Reddick | 13 |
33rd | Ty Dillon | 4 |
34th | Brennan Poole | 0 |
35th | Michael McDowell | 2 |
36th | Bubba Wallace | 1 |
37th | Riley Herbst | 1 |
The Cup Series shifts its focus to Atlanta for the running of the Quaker State 400 at the newly renamed EchoPark Speedway on Saturday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Joey Logano is the defending race winner. It will be the first of five races as TNT Sports makes its return and will also serve as the first race of the new In-Season Challenge.