Denny Hamlin pushes back on Chase Briscoe fuel saving narrative: ‘This has been Pocono for 30 years’

Chase Briscoe, through fault of his own, was forced to fend off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin while saving fuel in the closing laps of Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway. He made his last pit stop while leading the race on Lap 120.

Briscoe’s team got him off pit road quick — too quick. Turns out, Briscoe drove away before they got enough fuel in the car — or so they thought. Briscoe had to save while leading the race. Judging by his elaborate burnout on the frontstretch after winning, he had more than enough. Hamlin, meanwhile, ran full throttle but never quite got to the back of Briscoe’s bumper.

Clean air was that important at Pocono. Hamlin understands the frustration from some fans that Briscoe was able to hold him off despite being in fuel save mode. He explained in depth why it worked out for Briscoe during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

“I understand the backlash, people talking about a guy saving fuel, running 80 percent, shouldn’t be able to hold off cars that are right up on him pushing 100 percent. But this has been Pocono for 30 years, it’s been this way,” Hamlin said. “Maybe not as bad, the only difference was there was an opportunity there — what’s different in Next Gen versus what it was previously, when I did get to Briscoe, there were a couple times early in the run and one time late in the run — when I dove off in there a couple times, what would have been different with the other generation car, was when I dove in there, instead of trying to avoid him and go to a different lane, I would have just shot right to his rear bumper. Gotten him loose, gotten up the racetrack and then gotten right beside him.

“This car, obviously, he’s got the tremendous aerodynamic advantage where he’s got all the air coming down on his car pushing it down the racetrack. When I drive in and at the time he was running the middle lane, I was running the bottom getting a run, he comes down and as soon as he puts me in his full wake, my car just takes off. The track just isn’t wide enough. What’s different here versus a track like Michigan, I had more lanes to work with to get clean air at Michigan than what I did at Pocono. So, Pocono, while it is two lanes wide, the wake of the car is actually wider than that.”

Denny Hamlin breaks down battling from P2, trying to run Chase Briscoe out of fuel at Pocono

Passing was difficult throughout the race. Getting by the leader was almost impossible. In the end, that gave Briscoe an advantage. Hamlin had a fast car but was unable to catch his teammate.

“It was definitely going to be really difficult,” Denny Hamlin said on the Prime Video broadcast. “The key moment, the 19 [Briscoe] and like three or four others pitted. And then that caution came out, and it leaped them in front of us. At that point, we knew it was going to be really hard to pass those guys back on the racetrack. The team did a great job, next best in line there of our strategy. Just didn’t work out.”