By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
After NASCAR made a run for the border last week in Mexico, they return to the friendly Pocono Raceway and Denny Hamlin’s goal is to make the field feel he never left. After becoming a father for the third time, Hamlin has made “The Tricky Triangle” one of his most successful tracks.
To lap one.
First Stage
Hamlin brings the field to the green flag with Chris Buescher to his left side. Hamlin, Buescher, and Hocevar are 1-2-3 with the top ten within four seconds ten laps into the 30-lap Stage One. Hamlin and Buescher remain 1-2 in S1 with Hocevar slipping to fifth and a battle with Chase Briscoe. Denny Hamlin secures the win in Stage 1. Chris Buescher finishes second, followed by Tyler Reddick in third. Chase Briscoe and Erik Jones round out the top five for the stage. Buescher and Reddick stay on the track to earn the stage wins for the playoffs, as both are winless in 2025.
Second Stage
Most lead lap cars pit, with notable exceptions being Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell, and Daniel Suarez. Chris Buescher emerges as the first off pit road, followed by Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones. Cody Ware earns the free pass. Keselowski takes the green flag. Drivers go four wide on the opening lap. Riley Herbst hits the wall in Turn 1 while running in 30th position, bringing out the caution flag. This is the first caution for cause in the race.
S2 Leaderboard (after 95/160 laps)
Keselowski and Hocevar take the field to the green following the Herbst caution. Gibbs, and Hamlin are 3-4. Bubba Wallace blows a right front tire and goes into the wall to bring another caution. The 23 is out of the race. Keselowski pits when the pits are closed and receives a rear of the field penalty and he will try to drive through the field in 34th place. Following the caution, Alex Bowman, Logano, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are 1-2-3. Hocevar moves to 4th behind Stenhouse and the 77 wants to cleanly go around Stenhouse Jr. in the 47 and he receives no opportunity.
Michael McDowell leaves debris from a crumbling tire on the track to bring about the fourth caution of the day. The green flag is thrown with Stenhouse Jr. leading the field. Hocevar overtakes the 47 and Briscoe takes the lead from Hocevar, with the 77 falling to third. On lap 83, a multi-car incident unfolds in Turn 2 as Kyle Busch spins while battling for 24th position with Zane Smith. The incident collects Christopher Bell, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Ty Dillon, who also spin as a result.Briscoe and Stenhouse Jr. bring the field to the green flag with seven to go in S2. With four TO GO, Briscoe, Josh Berry, AND Chase Elliott are 1-2-3. The Stage finishes that way.
Final Stage
Lap 100 finds Briscoe leading the field to the green flag. Buescher, Hamlin, and Elliott are 1-4. Both Keselowski and Ryan Blaney (2024 Pocono Winner) have raced through the field twice after early race penalties and pit stop strategy. Briscoe short pits on lap 120 and Buescher and Hamlin join him. Blaney, Keselowski, and Nemecheck are 1-2-3. They are gambling on their tires and fuel situation.
Shane vanGisbergen brings out caution No. 7 as he spins coming out of turn one. Pit Stop Strategy. Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Todd Gilliland, and Cody Ware all make pit stops under caution.
Briscoe, Hamlin, Blaney, and Elliott are 1-2-3-4 with 13 laps to go. Briscoe is getting better fuel mileage than the rest of the field and he is putting Hamlin at bay by putting him in dirty air when he gets too close. Games between the Briscoe and Hamlin teams are gambling on whether Briscoe can make it on fuel mileage. Chase Briscoe crosses the finish line first, securing the win with a margin of 0.703 seconds over Denny Hamlin.
Checkered Flag
Briscoe, who started sixth, has led a race-high 72 laps. He’s maintained an average running position of 6.87 and spent 103 laps in the top five. His best lap time of 52.992 seconds came on lap 122, reaching a speed of 169.837 mph. Briscoe becomes the sixth driver in the last eight races to win their first race of the season.
Fantasy
Kyle Larson and William Byron were dropped after poor qualifying efforts. They will be saved for races going into the final regular season race at Daytona in August. Picked up were Buescher and Tyler Reddick. Both pickups proved to be wise as Hamlin finished second to Briscoe. Keselowski had to drive through the field three times and made it the first two times, and finished 8th.
Factoids that may interest only me
The first stage at Pocono is the first caution-free stage in the Next Gen era.
Brad Keselowski led x laps at Pocono. He has led only eight laps this season, coming into Pocono.
Chase Briscoe secures his first stage win since Watkins Glen in August 2022
After no cautions thrown in Stage One, the six cautions in Stage Two are the most in the Next Gen Era.
Briscoe becomes the sixth driver in the last eight races to win their first race of the season.
Tale of the Tape
Final Results < Click Here
They Said It
RILEY HERBST, No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing – Finishing Position: 37th
What happened during the incident in turn one?
“I don’t know. I’ve grown up watching these races at Pocono and seeing what happened to me happen to lot of other guys. It was a scary feeling for sure. 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 with our Monster Energy Camry XSE.”
Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet = Finished: 5th
“We were just really loose in (turn) three. I felt like I could pace pretty good through turns one and two, but I just could not get turn three right all day. Certainly as the run went on, it became more challenging for me and I started making more and more mistakes over there. I thought Denny (Hamlin) and Ryan (Blaney) could do a better job of kind of stalking the person in front of them to get themselves opportunities. I was just a little bit too far back and I think it was mainly because of that. But overall, happy to get a fifth-place finish for this No. 9 NAPA Chevy team.”
Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net is a NASCAR reporter
