Winners, losers from NASCAR Cup race at Pocono won by Chase Briscoe

LONG POND, Pa. — A look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

WINNERS

Chase Briscoe — Scored his first Cup win with Joe Gibbs Racing and shed the weight he felt of having not yet won in his first season with the organization. He led a race-high 72 laps in scoring his third career series victory.

Denny Hamlin — He earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming In-Season Challenge with a runner-up finish at Pocono. He’s on a roll. He finished third at Nashville, won Michigan before skipping Mexico for the birth of his son, and finished second at Pocono.

The 32-driver, five-race event, which will pay the winner $1 million, begins this weekend at EchoPark Speedway.

RFK Racing — Two weeks ago the team placed three cars in the top 10 for the first time since July 2016. Sunday, they repeated the feat. Chris Buescher finished fourth, Ryan Preece was eighth and Brad Keselowski placed ninth.

Ryan Blaney — Twice had to come through the field to finish third. He took the green flag at the rear because the team had to replace the car’s starter. A pit road speeding penalty during the race dropped him to the back. He has four top-five finishes, including a win, in the last seven races.

Chase Elliott — His fifth-place finish gave him back-to-back top fives for the first time this season.

John Hunter Nemechek — He finished sixth for the second week in a row. It is his fourth top 10 in the last seven races.

LOSERS

23XI Racing —No team car finished better than 32nd. Brake issues led to Riley Herbst (37th) and Bubba Wallace (36th) crashing. Tyler Reddick (32nd) went to the garage briefly during the race for an issue.

William Byron — The points leader was the fastest in practice but then crashed in qualifying, forcing him to start at the rear. The car was repaired. He moved up through the field to score points in each stage but ended up finishing 27th.