Team Penske held all the power Sunday at the “Magic Mile,” with its championship-winning drivers dominating the 301-lapper and Ryan Blaney claiming his third checkered flag of the season. The No. 12 driver’s close friend, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott, had perhaps the drive of the race at Loudon, scraping together a top-five finish after arguably his most disappointing qualifying effort of the season. Will he keep the Round of 12 magic going in the Midwest?
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs contenders after the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and before Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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Analysis: It’s hard to look much more powerful than Blaney did Sunday at Loudon, where he carried the fastest long-run speed car all weekend to his first New Hampshire victory, finally claiming “that (freaking) lobster” and punching an early ticket to the Round of 8. Blaney seems to have a rocket ship every week and gave every indication he intends to continue pressing at Kansas and the Charlotte Roval, so it’s possible this really could be the Round of “12.”
Analysis: Byron not only collected his first top 10 at Loudon in his eighth try Sunday, but he held one of the few cars that seemingly had a sniff of a chance against Team Penske and landed third on the results sheet. A runner-up at Kansas Speedway last fall, look for Byron to carry that speed into perhaps his first win there this weekend.
Analysis: The newfound Hendrick Motorsports speed at Loudon extended to Larson, who once again looks headed toward a potential Championship 4 appearance as the No. 5 team continues to dial things in when it matters. There’s a strong chance that’ll be the car to beat at Kansas as well, seeing as it’s the site of Larson’s most recent win and he’s been lights out there in Hendrick equipment (three wins since 2021).
Analysis: It’s a tough pill to swallow when a driver is one of three guys to test a track in July — a track at which he’s the unquestioned favorite — and then races at said track in September with his team riding three straight wins … and doesn’t lead a lap. Not the weekend Bell was hoping for, but he still walked out a respectable sixth on the pylon and now heads to a track at which he has eight top 10s in 11 starts. Could be worse.
Analysis: Logano was very much hoping to win Sunday and wasn’t pleased with not doing so, but he still secured three straight top fives for the first time since 2019, walking away well above the bubble with the second-most points of the race behind his race-winning teammate. The three-time Kansas winner could contend at the 1.5-mile facility this weekend, but the track has been hit-or-miss for him since his last victory there in 2020.
Analysis: Along the same lines as Bell, Hamlin expected a much better result at Loudon on Sunday, though who knows what would’ve happened if this situation had played out a little smoother. The four-time Kansas winner has also led in five straight races there, so the 2025 wins leader should, in theory, get back to his dominant ways on Sunday.
Analysis: Elliott has a pair of single-point, dismal days in the past six races, and yet, there’s no denying that we saw a championship-capable performance out of him and the No. 9 team on Sunday to rally back from a whiff in qualifying on Saturday. When they’re on, there’s arguably no more fearsome group in the garage, and they now get to finish out the Round of 12 with two quite favorable race tracks ahead.
Analysis: A lot of eyes were tracking how Briscoe would be able to attack the “Magic Mile” now in JGR’s A-tier equipment, and the returns were reasonable (10th, 19 laps led), but a bit underwhelming after landing runner-up last year for the shuttered Stewart-Haas Racing. A similar story could play out this weekend at Kansas, where he owns a 19.6 average finish but finally nabbed his first top 10 earlier this year.
Analysis: Though Chastain wasn’t able to snap Chevrolet’s long-running Loudon drought, he did halt a five-race skid outside the top 10. It’s hard to see how this train keeps rolling into the Round of 8 with just 72 laps led on the season so far, but he does have one pretty good thing going for him: He enters the Kansas weekend as the defending race winner.
Analysis: Cindric moves up because of some dippers below him, but it was not a great weekend for the No. 2 team, which sits below the bubble after struggling to find the speed his pole- and race-winning teammates deployed all weekend at will. To make matters worse, Cindric has never led a lap or finished in the top 10 at Kansas and, short of a Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval win, now needs to.
Analysis: Reddick is unfortunately proving that his Darlington runner-up was perhaps more of a fluke than what to expect from him and the No. 45 team in these playoffs, because it’s his lone top 10 in the past six races, all of which were otherwise 15th or worse. Normally, on paper, Kansas would be a potential significant rebound spot for him and 23XI, but not with the way this team is running and with the organization’s loosening grip on the Kansas City track.
Analysis: Wallace opened the playoffs looking bound for his first Championship 4 appearance, and now doesn’t even appear likely to see his first Round of 8. A win at Kansas is still absolutely possible, but everything that was just said about Reddick applies here as well, with the one saving grace being that the No. 23 car had led in five straight races before Loudon. They’re capable, but they’re running out of time.