LONG POND, Pa. — Ryan Blaney found the lead at the right time to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono on Sunday.
Blaney took two tires on the race's final pit stop to take over the lead. He led the last 44 laps and beat Denny Hamlin by over one second.
"Our plan was to have track position late in the race because I knew my car was fast enough," Blaney said. "So cool to win here again.
Blaney started in eighth and hit pit road just before the end of the first two stages to bank on strategy. The long straightaways of the tricky triangle often turn Pocono races into pit strategy events.
It's the second win at Pocono for the 2023 series champion. He won his first career race at Pocono in 2017.
Hamlin, Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Ty Gibbs started on the pole and led early, still searching for his first career win. Gibbs held an impressive lead before Noah Gragson brought out the first caution on lap 15.
Martin Turex Jr. ran down Gibbs and took the lead to win stage one. The early mix of cautions put the field on split pit strategies with some teams opting to add fuel and play the long game.
Ross Chastain brought out the next caution by wrecking into the wall. The crash took Chastain out of the race and sank him to the bottom of the playoff grid just 27 points ahead of Bubba Wallace with five races to go in the regular season.
Denny Hamlin, the all-time wins leader at Pocono, found his way to the front later on and won stage two. Hamlin suffered from a tight race car later in the race but still managed to finish 2nd.
A string of cautions in the final stage took out many contenders and eliminated the initial beliefs that Sunday's event would become a fuel mileage race.
The first incident took out drivers running near the front of the field. Kyle Busch was clipped by Corey LaJoie heading into turn one and spun out in front of the field. Busch collected Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, and A.J. Allmendinger in the aftermath.
Zane Smith and John Hunter Nemechek wrecked on the next restart. Gibbs suffered an engine failure on the next restart, bringing out another caution.
Blaney gained the lead before the trio of cautions by taking two tires on a pit stop. He held on the rest of the way to win his second race of 2024.
The NASCAR Cup Series is back in action on Sunday, July 21 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's the first time since 2020 that NASCAR will race on the oval configuration of the track.