Denny Hamlin Racing Photo
Virginia-native adds to record-book, wins eighth race at Pocono Raceway
LONG POND, Penn. (June 14, 2026) – Denny Hamlin continues to add new
milestones as he delivered his third straight NASCAR Cup Series victory
for the first time in his career. Hamlin ran up front most of the day
and passed his teammate Christopher Bell in the closing laps to claim
his record-extending eighth Pocono Raceway victory. With the win, Hamlin
has cut the points lead to Tyler Reddick to just 19 points with 10 races
remaining in the regular season.
Tyler Reddick charged late to finish second to earn his series-leading
10th top-five finish, while it was another stellar day for LEGACY MOTOR
CLUB. John Hunter Nemechek led 42 laps – the most of any driver. It is
the most laps he has ever led in a single race. He tied his career-best
finish of fourth, while his teammate Erik Jones continued his recent
surge as he finished sixth. With the result, Jones is now in the
provisional Chase field, giving Toyota currently seven Chase contenders.
Team Toyota has now won 10 of the first 16 races this season. Starting
at the All-Star Race in Dover, Toyota drivers have now earned 13 of the
last 15 podium positions.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Pocono Raceway
Race 16 of 36 – 400 miles, 160 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, DENNY HAMLIN
2nd, TYLER REDDICK
_3rd, William Bryon*_
4th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
_5th, Kyle Larson*_
6th, ERIK JONES
9th, TY GIBBS
12th, CHASE BRISCOE
16th, RILEY HERBST
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
26th,_ _CHRISTOPHER BELL
_*non-Toyota driver _
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Shake ‘Em Bites Toyota Camry
XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
_How stressful was the end of the race for you?_
“I wasn’t really stressed about it, but I certainly didn’t know
if the 20 (Christopher Bell) was going to be able to push the pace
enough to hold us off. I knew the 24 (William Bryon) was closing, but I
was kind of managing that gap a little bit, trying to save the front
tire on my car, but this whole King’s Hawaiian team did amazing. I
have to thank Toyota, National Debt Relief, Progressive, Bob’s
Discount Furniture, Sport Clips, Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, Yahoo, Shady
Rays and Logitech G. It’s just been an amazing run. I’ve never been
through anything like this.”
_How important is the race car you have with all of the different
strategies going on?_
“It’s such a large part of it. Chris (Gayle, crew chief) is not
afraid to put me in ninth and say you have to go and pass those cars
now. Restarts have been a lot better over the last month, and we’ve
gotten that a lot better. We just keep finding little areas that we need
to improve and making them better and this is what you get.”
_How special is Pocono Raceway to you? _
“It is amazing. I just love coming here. When I came here yesterday
morning, the infield was already packed. They just do such a great job
at this race track of giving the fans such a great experience, and that
is why it sells out. That’s why I love this race track. Not only
because of the wins, because of the fans and how passionate they are.”
_ _
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 SupplyHouse Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
_What did you think about pitting long?_
“It almost worked. When you go that long, it all kind of falls to how
you catch cars. I think we definitely lost a second and a half there
when we just took the tires and caught the 9 (Chase Elliott) and 17
(Chris Buescher). We definitely lost time; a couple spots there.
Everyone is racing hard for track position. Some of it’s just bad luck,
I guess, where you catch cars. It’s a bummer. I mean, if the 11 (Denny
Hamlin) wasn’t the winner, you could consider this a good day for our
SupplyHouse Toyota team. 35 points just aren’t enough right now. We knew
qualifying was going to be tricky coming into this. We weren’t able to
get stage points. I know we finished second, but scoring the points we
did just didn’t get the job done.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire + Safety Toyota Camry XSE,
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 4th
_What do you think about your day? _
“Yeah, really solid day. Thankful for Pye-Barker, Toyota, LEGACY
MOTOR CLUB – everyone is working really, really hard right now. It
gives us the solidification that we are working in the right direction;
we are working in the right areas. The last few weeks, both the 42 and
the 43 have had good speed. It is nice to finally put a decent result on
paper, but overall, it was nice to lead laps today and be able to run up
front all day. I don’t know if we necessarily have had that type of
day at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB yet and just hats off to all of the men and
women at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. Thankful for them, and just grateful to be
here.”
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 6th
_How was your race?_
“Yeah, it is nice for the 42 (John Hunter Nemechek) to finally get
the result. They’ve been fast and haven’t been able to put the race
together, so happy for them to get some momentum rolling. For our Dollar
Tree Camry team, it was just a good day. It was clean, nothing great,
nothing really bad. Just a good day. Everybody executed well. I thought
we finished the best that we could. I thought we were a little bit
better than the 5 (Kyle Larson) at the end, but it was just really hard
to pass. Good to keep the momentum rolling. We’ve got two challenging
weeks ahead in San Diego and Sonoma that we really have to hammer
through and get a result out of both of them. Proud of the effort and
hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 26th
_Did you start to believe that I think this might work out for us? _
“I mean, I didn’t know what to think. I was just trying to stay
open-minded and do my job inside of our Rheem Camry. Obviously, when
they start telling me that we’re getting good gas mileage and we are
in good position, I’m starting to get excited in there, but just
wasn’t meant to be.”
_But it was worth the gamble, right? _
“Yeah, certainly. We were mired back in the 20s, and so I think it
was an amazing gamble. The situation is so hard, because you don’t
know if you are racing for the win, or if you are racing to finish the
race, and so I didn’t stop shifting until about 10 to go – I left it
in fifth – and then, I certainly could have given up more pace and
fallen back and maybe finished outside of the top-10, and it would have
been a net gain, but we ended up about where were going to be.”
_How did you feel inside of the car?_
“So, whenever the field got strung out, I felt fine. Running by
myself, I felt like it was normal. Certainly, adverse conditions, when
people were making quick moves on restarts or you get put three-wide,
the car gets loose – those are very difficult. Under normal
circumstances, I think I;m fine, but restarts were very difficult.”
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