- Chase Briscoe edges teammate Denny Hamlin to win The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway, his first victory of the 2025 season.
- Briscoe had to save fuel while maintaining the lead for the final 34 laps, holding off Hamlin and Ryan Blaney to secure the win.
- The victory marks Briscoe’s third career Cup Series win and makes him the 11th driver to earn a spot in the 16-driver Playoff field.
In a suspenseful finish at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe finally translated his strong performances into a long-awaited victory, edging his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to win The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VisitPA.com on Sunday afternoon.
Briscoe, who has earned a NASCAR Cup Series season-best four pole positions and led laps in eight races in his first season driving the famous No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, had to save as much fuel as possible while maintaining the lead for the final 34 laps. With Pocono’s all-time winningest driver Hamlin and two-time Pocono winner Ryan Blaney directly in his rearview mirror, Briscoe perfectly executed throttle control to maintain the lead and not run his car out of gas.
“There was a lot [of pressure],” a smiling Briscoe conceded. “It was kind of weird. I wasn’t driving hard, so it’s not like I was on the ragged edge, but it was just so hard having a guy chasing you, especially the guy that’s the greatest of all time here, to be trying to save fuel and everything else.
“Just an amazing day for our race team,” he continued, “Really the first race we’ve executed all year long.”
Briscoe, a 30-year-old Indiana native, led a race-best 72 of the 160 laps and had enough fuel remaining for a well-deserved victory celebration. The win formally punches his ticket into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Hamlin, a three-time winner this year who missed last week’s Mexico City race to be home for the birth of his son, showed why he is a seven-time Pocono winner. His runner-up finish marks the 10th time he’s finished first or second at the unique 2.5-mile oval in 36 starts.
“It was definitely going to be difficult,” said Hamlin, who started on pole, won Stage 1, and led 32 laps. “The team did a great job and we were next best in line of our strategy, it just didn’t work out.”
Blaney, who earned his first career Cup Series victory at Pocono in 2017 and won again last year, rallied from the back of the grid to finish third, despite running more than 100 laps without a properly functioning cool-suit on the steamy, hot summer afternoon.
RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott rounded out the top five, with Elliott securing back-to-back top-five finishes for the first time this year.
Briscoe’s victory, the third of his career, makes him the 11th driver to earn a position in the 16-driver Playoff field and the sixth different winner in the last eight weeks.
“To finally deliver a win is such an awesome feeling. … such a big weight off my shoulders,” Briscoe said. “I’ve been telling my wife the last few weeks, I have to win, and so to come here and do it, it is a great day.”
With nine races remaining to set the playoff field, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman now bumps down to the 16th-place position for the final points-only transfer spot with Briscoe’s win.
The Cup Series heads to EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) for a Saturday night affair and the start of the In-Season Challenge next weekend, with Team Penske’s Joey Logano as the defending race winner.
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