By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
It was another fuel-saver of a finish Sunday at Pocono Raceway between teammates.
Denny Hamlin was in the position of pushing while first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was in the position of saving and maintaining.
Clearing Hamlin and the field on the race’s final restart with 34 laps to go, Briscoe saw little threat from behind en route to his first JGR victory.
For Hamlin, the day started with a cruise from pole and leading the 32 laps toward a Stage 1 win.
However, when it became a track position game, the No. 11 felt stuck in dirty air.
“When five cars pitted and then the caution came and the [No.] 19 and a bunch of guys jumped in front of us, I knew it would be really hard to give that track position back,” Hamlin said.
“It was just so hard to pass, so we did all we could we were just next best in line.”
It only took one pit call to change the day. A caution fell directly after a pit stop from Briscoe and others, which eventually took track position from Hamlin and put him into the spot of trying to run Briscoe out of fuel.
“It was the best option. It definitely was going to be difficult,” he said. “There was a key moment when the [No.] 19 and some other guys pitted and the caution came out and leaped him in front of us. At that point, we knew it was going to be really hard to pass those guys back on the racetrack.”
Despite the loss, Hamlin now has three straight top-three finishes in 2025, and now a staggering six top-twos in the last nine Pocono races.
“The team did a great job, next best in line there of our strategy, it just didn’t work out,” he said.