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

RELATED: How to watch on USA Network

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.

MORE: Opinion: New Hampshire delivers feast of memories, looming moments

“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.

MORE: Playoff standings before New Hampshire

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.

RELATED: Full Saturday recap from Loudon

From atop the pit box …

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.”

RELATED: New Hampshire schedule | Full 2025 schedule

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.

RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s race

History tells us …

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

Garage: William Byron

MORE: Lineup advice in Fantasy Fastlane

Speed reads

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