Denny Hamlin is 2026 Cup championship favorite, more NASCAR Pocono race winners, losers

Denny Hamlin is in the best driving form of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

Hamlin won the Great American Getaway on June 14 at Pocono Raceway, his third victory in a row. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is now within 19 points of Tyler Reddick’s points lead with 10 regular-season races to go.

Hamlin again was the fastest throughout the race, speed that erased any other strategical advantage from others in the field.

As the narrative continues in 2026 about Toyota’s dominance, maybe there should be a shift. It’s not necessarily Toyota et al, but Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are the drivers dominating this season.

Reddick, who finished second at Pocono, and Hamlin have combined to win 9 of 16 races so far plus the All-Star Race. Five other Toyota drivers are inside the top 15 in points, but Reddick and Hamlin are in a class of their own right now.

Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Pocono race:

NASCAR points standings, Cup Series Chase points picture update after Pocono race

And while Reddick owned February and March, Hamlin is dominating May and June.

Hamlin is on a three-race winning streak going into next week’s race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. Road courses are not Hamlin’s strength, and the Cup Series have two such races in a row coming up.

The point should be made now, then. Hamlin is the 2026 Cup Series championship favorite through 16 weeks.

Forget that the Chase format will be in Hamlin’s favor, and that four 1.5-mile tracks in the 10-week race to the championship gives him a clear advantage.

Hamlin is on pace to set career highs in wins, laps led and average finish in his age-45 season. The No. 11 Toyota has unloaded well this year. And Hamlin has but one more career checkmark to make — a Cup Series title.

Reddick vs. Hamlin should be a fun showdown to watch this fall. As of now, Hamlin has the advantage.

All of the Hamlin-Reddick talk aside, the next best story is the recent surge by Legacy Motor Club and its two cars.

Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek have each shown top-five speed over the last three weeks, and Pocono was their best combined runs on speed in the team’s current makeup.

Nemechek led a race-high 42 laps and finished fourth, while Jones ran in the top 10 for most of the race before finishing sixth. Jones vaulted to 15th in the points standings, on the right side of the bubble with 10 races to go before the cutoff.

Nemechek is too far off the Chase cutline to make that kind of impact this year (even if the Chase bubble is very soft), but he and Jones are talented enough to drive good race cars into contention each week. If Jones can manage a couple solid runs on the road course races coming up, he will be in a great spot to get into the 16-driver Chase.

RFK Racing has featured too often in this section over the last six weeks, and Keselowski is back here after a no-good, very-bad weekend at Pocono.

Keselowski’s problems began on June 13 with an engine issue during his qualifying run, forcing him to start at the back of the field.

The No. 6 Ford made OK progress through 46 laps, but was still mired outside the top 20 when it was caught up in a multi-car crash caused by contact from Austin Hill to Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry. Keselowski hit a spinning Bubba Wallace square in the door and suffered major damage.

No driver wants to be running toward the back of the pack, but there’s extra risk involved by being around slower cars in traffic. For the third straight week, Keselowski had a DNF after a crash while running outside the top 20.

Keselowski was ninth in points, 41 points above the cutline after Watkins Glen. Now? Keselowski is 17th, four points behind 16th.

Not a lot of room to go three-wide exiting Turn 3.@joshberry makes contact with the wall, and multiple cars are collected. pic.twitter.com/TOqyK2jEjJ

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 14, 2026

Logano’s mini-run of solid results ended with a 34th-place finish at Pocono after being involved in the same Lap 46 crash that knocked Keselowski out of the race.

Logano made a pit stop for a strategy play and was toward the back after earning points in Stage 1. But he was caught up in other people’s issues, suffering damage to the splitter in the crash after making contact with Connor Zilisch and at least one other car.

Logano lost a lap under caution for repairs, then was well off of race pace throughout the final 100 laps.

The No. 22 had recorded finishes of eighth, 14th and 7th over the last three weeks to keep pace with the Chase bubble. Logano’s struggles at Pocono were offset somewhat by other drivers’ issues, but he has not shown the pace and race execution to consistently run up front and erase a points deficit.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Pocono winners, losers. Denny Hamlin is 2026 Cup title favorite