DENNY HAMLIN DELIVERS FIRST THREE-PEAT OF HIS CAREER
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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