LOUDON, N.H. — Team Penske Fords were fast in practice, fast in qualifying and fastest in the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when it counted Sunday afternoon, with Ryan Blaney taking a 0.937-second victory over fellow Ford driver Josh Berry in the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12.
It marked a distinct competitive turn in this year’s championship with three Fords finishing among the top five and three Chevrolets among the top seven at the 1-mile New Hampshire track after a Toyota sweep of the playoffs’ opening three-race round.
Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford — which started on the outside of the front row — led 116 of the race’s 301 laps, including the final 39 laps, holding off the Wood Brothers Racing driver Berry, who had rallied back in his No. 21 Ford after a spin on Lap 82.
“Probably the hardest 20 laps I drove,” Blaney, 31, said of the race’s closing laps. “Was trying to bide my stuff and he [Berry] really started coming. He started to get super free, and it was all I could do to hold him off. It was good racing. Clean racing, and I appreciate Josh not throwing me the bumper when he could have.”
Blaney’s victory cashes the popular 2023 series champion’s ticket into the Round of 8 in pursuit of his second Cup Series title. Important both Sunday and likely further in the playoffs as the season’s three-race winner can expect fierce competition from his Penske teammate, three-time and reigning series champ Joey Logano, as the playoffs intensify.
The two were quickest throughout preparation for Sunday’s race and maintained that edge throughout the day — combining to lead 263 of the 301 laps.
The polesitter, Logano, led the most laps (147) and finished fourth. He crossed the line just behind another playoff-eligible driver, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, whose teammate, Chase Elliott, turned in an inspiring comeback performance with a fifth-place showing after a 27th-place starting position.
“We ran well, we just weren’t the fastest car,” Logano said. “The 12 [Blaney] was fastest in practice, and he showed that again in the race. Our only chance to beat him was on pit road and beat him on details. But they were able to make up their track position when they put four [tires] on. That last restart I could have started behind him and finished third in the race, but if I was behind the 12 [Blaney] I wasn’t going to win.”
It perhaps marked a significant turn in competition — early in this round, at least — with the top Toyota driver, the race’s defending winner Christopher Bell, leading that manufacturer with a sixth-place finish Sunday. He won just a week ago, capping a three-race Toyota winning sweep in the opening playoff series.
Hendrick’s Kyle Larson (also a playoff driver) was seventh, followed by Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell and playoff drivers Ross Chastain (Trackhouse Racing) and Chase Briscoe (Joe Gibbs Racing).
JGR’s veteran driver Denny Hamlin, who ran top-10 most of the day and was involved in an incident with his teammate Ty Gibbs mid-race, dropped from the championship lead coming into New Hampshire to now fifth place in the points with a 12th-place run. The season’s five-race winner had no comment, however, about the contact with Gibbs that put the young third-year driver into the wall and out of the race while they both raced among the top 10.
Blaney’s victory — the 16th of his career — automatically moves him into the next round of the playoffs. Byron is now second in the standings, 47 points above the cutline. Larson is 41 points up, and Bell is 29 points to the good.
“The Penske cars were super-fast, kind of in another zip code,” said Byron, whose third-place finish marks his first career top-10 showing in eight New Hampshire races.
“If we can just build on this, all our short tracks are coming together,” said Byron. “It’s no breathing room because you have to go out there and execute every week and keep your foot on the gas in this deal. But hopefully we can go to Kansas and be up front, contending for a win.
“… Definitely wasn’t expecting to be this strong here, so hopefully we can go to Kansas and be really good.”
Hamlin is now fifth in the standings with a 27-point cushion on the elimination line, followed by Logano (plus-24), Elliott (plus-14) and Briscoe, who holds a 12-point advantage over Chastain for the eighth and final playoff position to advance following the Kansas race next week and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval race on Oct. 5.
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric (minus-19) and 23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick (minus-23) and Bubba Wallace (minus-27) are also below the playoff line heading to Kansas. Cindric finished 17th Sunday, Reddick was 21st and Wallace was 26th.
The Cup Series moves to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for next Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Chastain is the defending race winner.
NOTE: Inspection was completed in the NASCAR Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Blaney as the winner. No cars were taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.
LOUDON, N.H. — Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs battled both on the race track and via their team radios Sunday. Contact between the two drivers on-track following tense racing resulted in Hamlin sending Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota into the wall, a flurry of profanities on the scanner and lingering questions on how the team moves forward following the Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The high from JGR’s sweep of winning the opening three postseason races was a distant memory as tensions boiled over in Stage 2 between title hopeful Hamlin and Gibbs, who did not qualify for the postseason this year.
Battling for 11th at Lap 110, the Toyota drivers made contact exiting Turn 4, before Hamlin, a four-time winner this season and championship contender, sent Gibbs spinning into the Turn 1 wall. The incident came after several laps of tight racing between the two and fellow JGR driver Christopher Bell, as Hamlin and Bell were attempting to pass Gibbs for position with what appeared to be quicker cars.
Frustrations tipped in real time for Hamlin as he keyed up to his team on the radio, questioning the decisions made by his young teammate in the laps before their contact.
“Does Ty know we’re going for a championship? What the [expletive]?” Hamlin radioed to his team. “Are they afraid to talk to him? That’s what I feel like — they’re scared of him.”
Gibbs and his No. 54 Camry rested in the bottom lane of the track while waiting for a tow back to the garage. The team assessed the damage and returned to the track briefly before Gibbs hit the wall again, and the No. 54 crew determined the car was too beaten to continue, ending Gibbs’ race early.
The 22-year-old is the lone driver under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner not competing for the Bill France Cup after failing to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Speaking with USA Network from the infield care center, Gibbs — who radioed “game on” after his car came to a rest — brushed off questions specific to the incident.
“It’s unfortunate, but I’m excited to go race next week,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. We’ll have a good race next week.”
Hamlin expressed his frustrations after the race, noting that he made a mistake in initiating contact and wanted to step back and let others handle the fallout moving ahead.
“Well, I made a mistake in Turn 1. I would have made a mistake with anybody in that position,” Hamlin said on pit road. “I was trying to get by him; that was a task in itself.
“I’ll let leadership kind of quarterback it, however they’d like to. Obviously, us, [Bell and Chase Briscoe], are all trying to win a championship for their family. So it’s crazy unfortunate why we’re racing the way we are.”
Team owner Joe Gibbs, still carrying the moniker of “Coach” from his days as a Super Bowl-winning football coach, spoke briefly after the race and indicated he plans to let the drivers handle their issues.
“Those guys are the ones driving the cars,” Joe Gibbs said. “Those guys will get together on their own and figure it out. It’s hard for me. It’s not me, it’s the drivers. That’s how I’ve always looked at this.”
Competition director Chris Gabehart also falls under the leadership and is tasked with overseeing all four cars in the operation.
Hamlin’s former crew chief, known for his ability to “rally the troops” when times are tough, will once again attempt to mend fences before the team treks to Kansas Speedway next weekend.
“I think all of their viewpoints are going to be a little bit different,” Gabehart said. “The 54 (of Gibbs) and the 20 (of Bell) were in a tight space, and Denny was behind that and probably saw that circumstance and was confused by it. And then when they run the 54 back down, you know, [Hamlin] probably was looking for more of a break than he got. That’s what I would guess. That’s what I saw.
“The hard part is the 54 is trying to win races and make a name for himself as well. So everybody needs more space than they have.”
When asked how the upcoming conversation will play out, Gabehart is hopeful that it will promote unity, where each driver can thrive in their own environment.
“This is the type of conversation that when you run well, you’re fortunate enough to have to have every so often,” Gabehart continued. “We’ll have to have that conversation again. But, you know, I think there’s a reasonable etiquette to follow, where everybody can get what they need out of it.
“But at the same time, you can’t create an atmosphere where everybody just has to roll over and play nice all the time either, or you won’t hang as many banners as Joe Gibbs Racing has hung over the years.”
The NASCAR Cup Series’ Round of 12 gets underway with Sunday’s Mobil 1 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Following a very strong practice and a second-place qualifying effort, Ryan Blaney is the race favorite according to updated NASCAR odds for New Hampshire.
And while I’m not necessarily ruling out betting on Blaney right now, we first need to discuss tires again.
No, we won’t have an extremely high tire-wear race like we did last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, but curiosity comes due to a new right-side tire combination.
This is the same tire that teams already ran at Bowman Gray Stadium, Martinsville Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway and Richmond Raceway, but it’s the first time it will be on cars for New Hampshire.
In order to get my betting card rolling for New Hampshire, I’m getting down on a driver with unmatched success at this track who may also have an advantage when it comes to the new right-side tire.
Let me explain.
NASCAR Odds, +950 Pick for New Hampshire
*Odds as of Saturday night
Blaney, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are among the betting favorites for Sunday’s Mobile 1 301.
However, a little further down the odds board is Christopher Bell, who has absolutely dominated this track throughout his career.
Since the Next Gen was introduced in 2022, Bell has two Cup Series wins in three races at New Hampshire.
Tack on one Craftsman Truck Series win and a whopping four Xfinity Series wins, and we have a circuit that just fits Bell’s driving style.
Going back to the new right-side tire, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was one of three cars that participated in a Goodyear tire test back in July, so this team should have plenty of data regarding how the tire will perform throughout Sunday’s race.
Now, I have to point out that Bell didn’t necessarily set the world on fire in practice and struggled to a 19th-place qualifying effort.
But earlier this week, Bell was priced at +300 at some sportsbooks, and now we get a chance to buy back the best driver at New Hampshire in recent history at +950 odds with plenty of bankroll left over to add more outrights?
I’m in.
NASCAR Pick: Christopher Bell (+950) to Win — FanDuel
Editor’s note: Projection updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions, Ryan Blaney overtook Christopher Bell as the new winner.
On Sunday, quaint Loudon, New Hampshire — population approximately 6,000 — takes front and center of the NASCAR world as the Cup Series makes its first playoff stop at the “Magic Mile” in eight years (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). A field of 16 NASCAR Cup Series title contenders has been trimmed down to 12, and with a new round of the playoffs on the horizon, anything is bound to happen in 301 laps.
That said, a familiar face is expected to return to Victory Lane and hoist the iconic lobster. Racing Insights projects that Christopher Bell, winner last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, will win for the fifth time in 2025 and defend his victory in the “Granite State.”
Bell and Joe Gibbs Racing’s recent numbers at New Hampshire Motor Speedway are nothing short of incredible. The organization is three-for-three in the Next Gen car at the one-mile flat track, with Bell winning twice and Martin Truex Jr. scoring the victory in 2023 — his last Cup Series win. JGR has led 661 of 907 laps run in this current car, amounting to 73%, with the organization responsible for every stage win in that time frame. Dating back even further, at least one JGR Toyota has finished inside the top two in the last 13 Loudon events.
Add in the organization’s wicked hot start to the playoffs — a sweep of the first three races — it’s no doubt that JGR is the team to beat Sunday in Merrimack County. Racing Insights predicts Denny Hamlin, winner of the last flat track race at Gateway, to finish second, while Chase Briscoe, the Southern 500 winner, to finish eighth. Briscoe finished runner-up last year in a race decided by tire management in wet-weather conditions and has top 15s in the last three Loudon events, while Hamlin is pretty much a threat wherever the series goes. He’s a three-time Loudon winner, but it’s been since the 2017 summer race.
Don’t forget about 23XI Racing, either. Bubba Wallace, who earned the most stage points and third most points overall in the Round of 16, has a pair of top-10 finishes in three Next Gen races. Tyler Reddick has finished sixth in each of his last two trips to Loudon, boding well for the No. 45 driver as he begins the Round of 12 seeded last on the playoff grid.
Widening the scope even further, Toyota, who’s led 83% of the laps over the last three races at New Hampshire and 78% of the laps so far in the playoffs, has had four drivers in the top nine or better in every Loudon event since 2022.
Shifting gears, Team Penske is a team that continues to perform well at flat tracks, although Loudon is a minor exception. Ryan Blaney is projected to finish third on Sunday, but has finished outside the top 15 in all three Next Gen starts. However, he’s riding a streak of eight top 10s in his last nine races (the best in the series), so could it finally be Blaney’s time to conquer New England? Joey Logano, a two-time NHMS winner, finished outside the top 20 in two of his last three starts there (with a runner-up sandwiched in between).
With Loudon serving as the final flat-track race before the championship at Phoenix Raceway, it’s the final opportunity for the organization to tune up this package in hopes of bringing home a fourth consecutive title to Ford and Roger Penske.
Finally, that leads us to Chevrolet, and specifically, Hendrick Motorsports. Limping through the first round of the playoffs and losing one of its drivers to elimination (Alex Bowman), it’s felt like an eternity since HMS has tamed the “Magic Mile.” Kasey Kahne is responsible for the organization’s last win there in 2012, and since then, Hendrick has won 114 times at 28 different tracks, claimed four championships and finished in every position inside the top 15 at Loudon except first. Their four drivers — Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Bowman — had just one combined national series start at the time of Kahne’s victory.
As the playoffs march on, the margin of error gets thinner for those fighting for the Bill France Cup. The championship certainly can’t be won at New Hampshire, but a bad outing Sunday could put teams well behind the eight-ball toward advancing to the Round of 8.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Last week’s winner at Bristol has gone to Victory Lane in seven of his 11 national series races at Loudon, including twice in Cup and four times in four Xfinity Series starts. Excluding Josh Berry with just one Loudon start, Bell has the best average running position at 8.4. He heads to New England with 16 top 10s this season, tied for the best in the series.
KYLE LARSON: The 2021 series champion has finished runner-up at New Hampshire three times, but has not managed to score a victory. He’s led just 22 laps there over his career and six in four starts with Hendrick Motorsports, but with the team working to improve on flat tracks, maybe Sunday will be the day Larson gets to raise the lobster.
WILLIAM BYRON: The Regular Season Champion enters the Round of 12 on his second slide of the season, finishing outside the top 10 in each of the last five races. He’s never finished inside the top 10 at New Hampshire — the only track on the schedule that he hasn’t — and has just nine laps led. Although he’s 24 points above the cutline, a strong showing in the northeast would go a long way toward securing a spot in the semifinal round.
AUSTIN CINDRIC: It’s been a bit tougher for Cindric at Loudon in the past, finishing no better than 13th in three starts. But his win at Gateway last year shows that he can hang with the rest of the Team Penske crowd at flat tracks, and his fifth-place finish at Richmond Raceway last month could translate to a strong run at New Hampshire.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: A two-time Loudon winner, Keselowski has top 10s there in five of the last six races. He’s riding a stretch of nine top 10s in the last 17 races and nearly caught Christopher Bell in the final corner for the win last weekend at Bristol. If any non-playoff driver were to spoil the party, don’t be surprised if it’s the RFK Racing co-owner, as he searches for his first win in 52 races.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR MOBIL 1 301
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
LOUDON, N.H. — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series owner-driver Stewart Friesen made his return to the garage this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after a nearly eight-week absence recovering from serious injuries he incurred while racing in a Super DIRTcar Series race in Canada.
A popular figure in the sport, he smiled and conceded it’s been a warm welcome back. Still using crutches and undergoing treatment for a fractured pelvis and multiple breaks in his right tibia, Friesen has a long recovery ahead, but being trackside at New Hampshire was good therapy for the soul.
“It’s good,” he smiled, acknowledging the greeting he’s received. “I’m at least mobile enough to be here, it’s only four hours from home and it’s great to be back and see all these guys, not necessarily on our team, even, but the people I’ve met in the last 10 years doing this. It’s good to see everyone in the garage. So many people have reached out and said they were thinking of us. It’s been so cool to have the support of the racing community.
“It’s very, very humbling knowing how many people are thinking of us and supporting us. The people at Toyota have been awesome. Makes me feel proud to know we’re in a community like this that supports each other.”
Friesen qualified for the 2025 driver’s championship with a victory at Michigan — only four weeks before his crash. Now, however, Kaden Honeycutt is driving the Halmar-Friesen Racing No. 52 Toyota truck. Honeycutt had qualified for the driver’s championship on his own merits and his effort also keeps Friesen’s truck competitive for the owner’s title.
Honeycutt’s seventh-place run in Saturday afternoon’s race was good enough to advance both he and Friesen’s No. 52 truck to the next round of playoff competition.
Honeycutt is ranked eighth in the driver’s standings, and the No. 52 truck is ranked seventh in the owner’s championship.
While Friesen is clearly happy to be back for a NASCAR race weekend, he was hesitant to commit to much of the remaining schedule at this point in his recovery, although he said he’d like to be trackside at Phoenix Championship Weekend in November. He has no timetable for his return to the cockpit, however, while working through the rehab and managing the pain he still suffers from.
“I’m doing everything they say to do,” Friesen said, “I’ve got great, strong guys behind me and I’m so grateful.”
LOUDON, N.H. — It wasn’t too long ago, as the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs began at Darlington, that Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick were celebrating hard-fought first and second-place finishes, respectively.
Since that time, Briscoe has tallied two top-10 finishes (including a runner-up finish at World Wide Technology Raceway). At the same time, Reddick scooted by with a 15th- and 16th-place finish to wind down the opening round of the Cup Series postseason.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the one-mile facility nestled in the New England hills, sets the stage for the Round of 12 opener — its first playoff race since 2017 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Both Toyota drivers have found recent success at the “Magic Mile” and see it as a key launching point toward the Round of 8.
Reddick will roll off from the fourth position in his No. 45 Toyota, looking to continue his streak of top-10 finishes since beginning his tenure at 23XI Racing.
“I feel like, if you look at my career, you know, growing up, this was not one of my better tracks,” Reddick said. “But I feel like over the last couple of years in the Cup Series, for me, whether it was the old car or this Next Gen car, it seems like we’ve been able to make things work good. It’s not like a track I’ve gotten super comfortable at yet, but the speed’s been on our side.
“We find a way to finish good. So it was nice to see qualifying go that way. I thought I may have been able to do a little bit more to beat (Josh) Berry, but, yeah, I don’t think I could have beaten Logano today. So fourth is a good disparity. Stage points will be important tomorrow and that’s what we need to do.”
Briscoe, who managed a second-place finish with help from rain in last year’s trip to New Hampshire, will have a bit more work than his Toyota counterpart to do to start Sunday’s 301-lapper as the No. 19 starts in the 18th position.
“Last year, you know, I had to have it rain. I was going to run 30th if it didn’t rain,” Briscoe said. “So hopefully it’ll rain tomorrow. I don’t think that’s quite in the forecast, but I mean, definitely this place, if it rained, I feel really good about it. For whatever reason, this place has always just been a huge struggle for me, whether it’s Trucks or Xfinity or, you know, in my Cup career, too. I mean, the 19 car certainly feels better, but I’m still the weak link, I feel like this weekend. Just got to really try to figure out tonight what I need to do and go look at data and video, and just really try to be as best prepared as I can for tomorrow, to try to be the best we can be.”
Fortunately for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, his team has extensive notes for the New England flat track courtesy of the No. 19’s former pilot, Martin Truex Jr., who finished inside the top 10 in five of his six appearances at JGR with a win in 2023.
“I mean, everywhere else, I definitely feel like, you know, the tracks that have been good for the 19 have kind of been good regardless for us this year, but this one’s definitely been a struggle,” Briscoe said. “So yeah, just try to do my end tonight and tomorrow, just trying to be as best prepared as I can. I know that they’re going to get the car better for me as well. But yeah, certainly this has been a track that’s been really good for just JGR in general.
“I think today was kind of surprising for all of us. From a speed standpoint, I haven’t talked to any of my teammates yet, but it definitely seemed like we weren’t as strong as what we’ve been, you know, as a company in the past. So that’d be interesting.”
Interesting is the operative word as the two drivers will look to have their stories straight heading into the Round of 12 opener Sunday afternoon.
LOUDON, N.H. — Hendrick Motorsports’ history at New Hampshire Motor Speedway over the past decade-plus can be filtered down to a single word: flat.
Of course, that would make some sense at the stably banked, 1.058-mile New England facility, but the powerhouse team’s act at the “Magic Mile” has been about as sensational and awe-inspiring as the fake-bearded wizard your neighbor hired for their six-year-old’s birthday party last weekend.
The organization has spent the entire Next Gen era — and then some — grasping at straws at NHMS, and Sunday’s Mobil 1 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) could dictate the remainder of its playoff trio’s championship fates as the postseason barrels down toward its conclusion. Will historical trends be bucked or will one — or some combination of — William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson head to Kansas Speedway next weekend in a Round of 12 hole?
Since the Next Gen car arrived in 2022, Toyota teams have swept every Cup race here, claimed all six stage wins and led 83 percent of the laps (754 of 907), while Hendrick’s quartet (including the recently eliminated Alex Bowman) combined for zero wins and zero stage victories. Chevrolet — the manufacturer, not just Hendrick — has just 84 laps led in that span. Not quite the eye-poppers we’re used to seeing from NASCAR’s most winning team and its A-list of talent.
Larson arrives sporting a resume with a bit of flat-oval prowess on it, but for whatever reason, at NHMS, he has underperformed in sum despite a handful of close-but-no-cigar runs and a respectable average finish (11.2). There may not be another track on the schedule that Larson has raced at more over the past decade (12 starts since 2014), at which he has led less, with justeight total laps led in that span. He’s capable, but the front of the field eludes him.
There were some encouraging signs in practice, however.
“I thought, you know, we were not bad,” Larson said after hopping out of the car Saturday. “We were pretty loose, I thought, on exit, so we pitted, and it was good to look at some data and go back out, and I felt like I was competitive when I went back out. Still, really loose. So, you know, need to work on that, as I was really loose in qualifying also, but … we’ll hopefully be all right.
“I think (this race is) crucial. For sure. It’s not been a historically great track for us, but I feel like we’ve made progress on the style of track anyways this year, so optimistic, but didn’t qualify good. So I don’t know.”
While Byron and Bowman each qualified well on Saturday — fifth and seventh, respectively — the struggles continued for Larson and Elliott, with No. 5 landing 16th on the board and No. 9 a puzzling 27th.
The post-qualifying dejection was apparent.
“We’ll see where everyone winds up tomorrow,” said a succinct Georgia native. “But it’ll be a new day, and hopefully we can move forward and put together a good race.”
Elliott’s case is even more striking. The 2020 Cup champion has been able to lead laps here (including 41 laps from the pole last year), but top 10s in just 27.3% of his 11 starts here rank among his worst at any track. For context, he owns a 30% in the completely mercurial Daytona International Speedway.
Byron arrives as the 2025 Regular Season Champion, yet his NHMS numbers offer no comfort: zero top 10s in seven tries at the “Magic Mile” with a very un-Byron-like 17.0 average finish. Every track where he has a worse average finish is either a drafting-style one, a road course, or one not currently on the Cup schedule (plus Indianapolis, which is essentially in a class of its own).
After a P1 showing in practice and pole winner Joey Logano mentioning in his post-qualifying presser that the 12 (of teammate Ryan Blaney) and Byron’s 24 were “fast,” is not only a first top 10 — but a potential win in the cards?
“You gotta crawl before you can walk,” said Byron, shutting down that notion. “So, I mean, we’re just trying to improve what we had today. Yeah, obviously a win is way out there, right? Like, if you ask me if a win is kind of on my radar here, I would say no, but then getting in the race car today, I was like, OK, that’s one step forward, if we can just … qualifying was another step. So we’ve got a long 301 laps to kind of figure out where our balance goes and how competitive we are versus the field.”
As the Round of 12 opener, Sunday’s race offers a lifeline to both end this glaring drought and force the conversation elsewhere, but let’s also not forget: a win guarantees advancement to the Round of 8, which all three of these drivers feel they should reach, and beyond.
Sunday’s race could be the most pivotal in this round for Hendrick; the fulcrum that takes the pressure off — or increases it considerably.
Track: New Hampshire Motor Speedway Location: Loudon, N.H. Track length: 1.058 miles When: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App Race purse: $9,797,935 Race distance: 301 laps | 318.46 miles Stages: 70 | 185 | 301 Defending winner: Christopher Bell, June 2024 Paint Scheme Preview: See fresh looks for Loudon
Starting lineup: Joey Logano on the pole
Playoff magic returns to the Northeast — what it means, as the Round of 12 begins anew
LOUDON, N.H. — The magic is back.
After an eight-year hiatus from hosting playoff races, New Hampshire Motor Speedway returns to NASCAR’s postseason stage Sunday, and, saddled alongside it, comes enough mystical intrigue to alter the entire championship narrative.
The flat, unforgiving “Magic Mile” hasn’t been this consequential arguably ever, but certainly since 2017, when it last decided playoff fates. Now, the Mobil 1 301 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 opener arrives at the perfect moment to begin exposing who’s actually ready for a title run and who might be joining the four championship chasers eliminated last Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I am happy that New Hampshire has gotten a playoff race,” 2023 champion Ryan Blaney said earlier this week via conference call. “It’s always been that way for a while, and I was a part of a couple of New Hampshire races in the playoffs, and I’m happy it’s back because they do a great job. The crowd up there is always really fantastic.”
The Round of 16 was all Joe Gibbs Racing, with Bristol winner Christopher Bell capping off a clean sweep after Chase Briscoe claimed the Southern 500 opener and Denny Hamlin followed with a rousing win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Could we see more of the same in this three-race stretch? Perhaps — especially to start.
The numbers tell an unfortunate tale for Ford and Chevrolet: Toyota has also swept the Cup races at New Hampshire since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022; and it didn’t just win — these races were dominated with surgical precision. In the Next Gen era at New Hampshire, Toyota drivers have captured all six stage wins and led 754 of 907 total laps, an 83% clip. For context, Ford has managed 69 laps led, Chevrolet just 84.
Bell owns two of those three victories, including last year’s rain-delayed thriller that saw him master NASCAR’s first-ever oval finish on wet-weather tires. Joe Gibbs Racing has placed at least one car in the top two for 13 consecutive races here, to boot.
“Certainly, we’re feeling good,” Bell said Saturday morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “You know, Joe Gibbs Racing has asserted themselves as the powerhouse team in the sport right now. So we’re loving life. Absolutely, we know we’re in a good spot, and we’re just trying to keep the ball rolling. It’s a week-by-week basis. And the schedule certainly lays out really well for the Toyotas to run well for a little bit here. And hopefully, we can do that. But certainly, we’re all super happy and thrilled with how it’s going.”
The No. 20 driver enters Sunday as the defending winner of both last year’s race and the most recent in general, and perhaps the most dangerous driver in the field. His New Hampshire resume legitimately reads like a video game stat sheet: victories in two of the last three Cup races, (and three first or second finishes in his five total Cup starts), a 1.0 average finish in his four Xfinity Series starts (do the math there) and was the most recent Truck Series winner at the track before Corey Heim claimed Saturday’s series return to Loudon.
But Bell isn’t the only JGR threat.
Hamlin, the points leader entering the Round of 12, owns three Cup victories at New Hampshire of his own and has been the most consistent playoff performer thus far. Even Briscoe turned in a runner-up last year while driving for Ford in a now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing ride, but he’s now driving the No. 19 Toyota — i.e., the other JGR entry that won in a Next Gen.
On the flip side, nowhere is the playoff pressure more acute than in the bottom four positions, where Toyota mate Tyler Reddick sits three points below the elimination line despite an average finish of 11th in the Round of 16. The 23XI Racing driver represents one of the weekend’s most compelling storylines: a championship-capable driver with solid New Hampshire credentials (sixth-place finishes in both recent races), but one who must overcome a points deficit — as he remains the only winless driver in the playoffs.
Joey Logano, with one more point than Reddick but still two points below the cutline, returns to the site of his first Cup victory in 2009. The three-time champion and New England native struggled through the summer but has found recent form with back-to-back fifth-place finishes. He also holds the kind of playoff savvy that makes him dangerous when cornered, as we saw with his unprecedented run to the title last year after initially thinking he’d been eliminated after the Round of 12. Though he’s currently below the bubble, the Team Penske driver and two-time lobster holder surely feels better about his status than any of the Hendrick Motorsports playoff drivers, all of whom are currently in position to advance.
While Toyota and Logano expect to win this race, Hendrick faces more questions than answers this weekend and may just be aiming mostly to make it to next weekend unscathed, even if short of a win. The organization has won just one race at New Hampshire in the last 20 tries, with Kasey Kahne’s 2012 victory — in a Gen 5 car, no less — standing as the powerhouse’s most recent triumph at Loudon. Will this be the weekend it all turns around?
Kyle Larson, sitting third in points, does have three runner-up finishes at the track but has led fewer laps (just 22 total) here than at any other oval, a damning statistic for a driver known for his ability to command races. He does have a pair of top-four runs the past couple of years, however, so he’s close and obviously still competitive. William Byron, the Regular Season Champion, enters with an even more troubling record: not a single top-10 finish at New Hampshire in his Cup career. Chase Elliott, five points above the cutline, could represent Hendrick’s best hope at a win — he’s led at least nine laps in four of the past five here — but carries his own baggage after a late-race Bristol incident nearly derailed his playoff hopes.
Sunday’s forecast carries added significance, given that last year’s rain-delayed marathon ended on wet-weather tires and saw a flipping of the field once the race resumed, with the dirt aficionados rising to the top in the alternate conditions. With rain nowhere in the forecast for Sunday and New Hampshire not seeing a non-rain-impacted race since 2022 — and no fall races here at all since 2017 — there’s a bit less relevant data to work off of for the Round of 12 opener, which could dramatically widen the field.
Teams will also contend with Goodyear’s tire compound selection — the same package used at Richmond Raceway and the Clash at Bowman Gray — where results varied wildly depending on setup and strategy. Notably, two of the drivers who tested the tire here in July are currently in position to be eliminated, and the other is the hands-down favorite to win.
New Hampshire’s return to playoff relevance is a quaint tip of the cap to New England fans, but for drivers, it’s a test of adaptability, execution and championship mettle at a track that rewards precision over creating chaos (though the Modifieds are a different story). We’ve seen this track whittle away at the pretenders in the past, as New Hampshire demands a different kind of excellence; the grinding, methodical kind that separates champions from also-rans.
For Bell and his JGR teammates, it’s a chance to continue their playoff sweep — the team expects to win all 10, by the way — and potentially lock up a Round of 8 spot early. For the drivers below the cutline, it’s a chance to prove that, well, they don’t belong there.
And for everyone else? It’s a reminder that in NASCAR’s playoff format, your season can change in 301 laps on a flat oval that hasn’t forgotten how to break hearts — playoffs or not.
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Saturday’s race?
Crew chiefs confront a familiar yet unforgiving puzzle at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday: how to leverage tire life and pit strategy on the milder grades of the “Magic Mile” — but this time, on a different tire, in a new month and with the sun actually shining.
Goodyear’s package for Loudon was already stress-tested in July, when Logano, Ross Chastain, and Bell logged extensive runs on a hazy midsummer afternoon. Armed with those insights, crew chiefs return to Loudon with, in theory, some definitive data on how far they can stretch each set of tires before lap times begin to slip.
“I was actually just looking at track temp, just trying to compare to what we had the end of July when we did that test, and it’s not significantly different. A little cooler, so I’m not expecting it to be a lot different,” No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe told NASCAR.com on Saturday at Loudon. “But these tires, as we saw last week at Bristol, are just so sensitive to track temperature and those types of things. Concrete is a little bit of an outlier, you know, but still, the tires wear differently with the different temperatures. So based off of the test, I still feel like, once we get all the cars (on the track), it shouldn’t be a problem being able to run close to a full fuel run, just a matter of how much we see the speed starts to taper off on a longer run.”
Brake management has seldom been more critical. New Hampshire’s flat turns demand heavy deceleration into Turns 1 and 3, and teams constantly adjust throughout the weekend to ensure these can be attacked and executed on, as passing at this track is of critical value. Miscalculations here are costly and, at times, devastating.
Overarching every tactical decision is the pressure of the playoffs, now in its second round. With stage points at a premium and the threat of elimination always looming, will crew chiefs opt to sacrifice track position for a stage‐point strategy or cling to it, knowing that if the tire decision-making plays out favorably, it may be the only path to victory?
Especially true for the No. 22 group, which always, always has this race circled — for reasons beyond it being its driver’s home track.
“I think if you look back at history, this track’s been good for us. We’ve had speed here. We had speed here last year. We’ve continued to fine-tune our short track stuff. You know, obviously we run good at Phoenix and Richmond, all same kind of style, aero package, tires, similar,” said Wolfe. “So really, we kind of built off from last year and unloaded reasonable for the test, and then we found a couple things that I think he felt was a gain for him, at least raceability-wise.
“It’s hard to find a lot of speed these days, especially when you’re already all so close, right? It’s all the little stuff and things like that. Some of it can be down to what we call raceability, which just makes the car more versatile, be able to work traffic better, those types of things. So with all that being said, yeah, I mean, we found a few things that we feel good about. We had good feedback from him on it, and everything kind of worked out. So we left the test pretty optimistic, and there’s no reason to think we shouldn’t be a contender tomorrow.”
Small adjustments yield big gains at Loudon, and this weekend every call from atop the pit box feels even more crucial — because they could wind up deciding who advances to the Round of 8.
Passing is extraordinarily difficult here, but the pole winner rarely wins. Per Racing Insights, the driver starting first has only won once in the last 20 New Hampshire Cup races (Kyle Busch – September 2017).
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
BRAD KESELOWSKI. The 2012 Cup champion is no stranger to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, having earned two Cup victories, four poles, 10 top fives and sixteen top 10s in 24 starts around the “Magic Mile,” leading 598 laps in that span and posting average starting and finishing positions of 10.2 and 10.5, respectively. While his 2025 season has lacked a headline result, Keselowski’s deep experience at Loudon — much of which came during his team at Team Penske, but the success has carried over to RFK — combined with his team’s short-track program and savvy pit-strategy calls from crew chief Jeremy Bullins, gives the No. 6 Ford the machinery and driver acumen to pounce if late-race restarts or tire-wear strategies shake up the usual contenders. | See Keselowski’s projected finishing position
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Team Penske showed up with lightning-fast speed at New Hampshire, sweeping the front row. Joey Logano backed up his strong Goodyear tire test from July by scoring his second pole of the 2025 season while Ryan Blaney ranked at the top of the board over the long haul in practice. Hendrick Motorsports drivers were pleased with their speed, though Chase Elliott had another dreadful qualifying effort in 27th. Christopher Bell is staying in my lineup but will need to find track position after a 19th-place qualifying effort. Because of that, I’m switching my 36 for 36 pick to Joey Logano as the No. 22 car will have the cleanest of air at the start. I dropped Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski from my lineup in favor of Blaney and William Byron.
Lineup: Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
•NASCAR at New Hampshire: Key info, qualifying reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more • Racing Insights: Bell projected to score another win, but who can challenge him at Loudon? | Read more
• Bubble Watch: Who will be the catch of the day at Loudon? | Read more
• Fantasy Fastlane: Christopher Bell whoops the field at Loudon | Read more
• Memorable moments: Relive the ‘magic’ at Loudon | Read more
• Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not ahead of Loudon | Read more
• Well-oiled machine: Blaney, Penske carry competitor’s mindset into Loudon | Read more
• Penalty report: Officials suspend two JGR crew members for No. 11’s detached wheel at Bristol | Read more
• ‘Worked for this all my life’: Zane Smith on mental toll of Cup journey, boon of Bristol performance | Read more
• Carrying the banner: Chastain looks to rekindle speed as Round of 12 dawns | Read more • Turning Point to New Hampshire: What did we learn from the Round of 16? | Read more
• At-track photos: The best shots from September racing at the “Magic Mile” | View gallery
• Power Rankings: An updated look at where playoff drivers stack | This week’s ranks
LOUDON, N.H. — Team Penske’s Joey Logano thrilled his enthusiastic local fanbase, turning a pole-winning lap at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon, the Connecticut-native claiming the first NASCAR Cup Series pole position of his career at his “hometown” New England track.
The three-time and reigning series champ posted a lap of 130.622 mph around the one-mile track — the second Busch Light Pole Award of the 2025 season for the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. He’ll start alongside his Team Penske teammate, 2023 series champ Ryan Blaney on the front row.
Fords swept the top three starting positions on the grid for Sunday’s Mobil 1 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) with Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry rolling off third after holding the top speed for much of the qualifying session. He’ll line up next to 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota on the second row.
“The expectation is to win all the time, that’s why I’m here, that’s why [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] is here, that’s why [team owner] Roger [Penske] is here and they expect us to win,” Logano said. “The expectation is always to be first, but it’s a hard sport and there’s one in 40 chances to make it happen.
“At Loudon, we expect to be fast,” he continued. “Paul has always had fast cars here. Compared to the last few years, our cars have been really fast. We haven’t capitalized on it but we’ve had speed good enough to win the last few races here. Hoping to have just a nice smooth race tomorrow and maintain track position.”
Logano is a two-time Loudon winner, claiming the famed “lobster” trophy in 2009 and 2014.
Six of the 12 playoff drivers qualified among the top-10, including Logano, Blaney, Reddick, Regular Season Champion William Byron (fifth), Ross Chastain (eighth) and Denny Hamlin (ninth), who leads the championship standings coming into New Hampshire — the first of the three Round of 12 playoff races.
Bubba Wallace, who will start 14th, Kyle Larson (16th), Chase Briscoe (18th), defending New Hampshire race winner Christopher Bell (19th), Austin Cindric (22nd) and Chase Elliott (27th) round out the other playoff contenders on the grid.
Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, in particular, have had a fast start to the 10-race postseason run, sweeping the Round of 16 — JGR’s Briscoe, Hamlin and Bell — taking the opening three victories.
The last time a Ford won at New Hampshire was in 2021 (Aric Almirola). The last time a Chevrolet won was in 2016 (Kevin Harvick).
“I think we’ve got a good shot,” Logano said. “I feel like Loudon is one of those race tracks that’s in our wheelhouse, a flat one-mile type track, seems like it is a Team Penske kind of thing. Hopefully, we’re able to translate this pole into a win, because that’s what really matters. It’s just a good starting spot, there’s no points for it. It’s really about the points or getting a win and moving on to the next round.”
Byron fastest in practice
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet topped the leaderboard in Saturday afternoon’s practice session, with a speed of 127.834 mph.
AJ Allmendinger (127.645 mph), Ryan Preece (127.483 mph), Riley Herbst (127.402 mph) and Cole Custer (127.380 mph) rounded out the top five.
Ryan Blaney (127.274 mph), Bubba Wallace (127.210 mph), Ty Gibbs (127.206 mph), Michael McDowell (127.159 mph) and Daniel Suárez (127.138 mph) completed the top 10.
