Briscoe and crew chief James Small gambled midway through the race, banking on a caution in the third stage. They received that yellow after Shane Van Gisbergen spun with 36 to go, but Briscoe drove out of the pit box before his car was full of fuel.

“I wasn't driving hard, so it's not like I was on the ragged edge,” Briscoe said after a race-high 72 laps led and a win in Stage 2. “It was just so hard to have a guy chasing you.”

Briscoe joined the list of winners at Joe Gibbs Racing in his 17th start with the organization. The challenge of saving seven and a half miles of fuel forced Briscoe to find the right racing rhythm.

“Anybody that's worked with me knows I'm normally overdriving and missing my marks all the time,” Briscoe said. “My dad tells me all the time, slow down, you probably go faster.”

That ideology rang true as Briscoe pulled back the reins and managed his race with Hamlin, the seven-time Pocono winner, giving chase. “It's crazy when you slow down,” Briscoe said.

As for Hamlin, he made his return to the seat after missing Mexico City for the birth of his son. He started first, becoming the oldest Cup pole-sitter since 2017, won Stage 1 and led 32 laps.

“We knew it was going to be really hard to pass those guys back on the racetrack,” Hamlin said. The JGR driver lacked the pace to pass Briscoe in the closing laps but was satisfied overall.

“We’re really strong, not showing up with any weakness right now, I'm really proud of the effort that we put forth,” Hamlin said. “It was a good, overall solid day for us.”

Early in the race, Brad Keselowski looked poised to pick up his first win of 2025. The 2012 champion led a season-high 27 laps but made a critical error entering a closed pit road on lap 57.

“When we're going down the short shoot, the team said, pit this time,” Keselowski said post-race. He explained that NASCAR normally holds pit road for one lap and it was a mistake on his part. 

“Ultimately, I hold the steering wheel, and I'm the one that's got to check,” Keselowski said. “I didn’t check with the crew chief and the spotter, and that's my fault.”

23XI Racing faced numerous setbacks at the Tricky Triangle. Drivers Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst wrecked after experiencing tire failures, while Tyler Reddick battled brake issues and fell a lap behind.

Reddick dropped from sixth to seventh in the standings and has yet to score a top-five since race eight at Darlington. For Wallace, he sits closer to the Playoff cutline with only 29 points to spare.

With only nine races until the Playoffs, William Byron remained atop the series points standings. Byron crashed in qualifying but worked his way through the field to earn points in both stages.

A late race call for fresh tires dropped Byron deep into the pack and he finished 27th. Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson came home in seventh, closing the gap down to a 54-point advantage.

Next weekend, NASCAR coverage shifts to TNT Sports and MAX to kick off the new In-Season Challenge. Brackets for the five-race duel for $1 million were set after the last three races.

Hamlin and Briscoe will share the No. 1 seeds starting Saturday night on June 28 at EchoPark Speedway. Round 1 of the challenge begins with 260 laps of drafting-style racing at 7 p.m. ET.