Hamlin caps marathon day of racing at Pocono with 4th win
LONG POND » Round 2 at Pocono went to Denny Hamlin. Hamlin seized the spotlight, specifically in victory lane when Pocono had to set up lights after the race ended in the dark.
Hamlin topped Kevin Harvick on Sunday night to win the second Cup race of the weekend at Pocono Raceway and flip the result of the opener. The 1-2 finish out of each driver is a clear sign two of the best drivers in the game are poised again to make a championship push. Hamlin says, bring it on. “We just want to get to the final four with a chance,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin has four wins this season for Joe Gibbs Racing and Harvick has three for Stewart-Haas Racing as they start to separate themselves from the rest of the field.
Hamlin is racking up milestones as he chases his first NASCAR Cup championship. Hamlin has 41 victories to move to 19th on NASCAR’s career list and his sixth win at Pocono matched Jeff Gordon for most at the 2½ mile tri-oval track.
“It’s hard to believe because we went through such a dry spell there in the middle of my career,” Hamlin said about his Pocono results.
Hamlin raced to his fourth victory of the season to cap a wild, marathon day of racing at the track, with three NASCAR races and nightfall in the finale. Pocono doesn’t have lights — but the pit road numbers were lit up and glowed as Hamlin won for the second straight year at Pocono.
Hamlin had a late vibration in his No. 11 Toyota on Saturday that hindered his attempt to catch Harvick down the stretch. About 25 hours later, Hamlin surged past Harvick and built a nearly 3-second lead once the SHR driver got caught up in lapped traffic.
“Our car was actually better today than it was yesterday,” Harvick said. “We had to run in a lot of traffic there and Denny kept ticking off laps.”
The Daytona 500 champion’s victory capped the first NASCAR tripleheader at one track. The race was delayed by lightning and rain, as much a part of Pocono as a JGR driver taking the checkered flag. Gibbs’ roster has six of the last seven winners at Pocono.
“I hate to feel disappointed in a second and a first, but man, I felt like I should have won both races,” Hamlin said.
They ran six laps before the race was red-flagged nearly 51 minutes because or rain. NASCAR ran several pace laps before the race finally went green around 6:15 p.m. It was a race against darkness to complete the full 350 miles.
Harvick won Saturday’s race and put the brakes on a burnout — he had to save that engine for another run in the same No. 4 Ford. The starting lineup was inverted for Sunday’s race so Harvick started 20th.
Erik Jones was third, Chase Elliott fourth and Aric Almirola was fifth.
Jones dodges wrecks to win 1st career Truck race at Pocono
LONG POND, PA. » Brandon Jones took home a trophy and sent a car to the scrap heap in about an hour at Pocono.
Jones won a two-lap sprint to the finish to win the wreck-filled Truck Series race, the first of three NASCAR races Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
It’s the first time three NASCAR National Series races will be raced on the same day at the same track. It will be the fifth time three National Series races will run on the same day, but those were at different tracks.
The Truck race was rained out Saturday forcing the move to early Sunday. The second-tier Xfinity Series and Cup races will follow. Kevin Harvick goes for Cup victories on consecutive days at Pocono.
Jones’ enjoyment was short-lived — he wrecked on the first lap of the Xfinity Series race.
“It doesn’t take much when you get three wide,” Jones said. “We won the Truck race and I had high hopes for this race, too.”
The Truck race never got any momentum and dragged from start to finish because of nine caution flags and two red flags on a sloppy day of racing at Pocono. Clint Bowyer warmed up for his Cup race with a jog on track property as the Truck race started and tweeted in the waning laps, “There’s a good chance I still might outrun this truck race.”
Bowyer might have had the longest run of the day.
Christian Eckes blew a right rear tire that spun him out of the lead with 12 laps left, ending his race. The green flag came out with eight laps remaining only for the race to slow again three laps later when the whopping ninth caution of the 60-lap race bunched the field.
Briscoe holds off Chastain to win Xfinity race at Pocono
LONG POND, PA. » Chase Briscoe held off Ross Chastain in overtime to win the crashfilled Xfinity Series at Pocono Raceway, the second of three NASCAR races at the track on Sunday.
Pocono became the first track to hold a Truck, Xfinity and Cup race on the same day. Kevin Harvick goes for Cup victories on consecutive days at Pocono.
Chastain, an eighth-generation farmer and fourth-generation watermelon farmer, and Briscoe swapped the lead in a fantastic battle down the stretch until — yes, another caution, the ninth — bunched the field and sent the race into OT.
Briscoe pulled away from there in the No. 98 Ford and won his fourth race of the season, and second in three races.
“Me and Ross, it was pretty fun,” Briscoe said. “He’s always one of the hardest guys to race against.”
Chastain hit the jackpot with his runner-up finish. He won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize awarded to the highest finisher among four eligible drivers.
“It’s tough to be upset with second but I am,” Chastain said. “It’s the memories we take with us, not the money.”
Maybe, but the cash sure does help.
“It’s more money to take home and splurge,” Chastain said.
Jeremy Clements was third, followed by Myatt Snider and Michael Annett.
Pocono turned in a wreckfest for the second straight race, the track-record tying nine cautions in Trucks was given a run for the money early in Xfinity.
There was a big one just inside 40 laps remaining that collected several checkered flag contenders and shook up a staid race. Stage winners Austin Cindric and Justin Allgaier were caught up in the crash. So were Noah Gragson, the pole sitter, Daniel Hemric and Ryan Sieg.
“I hate being out of the race early, but I also hate having a race-winning car and not being able to capitalize on it,” Cindric said.
Briscoe even regrouped after he spun with the lead because of a tire issue late in the race. The 25-year-old Briscoe is now halfway to his preseason goal of eight victories.
The crash course was set from about the moment the green flag dropped.
Brandon Jones, the Truck winner, slammed into the wall on the first lap and was knocked out of the race. More drivers followed and the race was red-flagged for 21 minutes with only 16 laps completed. Alex Labbe tagged the wall moments after the race went green.
Harrison Burton, who has two Xfinity wins this season, got loose and took a vicious hit into the inside wall.
“The way I spun, it made me feel like there was oil, but I’m always the person that likes to think about what I could have done better and I will have to look back and see if I just got loose or what,” Burton said. “That hit looked harder than it was, so I’m all right.”