"You keep me honest": Chase Briscoe earns Denny Hamlin's praise after Pocono showdown

Chase Briscoe held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin at the Pocono Raceway to clinch the first position at The Great American Getaway 400. Chase made his final pit stop on lap 119, while Hamlin made his final pit stop on lap 120, with the latter's team radioing him about the possibility of the former running out of fuel.

However, the No. 19 JGR racer finished 0.682 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin. Shortly after the race, Hamlin took to Instagram to share a video of him confronting Chase Briscoe during his victory celebrations and saying:

"You keep me honest. Great job."

Denny Hamlin also praised Briscoe's crew chief, James Small. In a post-race interview, Hamlin commented on having difficulty catching up to Briscoe despite being hopeful that he'd run out of fuel. The No. 11 racer said that it would get "really tight" every time he tried getting close to his JGR teammate, and that would result in Ryan Blaney coming back to him.

“I thought he was going to run out. So at that point I was just trying to save my car, but keep him honest. I just couldn’t quite get close enough to not allow him to save fuel,” Hamlin admitted

Denny Hamlin also let in on his strategy of leaving a little bit of an air gap to allow his car to cool off before making another run at Briscoe. However, it got difficult for him to overcome the aerodynamic effect at Pocono.

While the seven-time winner at Pocono didn't win the race, he bagged his first pole position of the season at the race track, adding to the records in his name as a NASCAR ace. According to NASCAR Insights, Hamlin's qualifying performance made him the "oldest" polesitter in the NASCAR Cup Series, breaking a record previously held by Matt Kenseth.

Additionally, Pocono marked the 18th consecutive season in which Hamlin had bagged a pole position. The Pocono pole position was the fifth such milestone for the No. 11 JGR racer, making him a driver with the most pole positions on the track.

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Denny Hamlin opens up about missing Mexico City race and story behind son's name

Denny Hamlin was granted a playoff waiver by NASCAR for missing the Viva Mexico 250 race last weekend due to the birth of his son. Commenting on how he felt watching the Mexico City race from home, Hamlin said (via On3):

“It wasn’t weird on Sunday. Friday, I had bad FOMO [Fear of Missing Out]. It was, right when practice was starting my heart started racing and I was like, ‘Oh.’ I knew, my body knew, my head knew that I was missing it, and then by the time I got to Sunday I had been content with being at home for the weekend."

The No. 11 racer also gave an update about his fiancée Jordan Fish and his newborn son Jameson doing well. During a media interview session over the weekend, right before the Pocono race, Hamlin shared the reason behind his son's name (via Frontstretch).

“The name… um, obviously I’m James, so that’s James’ son, Jameson. And so, and Drew, we wanted to keep JD because, obviously, JD Gibbs is a big, big part of my getting here to the Cup Series. James Dean was the car owner I drove for in late models that got me the equipment to win all those races to get seen by JD. I’m JD, and so we’re just keeping it going,” the JGR ace mentioned (3:24 onwards).

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Denny Hamlin currently stands third on the NASCAR Cup Series points table with a total of 545 points, after Kyle Larson in the second position and William Byron in the first position.