Jun 15, 2026, 10:58 AM ET

Denny Hamlin looked to win three NASCAR Cup Series races in a row for the first time in his career at Pocono Raceway for the Great American Getaway 400 after winning the past two weeks at Nashville and Michigan. Hamlin started the race in first, the pole position, but quickly lost the lead to Kyle Larson after Larson had a better restart to begin the race and pulled away from Hamlin. Hamlin spent the rest of the first stage chasing down Larson and passed him on lap 26, going on to win the first stage and 10 stage points. In the second stage, Hamlin cycled back to the middle of the pack as he went to pit road while others stayed out during the stage break. It took Hamlin until lap 88 to return to the lead, but a few laps later, he went to pit road before the end of the second stage, moving him back to ninth as the stage ended. In the final stage, Hamlin cycled back to the front and took the lead back again on lap 111 before his final pit stop on lap 122. After the final cycle of green flag pit stops, Hamlin made it back up to second and had to make up an 11-second gap on Christopher Bell, who was trying to stretch his fuel mileage to avoid another pit stop. Hamlin steadily made up the gap until lap 156, where he finally passed Bell. Despite William Byron and Tyler Reddick chasing him throughout the stage, Hamlin was too far ahead to be caught and won at Pocono for the eighth time in his Cup career while scoring three consecutive race wins in a season for the first time. Hamlin remains second in the Cup Series standings, but now has cut the gap to 19 points behind Reddick after 16 races.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com