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.
LOUDON, N.H. — Chandler Smith tallied his fifth top-five finish of the 2025 season after Saturday afternoon’s Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a runner-up, following Corey Heim, who won for the ninth time.
But the second-place finish still wasn’t what the driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford needed to secure his spot in the Round of 8 of the playoffs.
While the temporary disappointment of the weekend will persist, nearly tracking down Heim in the closing laps, Smith continues to take pride in the effort demonstrated by the newly formed team during their first complete season together.
“I feel like, honestly, don’t get me wrong, we have the expectation to go win and stuff, but man, we’ve really accomplished a lot more than I think we all envisioned us to do,” Smith said on pit road post-race. “So it’s bittersweet because obviously, I’d like to race for a championship, but it’s sweet because I know that we have trucks capable of winning every time we show up to the race track. Just wasn’t meant to be, simple as that. We finished 30th at Darlington, which was on me. We had a mechanical issue last week at Bristol, finished 30th again, and came here to finish second. So move on, just going out to win these last few races.”
An early exit in the playoffs may seem like a disappointment to some on the outside for a team with two wins on the season, but the driver from Talking Rock, Georgia, had nothing but praise for his No. 38 crew.
“To accomplish what we’ve been doing on a consistent basis is — from the outside looking at, it’s like, ‘Oh, why couldn’t they?’ But when you really get into the trenches of it, and the logistics of everything and the personnel and the equipment and all, it’s really not as clean cut as what you think it is. So that’s the positive right there, being able to do that.
“We did come together and get a really good group that was bound and determined to do everything the right way and start building this program the right way, and not rush things and shortcut things, just so they can get it done right. We’re doing it the right way, and we have a really good culture at Front Row Motorsports as well that I’m proud of.”
On the flip side of the Truck Series Playoffs coin sits Rajah Caruth, the driver who bested Smith for the final spot in the Round of 8 with a 10th-place finish.
A consistent but admittedly lacking performance in the opening round for the No. 71 Spire Motorsports group gave Caruth enough to move onto the next round. The upcoming three-race stretch, which starts Fri., Oct. 3 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), makes the 23-year-old believe anything is possible.
“Man, it’s free game with the second round,” Caruth said. “You got the Roval, which is a wild card with the road course. Watkins Glen, we didn’t run as good as we should have, but Lime Rock, we were very competitive. So I’m excited to see how the Roval is for us. And then Talladega, I mean, anything can happen there. Martinsville, as you’ve seen last year, it becomes kind of jungle rules.
“I’d say (Heim) is pretty much a lock for Phoenix. (Riggs) could be pretty much as well and those last two spots are up for grabs, so just can’t take yourself out of it”
LOUDON, N.H. — Corey Heim turned in yet another successful chapter to one of the most dominant seasons in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history — claiming his record-tying ninth win of the 2025 season in Saturday’s Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The 23-year-old Georgia native’s race effort was nearly as perfect as the NASCAR weekend setting — sunshine, cool fall temperatures set among the beautiful season-changing foliage for which New England is renowned.
Heim claimed the pole position in the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, swept both stages, led a race-best 124 of the 175 laps, set the fastest lap of the day and then motored off to an 0.823-second victory over Chandler Smith to end the first round of the Truck Series Playoffs as dominantly as the Regular Season Champion started them.
The nine-victory effort this year ties the single-season win mark set by former series champion Greg Biffle in 1999. And immediately after Saturday’s checkered flag, Biffle posted a photo on social media of him holding a lobster (New Hampshire’s traditional trophy award) on a beach with the caption, “Welcome to the 9-win club.”
“It’s a dream come true to be able to race with these guys,” Heim said of his team. “Seems like everywhere we go this year, we’re a contender or we win, so just can’t say enough about those guys.
“But got to keep it going,” continued Heim, who now has 20 wins in 85 career starts. “Still have four more races left [this year] and want to break that [single-season wins] record. Shout out to Greg Biffle. He’s a great dude. Dream year for me personally, and just have to keep it going. It’s awesome. Gotta keep the ball rolling.”
Smith’s runner-up showing was an inspired rally to advance to the next round of the playoffs, but ultimately, the Front Row Motorsports driver came up 10 points short of moving on in the championship battle. ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia, who finished 16th Saturday, also failed to move on in the title fight.
“Just a lot of bad luck, but honestly, I’m a faithful guy and been doing a lot of praying about it, and my prayers been specific for the Lord’s will, and obviously it wasn’t in his will for us to advance to the next round, obviously,” Smith said.
“Super grateful for these group of guys that we assembled on this 38 team and we huddled together before the race and I let them know this doesn’t define us no matter what the outcome. I’m proud of each and every one of them.”
Smith’s Front Row teammate, Layne Riggs, finished third at New Hampshire, and the season’s three-time winner will begin this next three-race round of playoff competition ranked second to Heim — 47 points behind the championship favorite.
Heim’s rookie teammate, Gio Ruggiero, crossed the line fourth in one of his best showings of the season. And reigning series champion, ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, was fifth.
The championship lineup going forward with points reset includes — in order — McAnally-Hilgemann’s Daniel Hemric, Majeski, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Tyler Ankrum, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth and Halmar-Friesen Racing’s Kaden Honeycutt.
Caruth’s gamble to stay out on old tires to gain extra points in Stage 2 proved critical in his advancement. He finished 10th.
“It was kind of best-case scenario, the 38 [Smith] didn’t win and we got good stage points,” Caruth said. “Just proud of my Spire team. We just kept getting better, and the truck was decent. I don’t feel like tenth was really indicative of where we could have finished, but that’s how it went with how the tires were today, the way the cautions fell and our strategy.”
Enfinger, Honeycutt, Corey LaJoie, Christian Eckes and Caruth rounded out the top 10.
The Craftsman Truck Series returns to competition with an Oct. 3 series debut (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval — the first race of the final three-race run to decide which four drivers will be eligible for the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Heim as the race winner. No trucks will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina.
The NASCAR Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series travel north this weekend for playoff racing in the “Granite State” at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 kicks off Sunday afternoon, while the Truck Series cements its Round of 8 on Saturday with its first elimination race of the season. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Nine sets for the weekend (seven new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying and one set for practice). Teams are also allowed four wet-weather sets, if needed.
Race day: Saturday at noon ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Five sets for the weekend (three new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying and one set for practice). Teams are also allowed three wet-weather sets, if needed.
LOUDON, N.H. – One thought crossed Tyler Rypkema’s mind as he entered Turn 3 on the final lap of Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
He was not going to be denied.
Justin Bonsignore had put on a defensive clinic during the final 20 laps of Saturday’s race, ensuring that Rypkema and anyone else behind him could not get to his inside. An overtime restart gave Rypkema one final opportunity to go on the offensive and deny Bonsignore a third consecutive New Hampshire win.
Out of patience while simultaneously running out of time, Rypkema muscled Bonsignore out of the groove in Turn 3 to take the lead on the final lap, only for Bonsignore to get back to his bumper. The ensuing scuffle to the checkered flag saw Rypkema emerge battered and bruised, but also as a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner for the first time.
“Every race at New Hampshire seems to be a race to Turn 3 and who could get to the bottom,” Rypkema said. “Justin protected really early and really low, so I hooked back to the top and got a better arc down into [Turn] 3. We made a little contact there, but nothing I haven’t seen [Bonsignore] do many times here.
“I knew we were really good, we just had to get up and be there going into [Turn] 3 [by getting] a run off of [Turn] 2.”
Rypkema’s breakthrough NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour triumph was eight years and 83 starts in the making.
After he spent his first seven seasons competing for his family-owned operation, Rypkema took over Boehler Racing Enterprises’ iconic No. 3 Ole Blue Modified near the end of 2024. Rypkema became Ole Blue’s full-time driver for 2025 with the goal of joining names like Ryan Preece, Tony Hirschman and Bugsy Stevens as a winner in the historic car.
Entering the Mohegan Sun 100 with three top 10s on the year, everything fell into place for Rypkema to have his best run of the season. He maintained solid track position throughout the morning, but found himself trailing Bonsignore in the closing stages, unable to overtake the four-time series champion.
Knowing that Bonsignore would not give him the bottom on the final lap, Rypkema charted his own path to the lead. The aggressive maneuver on Bonsignore in Turn 3 got Rypkema the top spot, but it also left an opening for Bonsignore to get back to his outside on the frontstretch.
Rypkema attempted to block Bonsignore’s momentum and the two made contact. Rypkema and Bonsignore both ended up against the outside retaining wall, but it was Rypkema who got to the finish line first, albeit without his right-front tire.
Although the overtime restart and the presence of the draft at New Hampshire were going to leave him vulnerable, Bonsignore felt better execution on the final lap could have prevented Rypkema from building the run he needed.
“[Rypkema] had too good of a run and I didn’t have a good [Turns] 1 and 2,” Bonsignore said. “There was not much I could do. I tried crossing him over and didn’t get a good exit. He had me clear off of [turn] four and I don’t know why he decided to go to Victory Lane junked. But congrats to him, he executed well.”
Ole Blue was towed to Victory Lane after sustaining damage at the end of the Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR Regional)
By holding on to the lead with a destroyed car, Rypkema successfully continued Ole Blue’s winning legacy that has been ongoing in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for decades. Prior to Saturday, the most recent driver to win in Ole Blue was Jake Johnson, who did so at Monadnock Speedway last May.
The only thing Rypkema didn’t enjoy about his win was seeing Ole Blue sustain so much damage, but he knows Boehler Racing Enterprises will remain resilient, much like his resolve to finally earn a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win.
“[Bonsignore] went a little early to make the block,” Rypkema said. “I was able to get back up top and get a good arc down in. If he had done it a little later, I would have had to roll him on the top and that probably wouldn’t have happened. It just happened to work out, but it sucks the car is torn up.
“I wasn’t lifting until I was crossing that start-finish line, so we got it.”
Bonsignore brought his damaged car home in second, with Craig Lutz, Andy Seuss and Matt Hirschman following him to round out the top five.
The rest of the top 10 finishers included Woody Pitkat, Anthony Nocella, Eric Goodale, Austin Beers and Jon McKennedy.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action two weeks from now with another prestigious event, the Eddie Partridge 256 at Riverhead Raceway. The green flag will wave at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 6, with FloRacing providing live coverage of the on-track action.
