Ryan Blaney and his Team Penske Racing crew stuck to their game plan on Sunday.
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion won for the second time in five races by taking The Great American Getaway 400 Sunday afternoon at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.
Blaney’s No. 12 Ford jetted away on a restart with 23 laps left and easily topped Denny Hamlin by 1.312 seconds to back up his win last month at Iowa Speedway that put him into the playoffs.
The victory was his second at Pocono in 15 starts and the 12th win of his Cup career. His first-ever win was June 11, 2017, at the Pennsylvania speedway while driving the Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21.
“Things are really kind of falling into place for us,” said Blaney, who led a race-high 44 laps. “We’ve got to a great place on speed. … It was nice just to stick to the plan today, which was to have track-position at the end. I knew our car was fast enough.”
Alex Bowman, William Byron and Joey Logano followed behind the two frontrunners in the eight-caution race that featured eight leaders.
“You never lose a race, you just always run out of time, right?” joked Hamlin, who led 31 laps. “Just not enough laps of green toward the end. Hats off to (the No. 12). They kept a great pace up front.”
After securing his second career pole position Saturday, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs drove away from the field for the first 17 laps before turning the point over to teammate Martin Truex Jr. in his No. 19.
Truex’s Toyota pulled away to a strong lead, allowing the 2017 Cup champion to run away and claim his third stage win of 2024.
Sitting precipitously close to the points cut line, Ross Chastain popped the wall in his No. 1 Chevrolet on Lap 53 while running 21st and retired from the event in 36th.
Meanwhile, Hamlin gambled on a two-tire stop and found himself up front with Josh Berry and Gibbs in the middle portion of Stage 2.
On Lap 67, Hamlin put his Camry past Berry’s No. 4 Ford and built a 2.25-second advantage over the next five laps around the triangular layout, with Chase Elliott passing Gibbs for third.
Hamlin continued his Stage 2 dominance by claiming the top points in the stage and beating runner-up Elliott by nearly six seconds.
With 44 laps left, the entire field pitted under caution, and Kyle Larson, Elliott, Gibbs and Daniel Suarez were all nabbed for speeding and lost track position.
The race’s sixth caution flew immediately as Kyle Busch spun onto the apron after contact with Corey LaJoie on the Lap 121 restart.
Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet slid back up in Turn 1, banged into Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 and created a small melee.
Gibbs brought out the eighth yellow when his No. 54 lost an engine on a restart with 29 laps remaining to set up the final run to the finish.
–Field Level Media
