Denny Hamlin Wins Third Straight Cup race at Pocono, closing championship gap

RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY: Steven Brien – RACE PRO WEEKLY – LONG POND, PA – Denny Hamlin remained hot this weekend in the Pocono Mountains, with the help of strategy and dominance at the ‘Tricky Triangle’, taking the lead for the final time with five laps remaining and drove away to win Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway, earning his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.

The win was Hamlin’s eighth at Pocono, extending his record at the 2.5-mile track, and the 64th of his Cup Series career, moving him past Kyle Busch into sole possession of ninth place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. The win is also Hamlin’s third consecutive points paying race, the first time ever winning three consecutive points races in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“Finally, the King’s Hawaiian Curse is over,” Hamlin said after climbing from his No. 11 Toyota, “It’s [Pocono] like a second home for me.”

“The team is just doing an amazing job giving me exactly what I need in the car every single week,” he added. “I’d say it’s certainly the best we’ve been.”

Hamlin’s recent surge has cut Tyler Reddick’s championship lead to just 19 points after three straight victories.

Bell and his team were playing strategy and were trying to steal a win away after leading 18 laps late in the race, but his No. 20 Toyota ran out of fuel in the closing laps, dropping him to a 26th-place finish.

“That situation is so hard, because you don’t know if you’re racing for the win, if you’re racing to finish the race,” Bell said. “I didn’t stop shifting until about 10 to go, where I left it in fifth.”

Reddick finished second after employing an alternate fuel and tire strategy, leading 24 laps in the third stage.

“When you go that long, it all kind of falls to how you catch cars,” Reddick said. “If the 11 wasn’t the winner, you could consider this a good day.”

“35 points just aren’t enough right now,” he added. “We had a terrible restart, and that put us behind those guys, and that was it.”

William Byron finished third, while John Hunter Nemechek turned in one of the strongest performances of his Cup career by leading a career-high 42 laps and finishing fourth. Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

Erik Jones finished sixth, followed by Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney.

Byron charged through the field during the closing run but never had enough speed to challenge Hamlin for the victory.

“This is the first time in four months I’ve been able to drive that way,” Byron said. “We could kind of manipulate and work through traffic, so that was awesome.”

Hamlin also collected his fifth stage victory of the season after using the lap car of Casey Mears to pass Larson with six laps remaining in Stage 1.

Larson finished second in the stage, followed by Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Buescher. Daniel Suarez, Byron, Jones, Joey Logano and Austin Hill also earned stage points.

The race’s first major incident occurred on Lap 41 when Zane Smith got loose while battling Hamlin for third place and slammed the inside wall exiting Turn 1, ending a promising afternoon.

A much larger accident followed six laps later when Hill attempted to make it three-wide underneath Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry entering Turn 3. The move forced van Gisbergen and Berry into the wall and triggered a multi-car crash involving Bubba Wallace, Noah Gragson, Logano, Connor Zilisch and Brad Keselowski. Keselowski sustained race-ending damage in the incident.

Fuel strategy took center stage in Stage 2 as Todd Gilliland stretched his fuel window and held on to score the first stage victory of his Cup Series career.

Briscoe finished second in the stage, while Nemechek, Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five. Chastain, Hocevar, Suarez, Hamlin and Chase Elliott also earned stage points.

The final caution of the afternoon came on Lap 106 when Casey Mears lost a right-front wheel exiting Turn 2.

After the restart, Bell and Hamlin emerged as the primary contenders before Bell’s fuel tank came up just short, allowing Hamlin to take control and pull away for another milestone victory.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads west next weekend for its inaugural event at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Great American Getaway 400

Pocono Raceway

Long Pond, PA.

Sunday June 14, 2026

1. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 160.
2. (16) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 160.
3. (9) William Byron, Chevrolet, 160.
4. (8) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 160.
5. (2) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 160.
6. (7) Erik Jones, Toyota, 160.
7. (6) Chris Buescher, Ford, 160.
8. (24) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 160.
9. (4) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 160.
10.  (10) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 160.
11.  (23) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 160.
12.  (5) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 160.
13.  (3) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 160.
14.  (17) Austin Cindric, Ford, 160.
15.  (21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 160.
16.  (25) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 160.
17.  (13) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 160.
18.  (14) Austin Hill (i), Chevrolet, 160.
19.  (29) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 160.
20.  (26) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 160.
21.  (38) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 160.
22.  (19) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 160.
23.  (28) Connor Zilisch (R), Chevrolet, 160.
24.  (15) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 160.
25.  (32) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 160.
26.  (22) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 160.
27.  (12) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 160.
28.  (35) Ryan Preece, Ford, 159.
29.  (34) Daniel Dye (i), Chevrolet, 159.
30.  (33) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 159.
31.  (31) Shane van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 158.
32.  (27) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 158.
33.  (20) Josh Berry, Ford, 157.
34.  (11) Joey Logano, Ford, 156.
35.  (30) Noah Gragson, Ford, Handling, 107.
36.  (36) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, Accident, 105.
37.  (18) Zane Smith, Ford, Handling, 66.
38.  (37) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 46.