LOUDON, N.H. — Bubba Wallace drew closer and closer to the back bumper of Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford in the final run of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
But a brake lock-up with five laps to go neutered Wallace’s chances of completing the pass on his longtime friend, handing him a bittersweet second-place finish in the Dollar Tree 301.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: NHMS
“The guy I studied the most coming into this week was the 12 car,” Wallace said. “Still came up a little bit short. We do a really good job behind the scenes of giving us all the tools and all the data that we need to put our cars in Victory Lane, and the flat tracks, we’ve got to work really hard to get there.”
Wallace matched his best result this season — a second-place day in the inaugural San Diego event at Naval Base Coronado in June. The disappointment in not breaking through for his first win was palpable, but there was also a sense of achievement for the speed Wallace’s 23XI Racing team incorporated into his No. 23 Toyota — even if the pathway to speed travels through a suboptimal feel behind the wheel.
“Really bad handling race car — it’s fast, though, so that’s the frustrating part is you’ve got to throw everything away that you know what feels good and just deal with it,” Wallace said. “So that’s what we’re able to do. Appreciate Cincoro, Toyota. It was a good day here in Loudon. Just hate to come home second.”
The defining moment came with five laps to go, following a long run in which Wallace used his four fresh Goodyear tires to track down Blaney, whose team had changed just right-side rubber on his last stop.
As the duo of Blaney and Wallace picked through lapped traffic, Wallace dove to the left of Cole Custer’s No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet on entry to Turn 3. In that moment, Wallace locked up his left-front tire and picked up a significant vibration that thwarted his chances of winning. Still, all Wallace could think about was how strong Blaney’s Penske Ford was.
“Yeah, lapped traffic was tough,” Wallace said. “Just tried too hard there around the 41 and locked up and picked up a big vibration. Didn’t want to end our day, so just kind of limped it around and made the most of it. But we’ve really got to work hard to figure out where the Penske cars are so good.”
No matter how quick Blaney’s car was, Blaney himself still felt the pressure from Wallace in the late stages around the 1.058-mile oval.
“I was aware of it, for sure,” Blaney said of the dwindling margin to Wallace. “Timmy [Fedewa, spotter] was giving me gaps, and I tried to fill the gap early in the run, knowing we were going to go a long way on tires – and I had two, so just trying to manage them after I got out to, you know, a second or two lead. And then when I saw Bubba got to second on four, I knew he was quick, and so I just tried to manage that for a little bit, and he started kind of creeping in like a tenth (of a second) here, and I tried to pick it up a little bit, so that’s eating a little bit more tire away, trying to just maintain like that second-and-a-half gap. …
“I was just trying to maintain and not make a mistake. And if Bubba got there, he got there, and we’ll race it out. But I just didn’t want to make a mistake, slipping into the corner or something or overdriving it. But yeah, it was a heck of a battle.”
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The relationship between Wallace and Blaney spans decades, but only once before had they finished 1-2 together in a Cup Series race (Daytona summer, 2021). Their bond extends to the race track in terms of respect, but don’t mistake that for any easier contests.
“Bubba and I have been racing with each other since we were 10 years old,” Blaney said. “I mean, we’ve been racing together forever and been fortunate to grow up together, remain really good friends over the years and have families together and things like that. There’s only a handful of guys that are at that respect level for me out on the race track, whether I grew up with them or just have that. And Bubba is one of those guys I have a ton of respect for what he can do behind the wheel and just the person that he is and the friend that he is.
“So it’s fun racing with your buddies. But at the end of the day, we are incredibly fierce competitors. We are going to race the hell out of each other — but you know that you can trust that person. Like we’re going to race really hard, but we’re going to race clean. So it’s always fun to race with your friends, especially for the lead and things like that.”
Wallace was close to surpassing his friend for the race win Sunday, but after his second runner-up result of 2026 and The Chase looming, his goal is closing the gap to Team Penske.
“It looks like we were close, but we want to show up and be as dominant as they are,” Wallace said. “We’re nowhere near that, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. But it was a great day. Great day, and they poured a lot of heart and effort into making this package better and what I needed to go fast. It ain’t what I needed, but it went fast, so I’ll deal with it.”