Briscoe overcomes pit error to win for JGR at Pocono

Chase Briscoe nearly cost his Joe Gibbs Racing team a chance to win Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway. Instead, he was the reason they won it.

On lap 120, Briscoe, leading The Great American Getaway 400, came down pit road for his final stop, but he left his stall before crew chief James Small wanted him to – the team had not put enough fuel in the car. Briscoe apologized and took the blame for not hearing his crew chief, and then had to go to work on making the mileage work.

He cycled back to the race lead on lap 137 when the rest of the leaders made their final pit stops under caution. The race restarted with 30 laps to go, and Briscoe nursed his dwindling fuel tank, which was expected to be about two to three laps short, to the finish line ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin.

“It was a lot,” Briscoe said. “It was kind of weird; I wasn't driving hard, so it's not like I was on the ragged edge. It was just so hard to have a guy chasing you, especially the guy that's the greatest of all time here. To be trying to save fuel and everything else...

“Amazing day for our race team. [It’s] the first race we've kind of executed, truthfully, all year long. To get Bass Pro Shops, Johnny Morris in Victory Lane, and to get Toyota in Victory Lane... Joe Gibbs Racing took a big chance on me. I wasn't everybody's first choice, I think, but for me to be able to get here and finally deliver a win is just an awesome feeling.”

The victory is the first for Briscoe driving the No. 19 Toyota for Gibbs. It’s the first win for Small and the team since 2023 with former driver Martin Truex Jr.

Briscoe ended up leading the most laps Sunday at 72 of 160. Hamlin led 32 laps after starting from the pole.

Ryan Blaney finished third, Chris Buescher fourth and Chase Elliott fifth, John Hunter Nemechek sixth, Kyle Larson seventh and Ryan Preece eighth.

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Brad Keselowski finished ninth and Austin Cindric finished 10th. Keselowski rebounded from pitting from the race lead when pit road was closed under a lap 55 caution, and then stayed out one lap too long while leading when the final caution flew with 36 laps to go.

Christopher Bell finished 17th. Kyle Busch finished 20th. Both drivers were involved in a lap 83 caution when Busch spun off Turn 2 and collected multiple drivers behind him.

Split strategies muddled the race, as is prone to happen at Pocono, and led to multiple drivers spending time at the front of the field. William Byron was one who routinely was able to drive through the field after starting in the rear in a repaired car after a qualifying crash. His day was capped off when stuck in traffic late in the final stage. He finished 27th.

Tyler Reddick finished 32nd after spending time in the garage. He was one of four drivers who experienced brake issues.

Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, and Riley Herbst all failed to finish. All three had brake rotor explosions.

In all, there were 11 lead changes among nine drivers and seven caution flags. Briscoe is the 11th different winner through 17 races and clinches a spot in the postseason.

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