Chase Briscoe holds off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to win at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) – Chase Briscoe returned to victory lane Sunday at Pocono Raceway, conserving fuel down the stretch to hold off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for his first win with his new race team.

Briscoe raced his way into an automatic spot in NASCAR’s playoffs with the win and gave the No. 19 Toyota its first victory since 2023 when Martin Truex Jr. had the ride. Briscoe lost his job at the end of last season at Stewart-Haas Racing when the team folded and he was tabbed to replace Truex in the four-car JGR field.

Hamlin, who holds the track record with seven wins, appeared on the brink of reeling in Briscoe over the final, thrilling laps only to have not enough in the No. 11 Toytota to snag that eighth Pocono win.

“It was just so hard to have a guy chasing you, especially the guy that’s the greatest of all time here,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe, who won an Xfinity Series race at Pocono in 2020, raced to his third career Cup victory and first since Darlington in 2024.

Briscoe has been on bit of a hot streak, and had his fourth top-10 finish over the last six races, including a seventh-place finish in last week’s ballyhooed race in Mexico City.

He became the 11th driver to earn a spot in the 16-driver field with nine races left until the field is set.

Hamlin finished second. Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott completed the top five.

Briscoe, a third-generation dirt racer from Indiana, gave JGR its 18th Cup victory at Pocono.

“To get here and finally deliver a win is just an awesome feeling,” he said. “To be able to get Coach in victory lane after taking a chance on me, it’s just so rewarding.”

The race was delayed 2 hours, 10 minutes by rain and the conditions were muggy by the time the green flag dropped. Briscoe led 72 laps and won the second stage.

Briscoe wrote before the race on social media, “Anybody going from Pocono to Oklahoma City after the race Sunday?” The Pacers fan wasn’t going to make it to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

He’ll certainly settle for a ride to victory lane.

There was a minor scare on pit road when AJ Allmendinger struck a tire in the carrier’s hand with his right front side and sent it flying into the ribs of another team’s crew member in the pit ahead of him. Jonpatrik Kealey, the rear tire changer on Shane van Gisbergen’s race team, was knocked on all fours but finished work on van Gisbergen’s pit stop.

Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst all had their races spoiled by brake issues.

“It was a scary feeling for sure,” Herbst said. “I was just starting to get tight, just a bad adjustment on my part. Getting into (turn) one, the brakes just went to the floor. A brake rotor exploded and I was along for the ride.”

NASCAR heads to Atlanta. Christopher Bell won the first race at the track this season in March.