LONG POND - The story of the Wood Brothers Racing team is one that is dotted with history.

Sunday, 23-year-old Ryan Blaney added another chapter.Blaney passed a former champion and held off another en route to his first NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series victory in the Pocono 400. Blaney earned his first win in NASCAR's top series despite relentless pressure in the closing stages of the race from 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick, who finished 0.139 seconds behind Blaney."I didn't really drive any differently than I would have before," Blaney said. "You just try not to make mistakes. One little mistake and he was going to get by us pretty easy. You just try to hit your marks like you do all day, and I think what really was able to hold him off is I started downshifting in the tunnel turn, and he was doing that when laps got on our tires and I was able to keep rpms up and get runs off that corner."I thought that was the game-changer that brought us to kind of even with him or at least closer to him."Blaney, who started fourth, showed his mettle in the closing stages of Sunday's race. Blaney got around 2015 series champion and pole-sitter Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 100 laps but stayed out on old tires prior to a restart with 13 laps to go while Blaney, who restarted fourth, and others had come in for fresh tires."Kyle stayed out and he was on a little bit older tires and it looked like he was getting pretty tight, especially off of one, and that's where new tires really seemed to come alive because you cold hold the line and get runs on him, downshift and get next to him," said Blaney, who led the final 10 laps. "I had a big run on him off of three, and he did a good job blocking, and we were able to get under him, but then I had to hold the 4 (Harvick) off. He was super-fast."As Blaney and Busch battled, it allowed Harvick to close in. But he could never get around Blaney."Yeah, we ran him down, just never could charge the corner hard enough to get to his bumper," Harvick said. "That was our only weakness. I mean, we had the car where we needed it pretty much in every corner, just couldn't charge any of the corners like I needed to with the stopping power that I had."Just really had to manage that, but everywhere else, the car handled flawlessly all day and didn't really make any adjustments on it other than a little bit of air here and there."Blaney's win gave Wood Brothers Racing its 99th victory and first since Trevor Bayne went to victory lane at the 2011 Daytona 500. The Wood Brothers have won at least one Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in each of the last six decades.Sunday's triumph was years in the making for Blaney and the team, who came together for a part-time program, before running the full schedule last season."He's special all right," car owner Eddie Wood said of Blaney, who became the 18th different driver to win a Cup race for the Wood Brothers. "Like (crew chief) Jeremy (Bullins) said, we put this deal together in 2015, and right away you knew he had - Ryan was going to be special because he just had speed, you know, everywhere we went he had speed."You know, given our alliance with Team Penske that is second to none, that just really makes a big difference, and Jeremy came over to be crew chief and it just all worked out. Blaney is on his way now. He outran two guys today that are champions, and they're at the top of their game, and to outrun them to win a race here - this is one of the toughest tracks that we go to. I'm really, really proud of him, and he's here. He's arrived now."Kurt Busch, who won the June race last year at Pocono, finished fourth.SEASON BEST ... Rookie Erik Jones finished third, his best result of the season. Jones, who started 15th, led twice for 20 laps and ran near the front of the field all day.I THINK I LIKE IT HERE … Blaney also won a Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono in 2013.HOLD YOUR BREATH … Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson made hard contact with the wall after a brake failure late in Stage 2. Jamie McMurray followed in Johnson's tracks and also slid into the wall, an incident that ended with his No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet on fire. Both drivers were able to leave their cars under their own power, though Johnson needed a moment to gather himself against the wall after climbing out of his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet. The race was red flagged for 23:25 before resuming under caution.TIGHT AT THE TOP … Martin Truex Jr. leads the series standings by one point over Kyle Larson. Truex finished sixth Saturday, while Larson was sixth.THIS AND THAT ... Blaney secured his fifth top-10 finish of the season Sunday, and his second top-10 result in three races at Pocono Raceway.