Cup drivers recap Pocono race won by Briscoe
Hear from Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, and Chase Briscoe following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
NASCAR Pocono takeaways: Chase Briscoe's big relief, Kyle Larson's struggles and more
Chase Briscoe is still adjusting to his new life as someone who should win races, not a driver who shocks everyone when he does. That's a strange place to be for a driver whose entire career has been one of those against-all-odds, Hollywood stories (if you're not familiar with it, it's quite eye-opening). Advertisement Things are much different for Briscoe now. Driving for one of NASCAR's powerhouse teams in Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe is expected to win, and it would have been a huge disappointment if he didn't. In fact, his entire career might be built on a false premise if he was unable to find victory lane in his situation. That's why he quickly expressed relief on Sunday night at Pocono Raceway, after he somehow conserved enough fuel to hold off the track's all-time wins leader in teammate Denny Hamlin. 'I've only won three races in the Cup Series. This is by far the least enjoyable because it's expected now,' he said. 'You have to go win.' There's no sugarcoating that. At JGR, it's win or find someplace else to work. And if you've shown you can't win in the best equipment? Good luck getting someone else to take a chance on you. That's the stark reality Briscoe signed up for: Fast cars, but major expectations. And he could feel the pressure creeping in as he sat winless near the halfway point of the season. 'The last couple weeks especially, (it's) like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I've ever experienced before,' he said. 'My wife (said), 'What is going on with you?' I'm like, 'I have to win. I don't think you realize how bad it is if we don't win a race and lock into the playoffs.'' When you drive for @JoeGibbsRacing, excellence isn't just expected – it's demanded.@chasebriscoe talks about securing his first victory with his new team. — NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 23, 2025 Briscoe said when he was signing his contract with JGR, he was shown a statistic: Out of 40 possible playoff berths to that point in the elimination playoff era, the team had made it 38 times. The expectation, he said, was clear: 'If you don't make the playoffs, you're not going to be in this car anymore.' Advertisement There are times when we wonder why NASCAR drivers don't seem to be having fun. Hey, that was some cool racing for sixth place out there! Why don't they get out of the car and smile? It's because for those at the top of the sport — anyone who drives for JGR, Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske — winning is about the only thing worth smiling about. Briscoe, the career underdog who made it big, now knows that all too well. 'There were a lot of people they could have put in this car,' he said. 'It was the most sought-after seat in the offseason. For me to be the one blessed enough, lucky enough to get it is great. 'With that, you have to prove yourself. To be able to come here and win, it doesn't mean I'm guaranteed to be in it for awhile — but it certainly is nice to know I can do it at this level, in this equipment. Hopefully, I can be here my entire career because the sky definitely feels like it's the limit here.' You can understand why Brad Keselowski wanted to stay out for one more lap. With nothing but clean track in front of him and suddenly freed from the scourge of Pocono's dirty air problem, Keselowski was ripping around the 2.5-mile track and making up ground on those drivers who were in the middle of a pit cycle. Or so he thought. But his team, with all their data and lap times on the pit box, radioed to tell him that wasn't the case. He was actually losing time to the cars who had come off pit road with fresher tires and needed to pit now instead of running longer. Keselowski had committed to running long in his mind and asked if he could do one more lap. The team said yes. So he did. Except right then is when Shane van Gisbergen spun out and caused a caution, which ruined Keselowski's pit strategy altogether. Instead of starting that final run somewhere in the top five and having a chance to win the race, Keselowski had to restart 24th and spent the rest of the race driving back up to ninth. At this point, for a driver in 30th place in the standings, wins are the only thing that matters. You can't blame Keselowski for trying to do what he thought was right; he's a veteran with nearly 600 Cup starts, a highly intelligent team owner who has a firm grasp on strategy, and a person who has spent a lifetime in racing. If there's no caution, his decision doesn't look bad. Advertisement Still, the driver has limited resources inside the car. Whatever he's seeing for lap times and however information is being relayed in his ear, it's no match for the computers on the pit box and the engineers in the war rooms back at the race shops who are helping call the race in real time. The best drivers and teams in the Next Gen Era are the ones who let the driver drive and the crew chief be the crew chief. Cliff Daniels doesn't ask Kyle Larson what to do; he tells him, and Larson says 'OK' and does it. Denny Hamlin doesn't question Chris Gayle (or Chris Gabehart before that); Hamlin puts the strategy in the team's hands. We've yet to see a case lately where a driver overruling the team has worked out. But we have seen multiple high-profile cases where the driver got it wrong (Justin Allgaier at Charlotte, for example). Keselowski, unfortunately with bad timing as a factor, now becomes the latest example. Wait a second. Is Larson suddenly not as fast anymore? Larson is tops in laps led this season and was setting a blazing pace in that category, making it seem inevitable he could reach 2,000 laps led in a season again (like he did in 2021). Except suddenly, Larson and the No. 5 team have just been … OK? In the last four races — Nashville, Michigan, Mexico City, Pocono — Larson has led zero laps. Not one! It had been almost a year since Larson went even three straight races without leading a lap. Surely, people will point to the disastrous Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 weekend as some sort of turning point. But this is about the speed of the cars, not the driver; remember, Larson shot to the lead at Charlotte and led 34 laps before crashing. Something isn't quite firing on all cylinders with the No. 5 team right now, and Larson has made several puzzled comments about it recently (like at Michigan, when he said he wouldn't have finished any further regardless of the fuel mileage game). 'I just hope we don't carry what we had the last few weeks into the rest of the season,' Larson said after Pocono. 'Prior to the last few weeks, we've been really fast. It's just been a rough stretch, but we'll continue to go to work.' Legacy Motor Club seems to have come to life in the last two months after a disappointing couple seasons. The question is: Can the team keep building on the momentum, or is this a temporary spike? John Hunter Nemechek has back-to-back sixth-place finishes at two wildly different track types (Mexico City and Pocono) and has risen from 25th to 21st in points in the last two weeks. He has a career-high six top-10s this season, all in spaced-out, consecutive pairings — but after each one has hit a slump. Advertisement Teammate Erik Jones is 18th in the standings with only two top-10s all year, but that's because Jones has been more consistent and has avoided bad finishes. Pocono was his fifth straight finish of 17th or better and Jones has rocketed 11 spots in the standings during that stretch alone (he was 29th after last month's Kansas race). Jones is well-established, and his talent is well-known in the garage. Sitting 18th in the point standings with nine races remaining until the playoffs isn't a major shock based on his past, but it is surprising given how Legacy ran the past two seasons (when Jones finished 27th and 28th in the standings, respectively). Nemechek is more of an eyebrow-raiser. He had a solid start to the season (he was inside the playoff standings for the first five races) and then faded, but has now been able to re-establish his footing. The 28-year-old is tied with Michael McDowell in the standings and the two of them are just one point behind the much-discussed Carson Hocevar and eight points behind future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch. There's a tangled jumble of eight drivers within 25 points of one another in the standings — from 17th place to 24th place — so it's a trap to get too caught up with points position now. But just to be in the mix at this point, considering the expectations for Legacy after the last two years, is worth noting. (Top photo of Chase Briscoe celebrating Sunday's win: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Bubba Wallace Faces Huge Setback at Pocono After His 'Brakes Exploded'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Bubba Wallace faced a huge setback in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway after a brake rotor failure on his car. If that wasn't enough, the front tire on his car gave in, causing Wallace to lose control and crash. Wallace's race got off to a bad start when he suffered a mechanical problem in qualifying. That caused his team to make last-minute tweaks to his car, which resulted in him starting the race at the back of the field. Wallace hasn't won a race this year, which compromises his position in the playoffs. Following the setback in Pocono, his position in the standings dropped from 10th to 12th. Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota, walks the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 21, 2025 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota, walks the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 21, 2025 in Long Pond, considering NASCAR's rule, which guarantees a playoffs spot to any driver who wins a race, Wallace has been pushed down in the playoff standings, given the victories secured by Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, and Shane van Gisbergen thus far in the season. The incidents at Pocono added a significant dent to his position this season, and unfortunately, there was nothing much he could do about them. Addressing the brake failure incident, Wallace said: "I was going to battle the 17 [Chris Buescher] and the 2 [Austin Cindric] and by the time I was ready to touch the pedal it just went to the floor and the brakes exploded. "I hate it, we've had two or three good races in a row [sixth at Nashville, fourth at Michigan and 12th at Mexico] and there goes the bad luck again." Expressing his frustration, the 23XI driver added: "They told me there's no such thing as bad luck, we create our own luck. I hate it for my guys, I hate it for McDonald's. We knew it was going to be a grind and I was mentally prepared for that all day. "As frustrating as it gets not being able to pass here in Pocono, we were going to just take our lumps and march our way through and set ourselves up for the end of the race, but the brakes just didn't want to hang on that long." In a separate interview, when Wallace was asked to confirm if it was a brake issue, he said: "My foot told my a**, which told my brain." "(That's) what my foot told my ass and my brain" -@BubbaWallace when asked if it was a brake failure on his car.#NASCAR — Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) June 22, 2025 Results from the Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway
NBC Sports
4 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Cup drivers recap Pocono race won by Briscoe
Hear from Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, and Chase Briscoe following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono.
