Hamlin Hopes for Trifecta at the Tricky Triangle of Pocono

The chase for the top spot in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season standings is as close as it’s been all season, and the fight at the other end of the standings remains crucially competitive as well as the sport continues its summer schedule in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (3 p.m. ET on Prime, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick once held a 100-point plus advantage on the field with a series-best five wins – including the prized DAYTONA 500 – but his own team owner-driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin has whittled the lead down by 78 points in just the last three race weekends. He now sits only 51 points behind Reddick riding into Pocono on a two-race winning streak. Counting the non-points paying All-Star event four weeks ago Hamlin has won three of the last four races.

The closest Hamlin has come to winning three consecutive races was last year when he won at Darlington (S.C.) and Martinsville (Va.) but finished runner-up the next week at Bristol. Reddick has already produced his own three-race win streak winning the season’s first three races – at Daytona, Atlanta and Austin.

But. … Pocono has historically been Hamlin’s happy place. His seven wins at the track are most all-time. And the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” is the site of his career first NASCAR Cup Series race victory – from pole position no less – in 2006 and he answered with a win there later in the same season, again from pole position.

“It would be hard, but there’s no better opportunity than I’ve had at any point in my career to win Pocono,” the driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota said of the three-in-a-row opportunity he’s got this weekend. “You’re going to one of my best tracks. Cars are obviously fast. Me and my team have it going right now. We know what we need every week. Our communication is great. They know exactly to what level to fix things when I ask for it.

“So, now’s as good an opportunity as ever.”

As compelling a storyline is that contest on the other end of the Chase points standings with 11 races still to decide which 16 drivers will move on to challenge for the 2026 championship.

Bubba Wallace, who once sat second in points to his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick early in the season, has endured a Spring of bad luck and poor results. He’s now ranked 11th – only a single point up on last year’s regular season champion, Hendrick Motorsports William Byron and a not-fully-comfortable 46 points to the good on Austin Cindric in that 16th and crucial final Chase transfer position.

But the Pocono triangle has been a place close to Wallace’s heart and presents a legitimate opportunity to re-launch his title run. He made his first ever NASCAR Cup Series start at Pocono in 2017 in the famed No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford finishing 26th – the first of four races he ran that season filling in for that team’s injured fulltime driver Aric Almirola.

Only 23 years old at the time, Wallace used that Pocono race as a springboard for his career, improving on each of the remaining three races he competed in for the Petty team in 2017 and making himself a viable option for a fulltime ride, which he received with the team the very next year.

Nearly a decade later, Pocono’s notoriously challenging track could well be Wallace’s course corrector. He’s earned top-10 finishes in four of the last five Pocono races. Last year’s race ended early after a brake rotor failure on his car only 54 laps into the 200-lapper.

He’s coming off a third-place finish at Michigan last week and led nine laps before getting collected in a big wreck not of his doing. It’s only his second top-10 since Kansas in mid-April but a starting point, nonetheless.

“It’s just adapting throughout the year and figuring out this car,” said Wallace, who drives the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. “We keep bringing the speed. … and it’s eventually going to turn around, all of our heads are in the right spot to go out and showcase that.”

Pocono, in particular, is a track Wallace concedes even 13 starts later, he’s still learning, particularly the famous Turn 2 – the ‘Tunnel Turn’.

“We all know how treacherous that corner is,” Wallace said “As soon as the top guys crowds the bottom guy, it ruins both of their days, so you try to get in there with a respectable amount of room, but again it all depends on who it is.”

Of note, JGR driver Christopher Bell suffered a left wrist fracture in a wreck last week with Chase Elliott at Michigan, but has been cleared by doctors to compete at Pocono.

Practice (1 p.m. ET) followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying (2:10 p.m. ET) is set for Saturday (Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin is the defending pole winner and his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe is the defending Pocono race winner. The last driver to win from pole position is the late Kyle Busch, who did so in 2017.

Justin Allgaier returns from break looking to extend O’Reilly Auto Parts Series control at Pocono

After a rare weekend off, only eight races remain to set the 12-driver Chase field, as the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action at Pocono Raceway in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA (4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner. And the only fulltime series driver with a past victory in the race’s 10-year history is Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, who won in 2023.

As has become the theme for the season, the question is whether anyone can slow JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier’s torrent pace. The 2024 series champion is turning in a career year – his four wins already one victory shy of his career best mark.

And he leads all drivers in everything from trophies to top fives (11), top 10s (13), average finish (7.9), laps led (422) and stage wins (six). Seven times he’s finished first or second. Perhaps most impressive is that his 179 points over reigning series champ, RCR driver Jesse Love atop the championship standings is larger even than the gap between second place (Love) and 11th place (Sam Mayer).

Instead of discouraging the competition, Allgaier’s dominance has instead been motivating.

Love, for example, who finished runner-up to Zilisch last year at Pocono, has been close to a trophy, finishing runner-up three times and failing to win even after leading the most laps at Nashville, the series’ most recent race.

He’s the only driver ranked among the top-five without a victory. Yet only halfway through the calendar and he’s already led more laps (374) than he has in any previous entire season.

The competition at the other end of the Chase standings is tight – positions 10th (Parker Retzlaff) and 15th (Ryan Sieg) are separated by only 32 points.

The last three Pocono race winners – Hill, Cole Custer and Zilisch are all entered this weekend as is NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron. Practice gets underway at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday (CW App) followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET (CW App). Chase Elliott started from pole position last year. Custer is the only polesitter (2019) to win at Pocono.

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA
The Place: Pocono Raceway
Track Length: 2.5 Mile Asphalt Paved Tri-oval
The Date: Sunday, June 14
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: Prime, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400 miles (160 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 95), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 160)

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA
The Place: Pocono Raceway
Track Length: 2.5 Mile Asphalt Paved Tri-oval
The Date: Saturday, June 13
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,653,590
TV: CW, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 250 miles (100 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 25),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 50), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 100)