Cole Custer celebrates after winning the Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway Saturday.

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A¦er three years competing on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the Cup Series returns to the iconic 2.5mile oval on Sunday. There are not many people as excited as Denny Hamlin for the “back to the future” Brickyard 400 presented by PPG.

“It’s a special time for us to be back on the oval,” Hamlin said in June. “It puts a NASCAR major back on our schedule – certainly one I’ve been searching to win all of my career. When I come here, it’s about the oval. I would value this win as much as any in my career.”

Outside of a series championship, a Brickyard 400 victory is the only other thing missing from the future Hall of Famer’s gleaming resume.

Hamlin boasts 54 Cup Series wins, including four Southern 500 victories, three Daytona 500 triumphs, three Bristol night race wins and a 2022 Coca-Cola 600 win. With eight combined wins in NASCAR “major” races, Hamlin is 0-for-15 on the IMS oval.

But Hamlin has been close to kissing the bricks. He has seven top-six ¨nishes, including ¨ve in the last seven starts on the oval.

Hamlin was well on his way to a 2018 Brickyard 400 victory before a late-race caution negated his tire strategy. He was on older Goodyear tires than most other cars in the ¨eld and needed the race to reach the checkered ©ag without any yellow interventions.

Unfortunately, that caution did occur. Brad Keselowski prevailed, giving Team Penske its ¨rst Brickyard 400 win on a day Hamlin led 37 laps.

• Friday’s CRC BRAKLEEN 175, Pocono Raceway

Corey Heim earned his series’ best fifth victory of the season in Friday evening’s rain-interrupted CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway. The 21-year-old driver swept both stages and led 55 of the 70 laps to add to his trophy total.

The Georgian’s No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota led Grant Enfinger’s Chevrolet across the finish line by .867-second to take his 10th career victory – quickly re-establishing himself as the race leader — again — on the final restart with three laps remaining.

Rain drops covered the windshields of the trucks – particularly in Turn 2 of the 2.5-mile Pocono track – and eventually brought out a caution flag for weather with only nine laps remaining in the race.

But the sun shone on the restart allowing enough laps to complete the race – a light rain beginning again during driver’s post-race interviews.

Enfinger’s second-place finish equals his best mark of the year. He is in seventh place with only two races remaining before the 2024 playoffs begin Aug. 25 at Milwaukee Mile.

Christian Eckes finished third, followed by Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain, driving for Niece Motorsports.

Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney returned to the site of his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and pulled away from the field in the closing laps of Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at a sold-out Pocono Raceway to deliver a strong reminder to the competition that he’s primed to contend for another season trophy.

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford held off Denny Hamlin, the track’s all-time winningest driver, in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by 1.312 seconds to give Blaney his second victory of the season – both coming in just the last five races – and the 12th win of the 30-year-old’s career.

“Hell yeah, boys, let’s go,” an elated Blaney screamed to his team as he crossed the historic Pocono finish line.

With the victory, Blaney moves up to fifth place in the championship standings, and thanks to his first win of the year at Iowa Speedway on June 16, he’s one of only five drivers with multiple victories on the season.

“Feel like we’ve gotten to a great pace and speed the last couple months,” Blaney said. “Honestly thought we let a couple races slip away from us I thought we should have won. It’s just so cool to win here again. Won here seven years ago for my first Cup win, so awesome to be back.”

Although he ran among the top 10 for much of the race, Blaney ultimately took the lead on a restart with 44 laps remaining and never relinquished it despite two more restarts and a highly motivated Hamlin lining up either alongside him or directly behind him on each of those green flags.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, last week’s race winner, filled Blaney’s mirrors for much of the closing laps until getting passed by Hamlin with seven laps remaining. Bowman finished third, with his Hendrick teammate William Byron and Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano rounding out the top five.

“Track position was just such a big thing, and when that 12 [Blaney] jumped on that stage we won, that put them in front of us and certainly were going to be hard to pass,” said Hamlin, a seven-time Pocono race winner who won Sunday’s second stage.

“Just not enough laps of green there at the end, but hats off to them, great run. He kept up great pace at there at the front and hard for me to even get up there close enough to try to reel him in.”

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski, JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. (the opening stage winner), Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and 23XI’s Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 10. Both Elliott’s and Wallace’s finishes, in particular, were impactful on the championship standings.

The 2020 series champion Elliott took over the championship lead from his teammate, 2021 series champ Kyle Larson, and he takes a slim three-point advantage atop the regular season standings with only five races remaining before the playoffs. The Regular Season Champion receives a valuable 15 extra playoff points to carry with him through the 10-race playoff run.

Wallace’stop-10finishwasalsoimportant in his quest to become championshipeligible for the second consecutive year. He is now ranked 17th, only 27 points behind 16th-place Ross Chastain on the provisional playoff grid. The 16 title-eligible drivers will be determined after the Sept. 1 race at Darlington Raceway.

Chastain, one of four drivers inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field without a win but based on points, finished 36th Sunday. His No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet slammed the Turn 1 wall on Lap 53, and the team had to retire the car.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch was involved in a multi-car accident with 39 laps remaining and finished 32nd on Sunday. He’s now finished 27th or worse in four of the last five races, including DNFs in five of his last seven. Busch is ranked 19th in the playoff standings, 102 points behind Chastain. The two-time series champion is not only trying to make the playoffs but extend a career winning streak to 19 seasons.

Notes: Competition officials indicated that three cars — one from each manufacturer — would be brought back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection: the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Christopher Bell, the No. 22 Team Penske Ford for driver Joey Logano, and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Alex Bowman. … Ty Gibbs started from the pole position and led twice for 21 laps, but his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota expired with engine failure 28 laps from the end. He finished 27th.

RUIDOSO, N.M. — There will be a chance for a Triple Crown winner this year in quarter horse racing for 2-year-olds.

Hezgothelook Z proved much the best Sunday afternoon in winning the second leg of the Triple Crown, the $1 million Rainbow Futurity. He won by 1 and 1/4 lengths and did so in a time of :19.30 seconds over 400 yards as the 1-2 favorite at post time.

Last month, he won the Ruidoso Futurity by nearly a length. The Oklahoma-bred son of Favorite Cartel has now won four straight races.

The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Special Effort in 1981.

“He is getting better with each race,” winning jockey Bryan Candanosa said. “He broke well from the No. 1 post and he’s such a great horse and has lots of heart.”

FDD Dreams was second and Aguila Rapida was third. Aguila Rapida was second to Hezgothelook Z in the Ruidoso Futurity.

“Hezgothelook Z got to the lead and just kept on going and ran great,” winning trainer Toby Keeton said. “He is steady and he loves to compete.”

Hezgothelook Z will next run in the 440-yard All American Futurity trials on Aug. 9 or 10 and if he qualifies for the final on Labor Day, he will have chance for the Triple Crown.

Hezgothelook Z is owned by Triple One Ranch LLC (Norma Olivarez et al) of Palmview, Texas.

“He is nice and loves people in the barn but when he gets on the track, he takes it to another level,” said Olivarez, whose husband Leo is also part of the ownership group. “I’m just grateful for the wonderful team we have. It truly is a team effort. I feel so much emotion. We’ve been training horses for five years and to be in this spot is amazing.”

Hard To Politic wins Rainbow QH Juvenile Stakes Keeton’s horse, Hard To Politic won the 400-yard Rainbow Juvenile Stakes in time of 19.69 seconds. Juan Pulido was winning jockey and the horse has win both of his career starts. Thoroughbred racing scheduled again The floods in Ruidoso caused damage to the track and while track personnel were able to get the quarter horse portion of the track ready to go after the floods, it took more time for the thoroughbreds to have their part of the track ready to run over on the backside. But beginning Friday, thoroughbred racing will return after a few weeks hiatus, including a handful of New Mexico-bred stakes races KJ Desparado returns to track KJ Desparado, who won the 2021 All American Futurity, returns on Friday in a 400-yard allowance race for trainer Wes Giles and jockey Ramos.

KJ Desparado has won 15 of 23 starts and at Ruidoso Downs, he has won 10 0f 13 starts.