By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
A shot at an eighth Pocono Raceway victory was there, but it wasn’t meant to be for Denny Hamlin.
After skipping out last Sunday’s inaugural race at Mexico City following the birth of his son Jameson Hamlin, Denny came back without skipping a beat by leading the 37-car field to green in Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400.
Hungry to score his second non-consecutive Cup win, Hamlin began the afternoon that was plagued by a lengthy rain delay with a wire-to-wire stage victory.
Once drivers entered pit road under caution, little did Hamlin know it would be the last time he would be up front. Chris Buescher wound up besting Hamlin off pit road and from there, strategy and track position became a focal point in the 160-lap race.
As its been the theme over the last several years, clean air reigned supreme as Hamlin felt that once his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe and others pitted, it was going to be challenging to get back up front.
With Hamlin running out of laps and the sun winding down, the seven-time Pocono winner didn’t give up without a fight. A little game of pressure gave Hamlin sheer motivation to hunt Briscoe down in the closing laps with intentions of trying to run him out of fuel.
The gap was cut down to several tenths as Hamlin and Ryan Blaney were hot on Briscoe’s tail coming to the white flag. Despite the valiant effort of trying to crash Briscoe’s parade, it wasn’t enough for Hamlin as passing proved to be difficult once more with the current cars.
All he could do at that point is watch his teammate score the victory for the first time since joining JGR.
“When five cars pitted and then the caution came and the 19 (Briscoe) and a bunch of guys jumped in front of us, I knew it would be really hard to give that track position back,” said Hamlin. “It was just so hard to pass, so we did all we could we were just next best in line.”
Hamlin explained that the best option for him was putting pressure on Briscoe to run out of fuel to get his first Pocono win since 2023.
“It definitely was going to be difficult,” said Hamlin. “There was a key moment when the 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. Team did a great job, next best in line there of our strategy, it just didn’t work out.”
If there was one person who truly felt the pressure of Hamlin, it was “100 percent” Briscoe’s crew chief James Small.
For his driver to best Hamlin, Small described it as no small feat by any stretch of the imagination.
“Whenever Denny’s behind you, you’re always nervous. He’s one of the highest racing IQ people I’ve ever come across. We all know how masterful he is around this place,” Small explained”
“We knew our situation better than everybody. I know they were pushing him to push us, try to make us run out. Chase did a great job just putting him in his wake, doing everything he needed to do to win a race with these cars.
“To beat Denny, he is one of the best of the best really out there. So yeah, that’s a big feather in Chase’s hat.”
From Briscoe’s perspective, the pressure was weird to him because he wasn’t driving on the ragged edge when trying to both save fuel and keep Hamlin behind him. But he acknowledged Hamlin’s legendary status at Pocono and as an overall driver.
“Out of anybody you could have behind you here at least, Denny is the last kind of guy you want because he’s so experienced and so skilled. He makes speed here where other guys can’t,” Briscoe on Hamlin.
“Honestly, I wasn’t crazy nervous just because I was honestly going so slow. I was so backed up, but I was still driving away. Honestly, it would have been probably harder if I was on the ragged edge.
“The biggest thing for me was I didn’t want him to get close enough to where he could make somewhat of a move on me, especially with how much I was having to lift into the corners. I didn’t want him to be able to drive in deeper.
“(It’s) definitely surprising to me how I was able to kind of drive away. Definitely feel like I learned something.”
Appraisals from Briscoe’s crew disappointment of losing from Hamlin aside, the runner-up result marked Hamlin’s sixth top-two finish, including his win at Michigan two weeks ago. The outing was good enough to secure Hamlin the No. 1 seed for NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge at EchoPark Speedway next Saturday at 7p.m. ET on TNT.
In the 32-driver bracket style tournament, drivers will be squared off against another racer with the goal of beating one specific racer to advance into the next round. The tournament will go through the Brickyard 400 (Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m. E.T. on TNT) where it’ll come down to a two-driver final round to crown the tournament winner.
For Hamlin, he’ll have to best 32nd seed Ty Dillon in Atlanta to set the tone in the summer competition. In sixteen matchups this season, Hamlin have bested the younger Dillon brother 12-4.
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