HLs: NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono
Watch highlights from the NASCAR Cup Series' Great American Getaway 400 from Pocono Raceway.
Video Transcript
Four straight weeks we've had a sellout crowd.
This place is aw- awesome.
The atmosphere is electric.
Denny Hamlin, the all-time wins leader here on the pole.
He takes the outside lane.
To his left, the reigning champ.
We are green in the Poconos.
Big move by Reddick around the top.
He's gonna grab a few rows, get on the outside of this 12 car, Blaney.
Stayed out of the outside wall down the back straightaway.
He must have picked up four or five spots right there, just taking that third groove around the top.
Trying to get more here.
Going three wide into the tunnel turn around the outside of Byron.
Yeah, and I don't think Byron knew he was there.
We'll see if they get it cleaned out.
Reddick will choose to lift, get back in line.
Up front we have the seven to the outside of Hamlin.
Hamlin almost just protecting the bottom, allowing the seven to have that top line into that flat turn three that Trevor talked about in the pre-race.
Make a note of this.
Larson inside lane gets the race lead lap one.
Yeah, absolutely.
Good organization on that inside lane.
I think Denny's gonna lose second place right here to Suarez.
They applied that resin several years ago.
Still giving a little bit of grip to that outside line.
That's why Suarez is able to stay up there.
He's gonna finally, possibly make the pass.
Note Denny's gonna try to side draft some more.
This place will tease you, right?
Just when you think someone's got it, the rally comes from the other lane.
Denny- Briscoe does get by Gibbs, and now Hamlin up to second.
Oh, man.
Suarez right across the nose of the 19.
Briscoe has to get up the racetrack to find some grip.
Kyle Larson leads as we work lap eight.
We remember Kyle Busch.
We got a lapped car right here in front of the five.
Oh.
That could become a challenge for this five car.
This could present an opportunity for Denny.
The five's tight, aero balance.
If he has to get in the wake of this lapped car down here in turn three, that's Casey Mears in the 62, that might present the 11 an opportunity to get side by side with Larson.
Let's see what happens.
Larson's got to go to the top of the track to stay out of the dirty air of the 62.
Denny's gonna go to the bottom.
Now the 62 is gonna slow down the five.
Here we are, side by side for the lead.
And listen to the crowd.
Sold out here.
Denny's gonna clear.
And Denny Hamlin back to the lead.
Clear, clear, clear.
All clear.
I say back to the lead.
Started on the pole and he's leading for the first time today after Larson got the early advantage.
11 on point, getting it done.
You'll see four tires and fuel go on this 45 that jumped the stage.
All right, risk versus reward.
So if you're Chris Gail right now, and you're a crew chief of the 11, you know you want those 10 points, but everybody that's been on pit road will not pit at the end of the stage.
So every one of these cars are a position you're going to lose.
How much do you dare give up?
The points are piling up for Denny Hamlin.
This is his fifth stage win of 2026.
That leads all drivers.
The battle for the lead still rages.
Side by side for third.
Top four.
Those guys that slipped the stage, right behind them Denny Hamlin, who made that pit stop after winning stage number one.
He's right there.
Look at Blaney.
Little crossover looking inside of those two Toyotas out front.
Well, now there's a second groove developing in the tunnel.
It's allowing that outside line to, to still be stubborn out here.
At some point you might just have to take the slide job, drive up the track.
The 42 of John Hunter tries to do that, but Reddick's there.
42 has to jump out of the gas.
Reddick with the spot.
Finally, all clear out front.
Tyler Reddick.
Zane Smith pulls out of line, trying to make it happen around Blaney, now side by side with Hamlin.
This for third.
And I think- Oh!
There he goes.
Zane Smith loses it off the corner.
Lock it down.
Lock it down.
Lock it down.
Lock it down.
Inside wall.
Lock it down.
Let me know if you make nose contact here.
Can't see you.
Man.
Sorry.
He was, he was just pushing so hard there, trying to make something happen.
Where they could run in the top 10 on a regular basis, and here you see it up the track, just got a little bit loose.
Tried to Yeah, he did a great job actually keeping the car out of the door of the 11.
There's a, there was a loose moment.
He corrected up the track, and that could've taken Denny with him.
Larson to the inside, a late dive bomb down into the tunnel.
Little bit of a surprise for his teammate there, but chase is gonna clear on exit.
Hendrick Motorsports has been great at Pocono.
Won here 19 times.
Got three cars in the top seven today.
Saw Elliott and Larson racing for sixth.
Couple cars getting way up the racetrack there down in turn three and four.
Oh, man.
Oh.
The 21's in the wall.
SVG.
Look at this.
Coming off of turn three, crash, caution number three.
Yeah.
That all started back in the middle of turn three.
It looks like SVG got into the inside of Josh Berry and they go way up the racetrack, and they continue to sort of argue for that position off of the corner.
And the 21 runs out of racetrack or runs into the wall, and it looked like from that, from that point forward it was just chaos.
So there's the- Well, if- SVG and the 21.
So they're three wide, and the 33 is also I'm not sure the 33 knows he's three wide, or doesn't have the ability to stay down a lane I would love to hear what the 33's hearing, because right there, you know, he's running it like there's one car that was outside, not two.
You know, a few of those cars involved there are the ones that had just come down- So- to make a pit stop.
Lost all that track position trying to play a little game of strategy, and you get caught in the middle of this.
John Hunter Nemechek also came into this race only of having led 21 laps over the last two seasons.
Today, he's gonna cross to lead lap number 18.
What a confidence booster it is for this young man.
I talked to crew chief Travis Mack earlier, because if you watch these Legacy Motor Club's cars, they always run right together, whether it's 25th, or right now if it's first and third.
Travis contributes a lot of that to the work being done at the shop, but also his relationship with Justin Alexander, the crew chief on the 43 of Erik Jones.
They've worked together in some capacity back to their Hendrick days 20 years ago.
I know you guys know the importance of those crew chiefs getting along, Marty.
Trevor checked in with Chris Gayle, the crew chief for Denny Hamlin, who's trying to track down Chase Elliott to be the leader of those on that lap 48 pitting strategy.
Steve, I asked Chris Gayle, I said, "Pitting at that point, can you make it to the end of the stage?"
He said, "If it goes green, likely not, but I can flip it, and also I can pit with everybody else, and then my stop would be much quicker than everybody else."
You see that play for the 19 that literally the tire changer waited on the gas man.
Like, we think it's all about changing tires.
It was all about the gas man.
They didn't want him to unplug any sooner than he needed to.
Now we start to see a little bit of a trickle of other cars coming to pit road.
We have the 48 of Bowman there.
Now the leader, the 42 of Nemechek on pit road in front of you, Trevor.
He's on the gas.
He's upshifting, but the momentum of the 19's gonna carry him by.
But where will the 43 blend with the 42?
I think the 42's gonna get him as well with momentum.
Let's see.
It's gonna be close.
I think the 42's gonna be behind him.
So 43 of Jones leapfrogs his teammate.
Once again, though, they were on split strategies.
Now they're together, right?
So now these two different plans have merged together.
Kenneth Purcell, the fueler, will give the nod when they are fueled.
Gonna wait just a little bit.
There's the nod.
There goes Denny Hamlin, who keeps that lead over Chase Elliott off of pit road.
Yeah.
And on the racetrack, the Legacy cars, including Chase Briscoe, use those fresher tires to absolutely jump in front of these guys.
So the pit stops, much quicker on these two cars.
Two and a half to three seconds, kind of comparing as a general.
But look at this, Briscoe, the 42, the 43, already in the tunnel turn.
Todd Gilliland runs it long.
Gonna pick up a stage victory.
It will be the first of his career.
Chase Briscoe plays the strategy.
They execute it quite well.
He's second in the stage.
Great stage points day for him.
Byron right here in the 24 car.
I like the speed in the 24 that I've seen today.
If Denny's the best car, I think Chase and Byron seem to show the best speed comparable to him.
Well, we got a car losing a right front tire wheel.
So this is the 62 of Meers, and what I believe's happened, Steve, is that the wheel came loose.
Let the 19 know we c- got to stay together here.
Can't kill our line.
We're just trying to get that 19 to commit all the way to turn one.
you know, you got teammates on both lanes, so you both got to kind of stick with each other to make this work.
Nemechek in control, outside lane.
Hamlin's had some big restarts the last couple of weeks to get the lead and get the victory.
We'll see what happens here.
50 to go.
Dead even off into turn one.
Hamlin nose out front, and there goes the 11.
All clear.
All clear.
Started on point, won a stage, cycled out of the lead through strategy, but with 50 to go, he's in charge again.
Yeah, not a good sign for the rest of the field to see that 11 car up front.
Three wide here for round 10 through the tunnel.
Brees way up there against the wall.
Every gears to understand that wasn't gonna be an option.
Oh, the 12 into the wall.
He's not gonna be happy.
He's not gonna be happy about how Chastain got onto his inside, made him a little bit tight there.
Got him into the fence.
Chastain wisely gets behind this 12.
Chastain up the racetrack using a lot of racetrack right there.
Ryan's got a right to be upset.
And they said we're going on the jack, so as soon as it drops, I can tell it's already full, and there goes Hamlin.
Let's see where he cycles out.
Well, on board with the 24 of Byron.
Hamlin's gonna be upper left.
He's already kind of off and going, so I think Hamlin's gonna easily keep the lead over Byron.
Now it's who cars- whose car is better.
38 laps to go.
But what are Christopher Bell and Adam Stevens cooking up?
Listen in.
Really good, man.
Keep doing that.
We're gonna stretch this thing.
That last lap was fantastic.
Good mileage and good speed.
Adam Stevens, we're gonna, quote, "stretch this thing."
Now, Steve, they pitted with 51 laps to go.
That would be a fairly massive stretch.
I just checked in with Adam Stevens.
I said, "Can you stretch it to the end?"
He said, "I believe we can, but I do not think that we will win.
I think this could just get us some track position."
Let's get an update.
Driver 11, Marty.
And Denny Hamlin knows that 24 growing bigger in his mirror.
In fact, a moment ago they just started giving him updates of where William Byron is running.
And when they went into the tunnel turn last time, Dale, he said to Chris Lambert, his spotter, "Give me those updates.
Tell me where that 24 is running so I can match what he's doing."
I don't think he's gonna get to us if you keep doing that.
Adam Stevens says, "I don't think he's gonna get to us."
Now, look, we're trying to guess how much fuel this 20 is saving, but- These teams have become so efficient with fuel savings.
Drivers have the tools to do it.
Little bit of lap traffic for Denny Hamlin, as we saw on the screen.
I think your turn one is good.
You need to lift earlier in two and three.
That's instructions to the 20.
As you were mentioning, traffic now in front of the 11.
Yeah, the 24 has not been able to gain over the last couple of laps on the 11 of Denny Hamlin, and Denny's gonna make quick work of the lap traffic.
Bell's like, "Man, I have a cast on my left wrist.
I'm doing the best I can out here.
Cut me some slack.
Find me some fuel."
25 miles to go, 10 laps.
Yeah, there's Denny right there at the top of the screen.
We'll probably slide in, P4, we think, if we did enough saving.
I, I like the honesty.
Like, "Hey, man, let's not even pretend we're racing Hamlin.
We're thinking P4."
They've given him a target pace.
Hamlin's thinking, "That's great, man, but just let me go clean, 'cause I have a Hendrick Chevy back here a couple seconds back, but he's close enough.
I don't wanna catch you at the wrong time."
That's so painful for Christopher Bell to know that he could run harder and possibly keep Denny behind him, but he's gonna have to let him just drive right back, right by him, and he's gotta do it quick, 'cause Byron's only two seconds back.
Here goes Denny to the inside.
That'll be there, there it is.
Denny Hamlin back on point.
His teammate saving fuel.
Hamlin takes advantage.
The 11 in charge.
Oh, man, he buries it down into turn three to the inside.
Junior Christopher Bell out of fuel, running fourth.
He just said, "I'm out, I'm out."
Oh, man, so Denny on the top is gonna take the white flag right here.
One lap to go, sponsored by Credit One Bank.
There's Bell peeling off, coming to pit road.
Yeah, so at least he got to pit road.
He's probably gonna lose 20, 25 spots.
Now it's all about Denny Hamlin.
He has about two miles to go.
Four times in his career he's won back to back, but he's never had the hat trick, winning three in a row.
Boy, has he been so impressive.
Across the tunnel turn.
Short shoot to turn three.
And now the left-hander, coming back to the checkered flag.
Hamlin is on a heater.
Denny gets his third victory in a row, and it comes here at Pocono.
Three in a row, 64, my man.
Great work.
Coming up.
