It’s the Summer of Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The 45-year-old driver parked his No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Toyota Camry XSE in Victory Lane once again on Sunday, winning the The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway – his eighth victory at the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped facility at NASCAR’s top level.
Making his final pit stop with 39 laps to go, Hamlin spent that entire fuel run chasing down his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell, who was trying to stretch the fuel in his No. 20 Rheem Toyota more than 50 laps. After charging from 14-plus seconds behind, Hamlin made the final pass for the lead with five laps remaining.
When the checkered flag dropped, Hamlin was able to cross the start-finish line with a 1.678-second advantage over 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick, who chose to pit later in the green-flag pit stop cycle to try and gain an advantage with fresher Goodyear tires. The regular-season points leader managed to surge from ninth to second during the final run, and make up nearly 15 seconds, but came up just short of his sixth win of 2026.
“I would certainly say it’s the best we’ve been,” Hamlin said post-race on the Pocono Raceway frontstretch. “We come to the racetrack every week knowing we got a great shot to win. The team’s doing an amazing job giving me exactly what I need in the car every single week. That’s why we’re winning.”
The victory on Sunday marks the third straight win in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hamlin, something that the Chesterfield, Virginia-native had never accomplished. Better yet, all three of those wins came from the pole, something that hasn’t been done since Darrell Waltrip in 1981 – the year after Hamlin was born.
It’s a 64th career NASCAR Cup Series win for Hamlin, who now holds ninth on the all-time wins list by himself, breaking his tie with the late Kyle Busch.
Tyler Reddick finished in the runner-up position, but without getting any stage points, the 23XI Racing driver continues to hemorrhage the points lead that he had accumulated earlier in the season. With 10 races left in the regular-season, Reddick is only 19 points ahead of Hamlin.
William Byron managed to match his season-best result of third (which came at Las Vegas), collecting his first top five since Martinsville Speedway, nine races ago. John Hunter Nemechek came home fourth for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, matching a career best from last Fall’s Southern 500. Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
Erik Jones was sixth, followed by Chris Buescher in seventh, and Ross Chastain in eighth. For Chastain, it’s his first non-superspeedway top 10 since last Fall at Martinsville. Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.
Christopher Bell was leading the race with five laps to go, but ran out of gas coming to the white flag and dropped to a disappointing 26th-place finish. Bell was essentially driving one-handed after breaking his left wrist in an accident last Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
Several drivers around “The Chase” cutline ran into some trouble on Sunday, as well, with Shane Van Gisbergen, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and Bubba Wallace all getting collected in the same incident. Keselowski retired from the race and finished 38th, the first time in his career he’s finished outside the top-30 in three straight events.
As previously mentioned, Tyler Reddick holds the NASCAR Cup Series points lead by only 19 points over Denny Hamlin, leaving Pocono, with Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Ty Gibbs rounding out the top-five.
Austin Cindric currently holds down the final spot in “The Chase” with a four-point buffer on Brad Keselowski.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Naval Base Coronado for its inaugural street race in San Diego next weekend, a racetrack that promises to be difficult beyond belief, as drivers have called it one of the most technical courses they’ve ever run on.
Coverage will take place Sunday, June 21, at 4:00 PM ET.
Photo: Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota Racing USA
