Ryan Blaney already had happy memories of Pocono Raceway. Sunday, the Team Penske driver added another big moment.

Blaney held off seven-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin in The Great American Getaway 400 to win for the second time this season and the 12th time in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

Blaney’s first career Cup win came at Pocono in 2017 when he was 23 years old. Now, at age 30, Blaney is a veteran NASCAR racer and the reigning series champion.

“So cool to win here again,” Blaney said in his post-race interview with NBC. “I won here seven years ago for my first Cup win, so it’s awesome to be back. The crowd, you guys were amazing. Thank you for being here all weekend.”

“You love tracks that have special meaning to you, places where you get your first win and things like that,” Blaney continued, “so this place means so much to me.”

Blaney took control of the 160-lap race on a restart with 40 laps remaining and kept the lead despite multiple restarts. The No. 12 Team Penske crew gave Blaney great track position to start Stage 3, choosing to call him to pit road a few laps before the end of the second segment and forgo stage points. That strategy move allowed Blaney to begin the third stage on the front row alongside Chris Buescher and take control of the race.

“It was nice to stick to the plan today and our plan was to have track position at the end,” Blaney said. “I knew our car was fast enough.”

For the first four months of the season, Blaney could not find victory lane – “I feel like we honestly had a couple races slip away from us which I thought we had a good shot at winning,” he said Sunday – but his luck began to turn last month at Iowa Speedway, with a dominating victory on June 16. And the defending champ said, “things are just kind of falling into place for us.