Denny Hamlin won the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. It is his third win in a row and his fourth of the 2026 season. The win is also his 64th career Cup win, and it moves him past Kyle Busch into 9th on the all time wins list. Twenty years ago to the week, Hamlin got his first career win at this same track. Now he has eight wins at Pocono alone.
But the headline of this race is not Hamlin. It is Christopher Bell, racing a week after the hardest impact a Next Gen car has ever recorded, driving with a broken left wrist, who came one fuel tank short of the upset story of the year.
Race Summary
Hamlin led the field to green from the pole and was a factor all day, but for a long stretch in the second half of the race, this was Bell's race to lose. Bell took the lead after the final round of pit stops and built an 11 second cushion with 21 laps to go. He had the fastest car on the track. He also had a problem his car could not fix.
Bell's team gambled on fuel. Hamlin caught Bell with 5 laps to go and took the lead for good. Two laps later, Bell radioed that he was out of gas. He coasted home 26th, the last car still on the lead lap, after leading 18 laps on a wrist that should not have been driving a stock car in the first place.
Tyler Reddick finished second, giving Toyota the top two spots. William Byron was third, John Hunter Nemechek fourth, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
Key Moments and Turning Points
Five cautions slowed the race for 23 of the 160 laps, bunching the field up repeatedly and setting up the strategy split that decided the finish. John Hunter Nemechek led the most laps on the day with 42, more than anyone else in the field, but a strong day on the racetrack did not turn into the result his team wanted.
The real turning point came on lap 107. While most of the field planned for one more stop, Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens pitted for the last time and rolled the dice on stretching fuel the rest of the way; 53 laps on a tank that normally runs about 42. For a while it looked like the gutsiest call of the season. Bell built his lead, the laps ticked down, and the No. 20 pit box went quiet waiting to see if the math would hold.
It did not. Hamlin, running his own fuel numbers from a more conservative window, closed the gap in the final ten laps and made the winning pass with 5 to go. Bell ran completely dry two laps from the checkered flag.
Pit Strategy and Race Strategy Breakdown
This race was decided in the pits and on the spotter radio as much as it was on the racetrack. Bell's team needed one fewer green flag stop than the leaders, which on paper should have been the move that won the race. Pocono's long straights and high speeds make it one of the toughest tracks on the schedule for fuel mileage, and crew chiefs know it. Stevens made the call to go for it anyway.
"We were mired back in the 20s, so I think it was an amazing call," Bell said after the race, calling the gamble worth taking even with the outcome. That is the right way to think about it. If the fuel had stretched, Bell wins his first race back from a broken wrist in a story nobody would stop talking about. It did not stretch, and instead he fell from the lead to 26th in two laps.
On the other side, Hamlin's team played the more standard mileage number and it was just enough. Hamlin himself admitted afterward that some of this was puzzle pieces falling his way, including Chase Briscoe's car not running dry the way some expected late. Three wins in a row is not all strategy. Some of it is just having it go your way at the right moment.
Stats and Fun Facts
A few numbers worth sitting with from this one. Eleven different drivers led a lap, and the lead changed hands 16 times, which is a lot of shuffling for a track with only three corners. Chris Buescher had the fastest lap of the day at 170.8 mph on lap 92, even though he finished a quiet 7th. And every car in the field that started the race finished it, with only Bell going down a lap in the closing stretch after running dry.
Hamlin's number deserves its own line. This is his 8th win at Pocono, more than any other active driver has at this track, and it came almost exactly 20 years after his very first Cup win, which also happened here.
Who's Hot and Who's Not
Hot: Denny Hamlin is on a run that nobody else in the field is close to matching right now. Three straight wins, four on the season, and he is closing in on Tyler Reddick at the top of the points. At 45 years old he is driving like a guy with something to prove every single weekend.
Tyler Reddick is quietly putting together a strong season of his own. A runner up finish at Pocono keeps him at the top of the standings even as his own teammate's owner is the one chasing him down.
Not: Christopher Bell drove the race of his life on a broken wrist and still walked away with nothing to show for it except 18 laps led and a "what if" that fans are going to be talking about all week. Adam Stevens will be running those fuel numbers back in his head for a while.
If you want to gear up for whoever you are riding with this season, here is a place to start:
- Denny Hamlin #11 Vegas 61st Cup Win Shirt
- Denny Hamlin #11 All-Star Winner Dover Shirt
- Denny Hamlin #11 Nashville Win T-Shirt
- Denny Hamlin #11 Number Keychain
- Christopher Bell #20 Bristol Night Winner Shirt
Your Turn
So where do you land on Bell's fuel gamble. Was going for the win with a broken wrist and an empty tank the right call, or should the team have played it safe and banked a top 5 instead. And does Hamlin's run of three straight wins make him the championship favorite in your eyes, or are you still backing someone else. Drop your take in the comments. We will be reading.