Chase Briscoe holds off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to win at Pocono
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Chase Briscoe returned to victory lane Sunday at Pocono Raceway, conserving fuel down the stretch to hold off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for his first win with his new race team.
Briscoe raced his way into an automatic spot in NASCAR's playoffs with the win and gave the No. 19 Toyota its first victory since 2023 when Martin Truex Jr. had the ride. Briscoe lost his job at the end of last season at Stewart-Haas Racing when the team folded and he was
tabbed to replace Truex
in the four-car JGR field.
Hamlin, who holds the track record with seven wins, appeared on the brink of reeling in Briscoe over the final, thrilling laps only to have not enough in the No. 11 Toyota to snag that eighth Pocono win.
'It was just so hard to have a guy chasing you, especially the guy that's the greatest of all time here,' Briscoe said.
Briscoe made his final pit stop on lap 119 of the 160-lap race, while Hamlin — who returned after
missing last week's race
following the birth of his son — made his final stop on 120. Hamlin's team radioed to him that they believed Briscoe would fall about a half-lap short on fuel — only for the first-year JGR driver to win by 0.682 seconds.
Briscoe, who won an Xfinity Series race at Pocono in 2020, raced to his third career Cup victory and first since Darlington in 2024.
Briscoe has been on bit of a hot streak, and had his fourth top-10 finish over the last six races, including a seventh-place finish in last week's ballyhooed race in Mexico City.
He became the 11th driver to earn a spot in the 16-driver field with nine races left until the field is set and made a winner again of crew chief James Small. Small stayed on the team through Truex's final winless season and Briscoe's winless start to this season.
'It's been a tough couple of years,' Small said. 'We've never lost belief, any of us.'
Hamlin finished second. Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott completed the top five.
Briscoe, a third-generation dirt racer from Indiana, gave JGR its 18th Cup victory at Pocono.
'I literally grew up racing my sprint car video game in a Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot uniform,' Briscoe said. 'To get Coach in victory lane after them taking a chance on me, it's so rewarding truthfully. Just a big weight off my shoulders. I've been telling my wife the last two weeks, I have to win. To finally come here and do it, it has been a great day.'
The race was delayed 2 hours, 10 minutes by rain and the conditions were muggy by the time the green flag dropped. Briscoe led 72 laps and won the second stage.
Briscoe wrote before the race on social media, 'Anybody going from Pocono to Oklahoma City after the race Sunday?' The Pacers fan wasn't going to make it to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
He'll certainly settle for a ride to victory lane.
Clean race
Carson Hocevar made a clean pass of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and two feuding drivers battled without incident on restarts as they appeared to race in peace after a pair of recent wrecks on the track threatened to spill into Pocono.
Stenhouse's threat to
beat up his racing riva
l after last weekend's race in Mexico City but cooler heads prevailed back in the United States. Hocevar finished 18th and Stenhouse 30th.
Ouch
There was a minor scare on pit road when AJ Allmendinger struck a tire in the carrier's hand with his right front side and sent it
flying into the ribs
of another team's crew member in the pit ahead of him. Jonpatrik Kealey, the rear tire changer on Shane van Gisbergen's race team, was knocked on all fours but finished work on van Gisbergen's pit stop.
Brake time
Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst all had their races spoiled by brake issues.
'It was a scary feeling for sure,' Herbst said. 'I was just starting to get tight, just a bad adjustment on my part. Getting into (turn) one, the brakes just went to the floor. A brake rotor exploded and I was along for the ride.'
Up next
NASCAR heads to Atlanta.
Christopher Bell
won the first race at the track this season in March.
___
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Tyrese Haliburton's injury obscures the Pacers' magical run — and their future
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Indiana Pacers were never even supposed to reach the NBA Finals. That's how the vast majority of prognosticators and fans saw it. That spot atop the Eastern Conference was supposed to belong to the defending champs in Boston or the Cleveland Cavaliers squad that won 64 games in the regular season. But by the time Game 1 had ended, when Tyrese Haliburton silenced the Oklahoma City Thunder's 'Loud City' crowd with a midrange game-winner from the right side with 0.3 seconds left, there was suddenly hope that they might be able to win the whole thing. Advertisement It was there for all to see in the hallways of Paycom Center after the game. As the Pacers celebrated en route to their locker room, their longtime president of basketball operations, Kevin Pritchard, spotted ESPN analyst and former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers amid the mass of people. 'Y'all had it f—ing figured out at halftime!' he hollered at Myers, who had said during halftime that the Pacers had no chance of winning the title if their sloppy play to start the series was any indication. 'You had 19 turnovers!' he shouted back at Pritchard with a smile. They had somehow survived in the opener — largely because they had just four turnovers in the second half. It was yet another reminder of how incredibly far the Pacers had come from a 10-15 start to their season, a journey that would take them all the way to Game 7, against a Thunder team that was a prohibitive favorite to win the title. And then, basketball proved how cruel it can be. Indiana's season ended Sunday with Oklahoma City's 103-91 win, made much harder to stomach after a sickening injury to star guard Tyrese Haliburton. A team so close to a title now has little idea of what awaits it next year. After getting off to a great start with three 3-pointers in the first quarter of Game 7 Sunday, Haliburton tried to blow by a recovering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to get to the rim. Except his right lower leg remained planted on the court. He went down in a heap after losing the ball, and as the play continued at the other end of the court, he pounded the floor at Paycom Center in frustration. Haliburton was carried off the court, his and his team's immediate future in doubt. When the Pacers left the floor after their Cinderella season was over, they were greeted by Haliburton at the door of the visitors' locker room. He stood there on crutches, with the hood of his Pacers sweatshirt pulled over his head and a towel around his neck, sharing his appreciation as they did the same in return. Tyrese Haliburton made sure to show love to his teammates in the hallway after the game 🥺 — DraftKings (@DraftKings) June 23, 2025 'What happened with Tyrese is, all of our hearts dropped,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen. And did it as one of 17 (players). That's the beautiful thing about him.' Advertisement James Johnson, the Pacers' veteran forward who rarely plays but is the team's resident protector, helped carry Haliburton off the floor. 'That was heartbreaking,' he said. 'I know how hard he works, how bad he wanted it, and I know the hours he puts in, day in and day out. … Just to even be here was an honor, to sit courtside and help cheer on these guys was an honor, man. There's a group character that's hard to find. KP (Pritchard) and (Pacers general manager) Chad (Buchanan) did a great job of putting this group together, and getting high-character guys.' That the Pacers lost the title to Oklahoma City on Sunday almost felt secondary when compared to the injury to their franchise player. Haliburton suffered an Achilles tendon injury, according to his father, John, as relayed by the ESPN broadcast. The injury is to the same leg he'd suffered a strained calf muscle just a few days earlier. Assuming that's correct, Tyrese would likely miss all of the 2025-26 season. It threw what had been a brilliantly executed piece of short- and long-term roster construction into chaos. Haliburton, the player who management and Carlisle had believed could be the centerpiece of a contender when they acquired him at the trade deadline in 2022, is Indiana's lodestar. The cost of getting him was center Domantas Sabonis, a two-time All-Star with the Pacers and a popular player among fans. But Haliburton had a quality as a playmaker and scorer that intrigued the Pacers. Indiana didn't hesitate to give him a five-year, $260 million deal in 2023. The injury made what Haliburton said late in the regular season about the fleeting nature of contending in the league all the more poignant. 'I think we're just trying to hold onto that (core group) as long as we can,' Haliburton said. 'Because you see a lot of teams in the NBA, especially with the cap room and all that, the new CBA and all that stuff, the odds of us keeping this group together forever aren't very high. We know guys have to get paid and all that. So we're just cherishing the moment while we can, and trying to keep our core together as long as we can, and trying to do special things.' Advertisement But how can the Pacers overcome this? In the short term, it seems impossible. The Pacers had been set up for a two- or three-year window with their core group, while many of their potential opponents in the East faced either significant injuries to key players or, in the case of the New York Knicks, the fallout from players after firing a popular coach. Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, sixth-man extraordinaire T.J. McConnell and reserve forward Obi Toppin are all signed through the 2027-28 season. (McConnell has a partial guarantee of $5 million in the final year of his deal.) Forward Aaron Nesmith is signed through 2027. Bennedict Mathurin, another contributor off the bench, and fourth-year forward Isaiah Jackson, who missed most of this season after his own Achilles tear, will be restricted free agents this summer. Mathurin had some big moments in the postseason, so he potentially could have some suitors. But there's no replacing Haliburton's rare abilities and face-of-the-franchise qualities, even as Indiana's front office, led by Pritchard and Buchanan, built a championship-level franchise around him — despite never having a top-five pick. Nembhard was a 2022 second-round pick, a pick Indiana acquired from Cleveland, the day before the Pacers got Haliburton from Sacramento, in a trade for Caris LeVert. The Pacers got Siakam from Toronto, in part, by not letting one of their few mistakes linger; they traded Bruce Brown — a high-profile free agent signing for them in 2023 (two years, $45 million) — in the package for Siakam, after Brown played just half a season in Indiana. The Pacers are also a mid-market franchise. Brown aside, they know that most free agents don't flock to Indianapolis to set up shop. Yet Indiana has refused to tank over the years — decades — as it fielded mostly good but rarely great teams. The challenge now, in the wake of both Haliburton's injury and a two-year run where Indiana has been a final four and final two franchise, is to see if this is sustainable, with or without the team's superstar. Indiana has traditionally stayed shy of the luxury-tax line over the years; per Spotrac, the Pacers haven't paid the tax since 2005, when they paid $4.67 million. Advertisement But to re-sign free agent veteran center Myles Turner, who's become one of the team's key mainstays, Indiana will almost certainly have to be a taxpayer next season. The 29-year-old Turner is the top center available this summer in free agency, but the expectation from all concerned is that Indiana will be willing to pay the $30 million or so annually to keep him, even if it pushes Indiana into the first apron of the tax. Turner struggled mightily in these finals, averaging just 10.6 points (37.7 percent overall, 21.7 from 3), 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks, but he shared his fond memories of their unexpected run afterward. 'It was special,' he said. 'Just everything we've been through to get to this point, everything that went into it … a journey at that. We talk about the process a lot, not necessarily the end goal, but the process. I'm going to miss the process of this group.' Unfortunately, like the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks — who also had star players (Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard, respectively) go down during the postseason with Achilles injuries — Indiana may face a 'gap season' of sorts in 2025-26 if Haliburton misses most or all of the season. But the Pacers have long been loath to tank in hopes of adding to their roster over the decades, and it's hard to see them doing so next season, even if they have to play without their superstar. 'There's nothing wrong with high expectations,' Carlisle, who is 10th among coaches in career postseason wins and 11th in regular-season victories, said during the season. 'What you don't want is a situation of apathy, where expectations are low and all you're ever doing is selling hope. That's not why I came here, that's not why Kevin Pritchard is doing his job and that's not what our ownership is about.' Without Haliburton, the Pacers will have to be even more precise with their drafts and trades. They traded their 2025 first-rounder last week to the Pelicans to get their 2026 first-rounder back from New Orleans. That could potentially be back in play if Indiana wants to get back into the first round of this year's draft. Indiana could also, potentially, apply for an injured player exception that would allow the Pacers to sign a free agent for half of Haliburton's $45.5 million salary for next season. Teams are awarded such exceptions if a league physician determines a player's injury will force him to miss the remainder of a season. Indiana would have between July 1 and next Jan. 15 to apply for the exception. Haliburton sat at his locker before Game 5 of Indiana's second-round series against Cleveland. A television nearby was playing the Cleveland Guardians-Milwaukee Brewers game as a calm Haliburton discussed baseball with two Rocket Arena locker room attendants. The conversation turned to Cincinnati Reds sensation Elly de la Cruz, and one of the attendants informed Haliburton that the Reds would be in town later that week. Advertisement 'We're not coming back to Cleveland,' Haliburton said. That bravado — hubris? — is a key part of the Haliburton brand. As such, it's a key part of Indiana's identity as well. He capped an improbable 8-0 run in the final 40 seconds of Game 5 of Indiana's first-round series against Milwaukee with a driving layup past Giannis Antetokounmpo, giving the Pacers a 119-118 win and a 4-1 series victory. In Game 2 of the Cavs series, when Haliburton grabbed an offensive rebound off his own missed free throw with 12.4 seconds left, and Indiana down two, he dribbled straight back behind the 3-point line and splashed a game-winning triple over Cleveland's Ty Jerome for a 120-119 win. Against the Knicks in Game 1 of the conference finals, Haliburton's last-second jumper tied the game at the end of regulation, and Indiana won it in overtime. And in Game 1 of the finals, after an awful night shooting, Haliburton nonetheless hit that pull-up over Cason Wallace for a one-point Indiana victory. It wasn't happenstance or coincidence that Haliburton had the autonomy to freelance in such game-winning moments. Carlisle, famously, has throttled back on the micromanaging that often defined his earlier head coaching jobs in Detroit and Indiana, after being on Larry Bird's bench as his assistant during Bird's three seasons as head coach. Carlisle's championship run in Dallas had shown him he had to let his players make decisions in real time, in clutch moments, rather than trying to dictate from the bench. That was a central tenet of these Pacers. 'We have a passion and a pride in this organization and what we're building here,' Haliburton had said at the end of the regular season. ''Cause we feel like we built it. We feel like this is something that's been very player-led. We feel like our front office and our coaching staff did a great job of giving us the tools, but they really allow us to experiment and be ourselves. So we take pride in this.' After his team drubbed the Cavaliers in Game 4 of that series, shredding a 3-2 zone that flummoxed Indiana in Game 3, Carlisle sat in his office with a longtime friend from back home, fielding questions from a reporter about how he'd helped Haliburton realize who he is and who he's becoming in the league. Advertisement Haliburton had to address not just the pressure of the playoffs, but the fallout from being the most common pick when his peers were asked who the most overrated player in the league is for The Athletic's annual anonymous player poll. And after the Pacers closed out Milwaukee in Game 5, Antetokounmpo chastised Haliburton's father, John, for getting into the Greek Freak's face after the final buzzer sounded. 'One thing that you've got to understand about a young player who's experiencing the limelight for the first time is that there's certain things that he simply has to experience to learn about,' Carlisle said. 'I try to give him clues as to what he should be thinking. I try to give him direction. But I also say to him, 'Part of this is you've got to go through this. You've got to learn about it. And you've got to figure out your best way to deal with it — no matter what it is.'' Haliburton showed his grit, coming back from a strained calf in Game 5 to provide heroic moments for the Pacers three nights later in Game 6. Now, unfortunately, both Haliburton and the Pacers have much more pressing questions to face in the coming months, the basketball gods having ripped asunder in a few shattering moments what had taken years to so carefully construct. (Top photo of Tyrese Haliburton: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Is Tuesday the day former Bruins captains Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton get the call from the Hockey Hall of Fame?
The committee, while not restricted to considering solely the newly eligible names, easily could anoint a handful from just the 'freshman' list. Among them: Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up ⋅ Longtime Kings captain Dustin Brown, his name twice on the Stanley Cup and a perpetually grinding presence in their lineup for 18 seasons and nearly 1,300 games. Advertisement ⋅ Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, who helped revitalize the Original Six franchise and lead it to three Cup titles. A two-time Norris Trophy winner and the Duncan Keith won three Stanley Cup titles with the Blackhawks, including against the Bruins in 2013. Bruce Bennett ⋅ Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, who never backed Les Glorieux to the Cup but logged 361 wins (23rd all-time), and in 2015 was named both the Vezina (top goalie) and Hart (MVP) winner. Advertisement ⋅ Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, a particular Bruins nemesis, who won the Vezina in 2016 and two years later backed the distant sons of Abe Pollin to the lone Cup title in franchise history, going 16-7. Capitals goalie Braden Holtby was a Bruins nemesis. Barry Chin/Globe Staff Chara, the 6-foot-9-inch Trencin Tower of Power, should be a first-ballot lock. If not, the voting machines should be seized by the International Court of Hockey Justice at 3:01 p.m. Originally an Islanders draft pick, Chara played the majority of his career with the Bruins, signing as a free agent in the summer of 2006 and immediately named captain of a franchise in desperate need of a course correction and cultural reset. Big Z provided both, particularly once Claude Julien was named coach for the start of the 2007-08 season. Chara finished with 1,680 regular-season games, the most ever by an defenseman and No. 7 overall. In the spring of 2011, he was captain for the franchise's first Cup title in 39 years. The Cup run also represents the lone time the Bruins, in 100-plus years of operation, ever won 16 playoff games in a season. Goalie Tim Thomas was the star — and was duly chosen the Smythe winner — but Big Z had his fingerprints on every one of those wins as the team's relentless, intimidating force on the back end. Related : Beyond getting his name on the Cup, Chara also banked a Norris Trophy (2009) during his time in Black and Gold and deservedly could have been named the league's top defenseman at least two or three more times during his near quarter-century of service. Red Wings star Nicklas Lidstrom, the smooth and efficient Swedish backliner, won seven during Chara's tenure, explaining, in part, why Big Z won it but once. Lidstrom was more prolific on offense (1,142 points to Chara's 680) and he also played on four Cup winners. Only Bobby Orr, with eight Norris wins, eclipsed Lidstrom. Advertisement No one during Chara's time was his match as a shutdown defenseman. He was big and agile, with a long stick, longer reach, and even deeper hockey IQ. His quintessential moment of leadership came in the Chara's career line: 1,680 games, 209-471—680, and 2,085 penalty minutes, many recorded as one of the game's most feared fighters. His playoff line: 200 games, 18-52—70. The affable, smooth-handed Thornton arrived in Boston in the fall of 1997, chosen No. 1 in that June's draft. It was a franchise all but dead at the side of the Charles River, without a trip to the Cup Final since 1990, and after a 1996-97 season in which the Bruins finished last with 61 points. The gangly, smiling 18-year-old center from St. Thomas, Ontario, arrived as the would-be franchise savior. Advertisement It indeed all came together for Thornton, though not in Boston, where his captain's 'C' proved more burden than honor. On Nov. 30, 2005, frustrated general manager Mike O'Connell abruptly Thornton went on an immediate, near-mythical offensive tear with the Sharks, and months later was named that season's MVP after producing 20 goals and 92 points in only 58 games. The Hart turned out to be the biggest trophy of his long, productive career. Despite Thornton's abundant offensive talent, mainly for setting up goals, the Sharks only made it to one Cup Final during his 15-year stay. They lost to the Penguins in 2016. Thornton's career line: 1,714 games (sixth all-time), 430-1,109—1,539. Only six NHLers ever recorded more career assists, only 13 tallied more points. Like Chara, he should breeze through the Hall's front doors on Tuesday as easily as he threaded passes to a legion of linemates for 24 NHL seasons. Selected by the Bruins with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1997 draft, Joe Thornton did his best work with the Sharks. Jamie Squire As for the scores of NHLers previously passed over by the Hall, four stand out because of their bountiful goal-scoring. Patrick Marleau (566), Keith Tkachuk (538), Pat Verbeek (522), and Peter Bondra (503) all crested the coveted 500-goal plateau. All but Bondra, who finished with 892, tallied more than 1,000 points. Yet for all their firepower, the only one with his name on the Cup is Verbeek, who was long beyond his high-output Hartford/New Jersey days when he helped the Stars clinch the title in 1999. Tkachuk, who grew up in Melrose, never made it to a Cup Final. Advertisement Just a year ago, fellow Bay Stater Jeremy Roenick (513-703—1,216) finally was Longtime Bruins backstop Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Pacers' silver lining to Tyrese Haliburton injury is NBA Finals trade that just happened
The post Pacers' silver lining to Tyrese Haliburton injury is NBA Finals trade that just happened appeared first on ClutchPoints. It's going to be a difficult offseason for the Indiana Pacers as they look to grieve a gut-wrenching 103-91 Game 7 loss in the NBA Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not only are they going to rue the missed opportunity of hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy especially after coming so close yet so far, they are also going to have to navigate a potential long-term absence from Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered an Achilles injury in the early goings of their painful defeat. Advertisement Haliburton's injury makes a potential deep playoff run for the Pacers in 2026 that much more unlikely; nothing is guaranteed in the NBA, and it's not at all likely for them to replicate the same magic that they had this year, especially with their best player on the shelf for what looks to be a long period of time. But there is at least one silver lining that the Pacers can hold on to in the aftermath of Haliburton's injury. They regained control of their 2026 first-round pick (which they traded to the Toronto Raptors in the Pascal Siakam trade) after trading away the 23rd pick of this year's draft, along with the draft rights to Mojave King, to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans ended up with that pick courtesy of the Brandon Ingram trade, and it was clear that both teams didn't think that the Pacers' selection next season was going to be all that valuable considering what they've accomplished this season. But with Haliburton on the mend, that could change very quickly. Indiana is still likely to be a playoff team in 2025; their first-half performance in Game 7 against the Thunder showed that they can hang with the best even without their best player. But in the event that everything falls apart for them, they at least have their first-round pick, which they could then use to add another blue-chip prospect to a burgeoning young core. Pacers to run it back? Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images Even if the Pacers run it back, they have the personnel to hold the fort amid Haliburton's absence. TJ McConnell can be this unstoppable scoring force at times, so even though he does lack the pull-up threat Haliburton has, his downhill acceleration and playmaking should make him a more than capable fill-in for Haliburton in the meantime. Advertisement Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard would also have larger offensive workloads, and they showed that they can shine even when the pressure's on. And the pressure will certainly be on for the Pacers as they look to keep in step in the East next season. Related: Former Pacers guard Victor Oladipo triggers buzz with passionate Tyrese Haliburton injury take Related: Pacers PR tries to project TJ McConnell in heart-wrenching post-Game 7 moment
