How Chase Briscoe outsmarted Hamlin to win Pocono

For the second time in three weeks, a NASCAR Cup Series race came down to who could save the most fuel, after Denny Hamlin pulled it off at Michigan, he was unable to do so at Pocono Raceway which allowed Chase Briscoe in.

Hamlin, back in the series after skipping Mexico City to focus on fatherhood, spent the final 34 laps of The Great American Getaway 400 trying to chase down Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Briscoe. Although Briscoe was low on fuel, he successfully balanced a strategy that was conservative enough to preserve gas yet aggressive to keep Hamlin and third-placed Ryan Blaney behind him.

“It was not easy running and saving fuel while still trying to hold off Denny and stuff,” Briscoe opined. “It’s definitely rewarding whenever you can beat a guy like Denny with the same equipment arguably at his best track.”

Although Hamlin’s seven wins are the most at Pocono by any active driver and he started on the pole, Briscoe was easily the top driver as he led 72 of 160 laps. After qualfiying sixth, Briscoe finished fourth for Stage 1 while Hamlin won, then broke through to win the second leg.

Briscoe continued to lead, opting not to pit between stages, as the final segment commenced. He eventually did on Lap 119, which cycled the top spot to some Ford drivers, before retaking the lead on Lap 127. With 34 laps on a track as massive as Pocono, he had to play it smart.

“I truthfully did not think I was going to win,” Briscoe admitted. “I’m still in shock truthfully. It’s still not hit me just because I fully expected to run out of fuel. I didn’t know our fuel situation. I knew we were probably going to be short. I knew inside the car I couldn’t have saved any more fuel, but I still figured when the two to go came, I’ve watched races here long enough to see where the leader runs out of fuel. I’m going to be the next guy that runs out. I was waiting for it.

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“We took the white flag. Waiting for it to stumble off of (Turn) 1, stumble off of 2. In 3, I kind of lifted early to try to save fuel. ‘What if I don’t run hard here, if I run out and they beat me to the line?’ It was just a weird mix of emotions because I’ve never really been in that situation before.”

The victory is Briscoe’s first of 2025 and his maiden triumph for Joe Gibbs Racing, having joined the team after Stewart-Haas Racing shut down.

“I definitely am surprised that honestly we made it on fuel,” he continued. “I guess maybe we learned something because we’ve talked about that all year long, we’re probably taking too much fuel in a lot of these races. For us to be able to stretch it like we did, hopefully we can learn something from that.”

Pocono a disaster for 23XI’s brakes

While JGR enjoyed a 1–2 finish, it was a tough day for satellite 23XI Racing. All three drivers were classified outside the top 30, with Tyler Reddick being the lone finisher in a very dubious 32nd.

Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst were both eliminated by crashes when their brake rotors failed. Herbst’s accident happened just 41 laps into the race, while Wallace bowed out just ten laps later.

“I’ve grown up watching these races at Pocono and seeing what happened to me happen to lot of other guys,” Herbst explained. “It was a scary feeling for sure. I was just starting to get tight, just a bad adjustment on my part. Getting into (Turn) 1, the brakes just went to the floor. A brake rotor exploded and I was along for the ride.”

After what happened to his colleagues, Reddick’s team opted switched to an ultra soft brake setup. While this ensured he would reach the finish, it was a formula that also greatly reduced his performance as Pocono is one of the most demanding ovals on the Cup schedule for braking in the corners. Consequently, Reddick went from finishing third in Stage 1 to out of the top 30.

For Wallace, the DNF continues a difficult stretch of bad luck. He began the season running as high as fifth in points and was a perennial top-ten driver otherwise, but a retirement at Texas in May has since put him in a slump. In the seven races since, he retired from four including Pocono.

“I was going to battle the #17 (Chris Buescher) and the #2 (Austin Cindric),” Wallace explained. “By the time I was ready to touch the pedal, it just went to the floor and the brakes exploded.

“We’ve had two or three good races in a row and there goes the bad luck again. They told me there’s no such thing as bad luck, we create our own luck. We knew it was going to be a grind and I was mentally prepared for that all day. As frustrating as it gets not being able to pass here in Pocono, we were going to just take our lumps and march our way through and set ourselves up for the end of the race, but the brakes just didn’t want to hang on that long.”

NASCAR 2025 The Great American Getaway 400 – Results