Chase Briscoe Wins Pocono NASCAR Cup Series Race On Bizarre Anniversary

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Jun 22, 2025
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Chase Briscoe at Pocono Raceway
Credit: NASCAR via Getty Images

A year and a day after Christopher Bell accidentally let it slip early that Chase Briscoe was coming to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, the team’s junior driver proved it was a good move at Pocono Raceway. But one of his teammates might not be entirely happy.

Briscoe held off fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver and seven-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin in the closing laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday in a fuel-saving battle.

Hamlin and Briscoe shared stage wins before lining up alongside each other for a final restart on lap 131 of the 160-lap race with Briscoe in the lead. Briscoe would take control, while Hamlin worked to stay ahead of Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott.

Both JGR cars were on long runs and at risk of running out of fuel if there wasn’t another caution period, so they went to work driving efficiently, lifting off the gas early approaching turns and cruising through them before getting back on it as their crew chiefs coached them over the radio.

Briscoe did the better of it and Hamlin was unable to close the gap, conceding victory by less than a second.

“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 to, you know, to have a guy chasing you, especially the guy that’s the greatest of all time here, to be trying to save fuel and everything else.”

“Joe Gibbs Racing, they took a big chance on me, I wasn’t everybody’s first choice, It think, but, a, yea, for me to be able to get here and finally deliver a win is an awesome feeling.”

The win punched Briscoe’s ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs, while Hamlin already has three wins on the year and sits third in the points behind William Byron and Kyle Larson.

Next up for the Cup Series is a trip to the newly-named EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, which will mark the start of the $1 million In-Season Challenge tournament, where Hamlin and Briscoe are seeded first and second in the 32-driver field. Each week, pairs of drivers will be matched up with the one that finishes highest moving to the next round, while the races are otherwise business as usual.

Full Pocono Results:

  1. (6)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 160.
  2. (1)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 160.
  3. (20)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 160.
  4. (2)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 160.
  5. (18)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 160.
  6. (4)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 160.
  7. (24)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 160.
  8. (13)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 160.
  9. (14)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 160.
  10. (19)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 160.
  11. (25)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 160.
  12. (35)  Josh Berry, Ford, 160.
  13. (11)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 160.
  14. (7)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 160.
  15. (10)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 160.
  16. (12)  Joey Logano, Ford, 160.
  17. (9)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 160.
  18. (3)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 160.
  19. (22)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 160.
  20. (26)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 160.
  21. (33)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 160.
  22. (5)  Cole Custer, Ford, 160.
  23. (17)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 160.
  24. (16)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 160.
  25. (15)  Zane Smith, Ford, 160.
  26. (21)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 160.
  27. (31)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 160.
  28. (32)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 160.
  29. (36)  Cody Ware, Ford, 160.
  30. (30)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 160.
  31. (23)  Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 159.
  32. (8)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 159.
  33. (27)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 140.
  34. (37)  Brennan Poole(i), Chevrolet, Drivetrain, 111.
  35. (28)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, Accident, 73.
  36. (34)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 54.
  37. (29)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, Accident, 41.