Track: Pocono Raceway
Location: Long Pond, Pa.
Track length: 2.5 miles
When: 1 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Segments: 30 | 95 | 160
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments
Points battle tightening up with tricky tests ahead
Pocono Raceway’s three unique corners offer one of the biggest annual tests on the Cup Series schedule. This season, Pocono begins a lengthy stretch of asymmetry for the field with the “Tricky Triangle” preceding next week’s debut at Naval Base Coronado, a trip to the windy Sonoma Raceway, a return to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019, the always-treacherous EchoPark Speedway, the first points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1996, and finally, the crown jewel Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Advertisement
Safe to say, the points entering Sunday versus what they will look like during the final week of July will likely be dramatically different.
And it all begins as Denny Hamlin, who’s won two races in a row, is chasing down Tyler Reddick for the top spot in the standings.
Reddick, who held a 129-point advantage over his 23XI Racing co-owner Hamlin just one month ago, has now seen it shrink to just 51.
“Honestly, it’s crazy when you’re at the top, you think, ‘OK, we’re good. We’re happy.’ You’re able to just solely focus on setting yourself up to win races and so we’ll have to be a little bit more mindful of points for a bit here unless we’re able to pull back away again,” Reddick said. “I would say we’ve just been able to just focus solely on bringing really fast race cars and not really worrying about trying anything else, which has been nice. A little bit more pressure now, but hopefully I can handle it.”
Advertisement
MORE: Updated weekend schedule | At-track photos
Toyota has been the dominant manufacturer on track so far in 2026, and Hamlin is now blooming as the main beneficiary with triumphs at Nashville and Michigan — where he’s had to come all the way from the rear of the field both times.
The win streak hasn’t been easy for the 45-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver, but the confidence may be at an all-time high for Hamlin even if he’s not dominating these races.
“This is certainly the peak of that,” Hamlin said of the No. 11 team’s strength. “There’s been other times where we’ve had a lot of success over a stretch like you’re talking about, but not as dominating. I don’t know that we really dominated the last few weeks. When we needed to, we could, and that’s been the difference this time around versus previous. I feel very confident in the way that I’m approaching each race track, the way that I need to get speed out of the cars, what I need out of them in traffic, all those things. I feel pretty dialed in with that right now.”
Advertisement
With the variation in the coming weeks, Hamlin discussed his week-to-week process and how his experience has allowed the transitions to different tracks not really affect how he approaches certain race weekends.
“The process starts a little bit sooner,” Hamlin said. “You need more laps, more reps at a track like San Diego versus somewhere like here at Pocono. So, I don’t really treat it any differently. My advantage right now is just simply that the laps that I’ve got at all these tracks. Any of these tracks that I’ve been successful at, or had wins, or run really strong, I know what that feel is, and so I just go in there and I try to replicate that feel over and over and over.
“It’s truthfully been easy when we’re coming to these race tracks where I’ve had success or had wins. It’s tracks like San Diego where I don’t know what the right feel is. I don’t know where I’m at on the race track. That’s where the challenge really comes in, but all the other tracks is pretty easy at this point knowing what I need out of the car. Not easy to get the result. The process is not easy, but it’s certainly easy to know what I need.”
LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 14: A general view of the
In the details …
After Pocono, just 10 races remain until the start of The Chase, and as the regular season continues to sail along, every point and result has a significant effect on the standings toward the cutline.
Advertisement
Here’s a look at four drivers who are making a climb up the standings in the last month of action:
|
DRIVER |
MOST RECENT LOW |
AFTER MICHIGAN |
GAINED TO CUT |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Daniel Suárez |
+18 after Watkins Glen |
+89 to cut |
71 points in three races |
|
Chase Briscoe |
-6 after Watkins Glen |
+41 to cut |
47 points in three races |
|
Joey Logano |
-38 after Watkins Glen |
-3 to cut |
35 points in three races |
|
Erik Jones |
-69 after Watkins Glen |
-18 to cut |
51 points in three races |
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Pocono hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: What the crew chiefs are saying | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: New colors set for Pocono | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Bell’s Michigan crash was the hardest in Next Gen era | Listen now
• Power Rankings: New No. 1 going into Pocono race | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Pocono | Watch now
Contributing: Zach Sturniolo
Read the full article here