For Grant Enfinger, Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum, the “Magic Mile” provided the final points necessary to move on. For Stewart Friesen, Jake Garcia and the rest of the field that’ll now have to wait until 2027 for another shot at title glory, it marked a bitter end to the championship road.
And waiting for all of them at the top of the bracket is the driver who spent most of the regular season setting the pace, and a torrid one at that.
Layne Riggs officially secured the No. 1 seed for the 2026 Chase on Saturday, entering with a 61-point advantage over Kaden Honeycutt and needing just 15 points to guarantee the top position. Riggs earned that nod in short order, clinching after Stage 2 and rounding out the day with a victory for good measure to complete a regular season that established the Front Row Motorsports driver as the benchmark of the Truck Series field.
“I wouldn’t say there’s pressure to perform. I like it,” Riggs said in his winner’s press conference. “We obviously have a points lead still. It’s crazy. We won the race today, and we lost a lot of points after the reset. So, good day for us, but not good for the reset. We’re still 25 up right now, so that’s good going in there. I feel like all year long we’ve been a really strong truck. Obviously, the statistics are there for us and the team. I like the feeling of being the best. It makes everybody else know that you’re the guy to beat. Really look at you hard, try to study you, and it’s a great feeling. It’s the position every race car driver wants to be in.”
The designation is more than ceremonial.
Riggs, as he alluded to, enters the seven-race Chase with a 25-point advantage over second-place Honeycutt and a 70-point buffer between him and Ankrum, the reward for a regular season in which the No. 34 Ford asserted itself as the division’s most reliable weekly threat. Five victories through the opening 17 races were already the most in the series entering Loudon. A sixth added oomph for emphasis.
Riggs also carried the points lead for much of the summer, with Honeycutt emerging as the most persistent, yet still distant, challenger.
The gap, however, had once been considerably larger.
Honeycutt arrived at Richmond last weekend 100 points behind Riggs before authoring a perfect 76-point afternoon, winning the race after leading 225 of 250 laps. A pair of slow pit stops contributed to a 15th-place finish for Riggs, allowing Honeycutt to trim 39 points from the deficit and keep the No. 1 seed mathematically alive entering the finale.
New Hampshire finally slammed that door.
The more volatile drama of the day played out farther down the standings. Only six drivers entered Saturday already assured of a Chase berth, leaving four postseason positions unresolved and 10 drivers mathematically alive.
Enfinger arrived in the strongest shape among those yet to clinch, 65 points above the elimination line, followed by two-time series champion Ben Rhodes at plus-53 and Hemric at plus-35. Ankrum held the 10th and final provisional spot by 20 points over Stewart Friesen, while one point behind Friesen sat Garcia.
From there, the climb became considerably steeper, with Butterbean Queen 47 points beneath the cut, Andrés Pérez 49 back, Tanner Gray minus-59 and Justin Haley 70 points out.
Then the green flag fell, and all those numbers became temporary. Enfinger clinched after Stage 1, while Haley was eliminated; Gray was cut after Stage 2.
It went all the way down to the wire — through a pair of overtimes — with the battle between Ankrum and Friesen not concluding until the checkered flag fell.
Ankrum needed all 175 scheduled laps (plus 14 more) to get the job done. Many of those laps came with malfunctioning brakes.
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
“I’m not happy, 100%. I mean, I’m freaking mad,” Ankrum joked — mostly — on pit road after the race. “You know, there’s just so many times in my career, I just wish it was a boring day. And honestly, I felt like it was just gonna be a boring day. I think we got to 13th or 14th there at the end of the first stage, but Friesen was within sight. We had that restart in the second stage, and I just went off into Turn 3, and there was no pedal, which is scary here because I don’t want to be the guy to go into the Turn 3 wall and not be able to slow the truck down, but luckily my spotter Eddie D’Hondt gave amazing advice. We worked through the issue. We turned off the left rear brake and we just ran all the rounds to the rear, ran on all the rounds to the front, and that solved half of my problem. Still didn’t have any rear brakes, but yes, I’m like, I’m not happy. I’m happy we made it, but I’m not happy with them. Like, I just wish we would fricking just have a normal day.”
That left Friesen on the wrong side by seven, with Garcia joining him outside the championship field, another four points down from there.
“Yeah, it was what it was,” Friesen said on pit road after the race. “We just didn’t bring enough speed all year, you know? We battled today. … It’s a bummer. We’re definitely a top-10 team. We just had some misfortune. It is what it is. We go back to work and keep building this team up and getting better and better. I promise you that.”
The result carried particular weight after the bubble underwent a dramatic reshuffling just seven days earlier.
Friesen had occupied the final Chase position entering Richmond before a tire issue sent his No. 52 truck hard into the Turn 1 wall and dropped him to last place. Ankrum capitalized with an 11th-place finish, gaining 28 points on Friesen and taking a 20-point advantage into New Hampshire. Garcia complicated the picture further by finishing sixth, drawing to within 21 points of Ankrum and just one behind Friesen entering the finale.
At Loudon, that late-season swing ultimately proved decisive.
With the field finally settled, the emphasis shifts immediately from qualifying for the Chase to surviving it. Bristol opens the seven-race championship run, beginning a postseason in which the regular season has already supplied a clear favorite.
The No. 34 team did more than just accumulate enough points to land atop the grid. Its six wins, sustained points lead and ability to remain the standard even as Honeycutt mounted a late charge — including on Saturday, as he impressively rebounded from a flat tire to finish third — established the type of season that makes anything short of a deep Chase run feel incomplete.
Honeycutt, however, hardly enters quietly.
His Richmond domination provided a forceful reminder that the championship gap is significantly smaller than the regular-season standings once suggested, now even thinner after the points reset, while the previously clinched Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero and Ty Majeski arrive with varying degrees of race-winning and postseason experience.
Now they know who will join them.
Ten drivers. Seven races. Saturday at New Hampshire was about earning an invitation to that fight.
Beginning at Bristol, simply being on the list will no longer be enough.
Track: New Hampshire Motor Speedway Location: Loudon, New Hampshire Track length: 1.058 miles When: 2 p.m. ET Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,233,037 Race distance: 301 laps | 318.46 miles Stages: 70 | 185 | 301 Saturday’s starting lineup| Pit stall assignments
Loudon offers one last clean shot at control before Daytona chaos
LOUDON, N.H. — For the slew of drivers still sweating their way toward The Chase’s impending and imminent return, New Hampshire Motor Speedway represents something increasingly scarce on the calendar.
Control.
A mere two NASCAR Cup Series races remain before the 16-driver Chase field is finalized, and each could hardly offer a different way of getting there. Daytona International Speedway lies in wait next weekend with the regular-season cutoff looming and all the drafting volatility, multicar pileups and split-second, coin-flip (and often costly) decisions that tend to come with it.
But first comes Loudon.
Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) offers 301 laps around the “Magic Mile,” and for anyone still hovering around the elimination line, perhaps one final chance to dictate their own terms before Daytona starts making some of those decisions for them.
Shane van Gisbergen currently occupies the 16th and final Chase position, 50 points above Ryan Preece. Behind Preece sit Ross Chastain (minus-63), Brad Keselowski (minus-78), Erik Jones (minus-81) and Michael McDowell (minus-104), leaving a group of drivers with little room for a quiet afternoon on Sunday.
The math isn’t technically in full-on desperation mode for everyone listed there, but the calendar sure is.
“I felt like we took a step in the right direction after Iowa for Richmond, and then I feel like we’re going to take another step when we come here today,” Preece said Saturday morning at New Hampshire before qualifying 18th. “So there’s a lot of things I’m looking forward to, and you know, today I was just in the trailer, and Derek (Finley, crew chief) said, ‘Like, we need a home run right now.’ So that’s the plan.”
Batter up.
The flat 1.058-mile oval is hardly predictable, but its recent races have generally rewarded drivers who establish themselves early and stay there. Five of the last six New Hampshire winners started inside the top five, and the Stage 1 winner has gone on to win each of the last three races. Only one of the last 14 events has required overtime, so late-race chaos doesn’t tend to snatch trophies (or even just a clean top-five, which would still go a long way right now) away from a worthy winner.
In other words, there is typically more opportunity here to build an afternoon than simply survive one.
Come Daytona, however, all bets are off, so take your swing now, drivers.
That distinction should matter to drivers such as Preece, Chastain, Keselowski and Jones, each of whom left Richmond farther from the elimination line than when the weekend began, despite entering it with a degree of optimism. No driver below the Chase cut gained ground on the cutoff there, while the gap between van Gisbergen and Preece only grew.
We’re well past the point where merely limiting the damage is enough, though, and Sunday’s race also carries another wrinkle this weekend that could matter well beyond Sunday evening. When the Cup Series returns to Loudon in 2027, Loudon returns to The Chase.
That gives teams an unusual opportunity this weekend: race for everything immediately in front of them now … while also collecting notebook data that could become substantially more valuable a year from now.
Before we look ahead to next year, however, for a handful of teams, there is already plenty worth remembering from last year. Team Penske, for one, essentially owned the place. Joey Logano started from the pole and led 147 laps, while Ryan Blaney led another 116, won Stage 1 and ultimately took the checkered flag, with Logano finishing fourth.
That performance looks considerably more relevant now than it might have a month ago, as everything appears to be clicking into place for Penske at the exact right moment.
Blaney has displayed elite pace all year — third in season-long speed, according to NASCAR Insights — but Penske has now won three of the last four Cup races all of a sudden after visiting Victory Lane just once through the season’s first 19 events, and its three drivers combined to lead 807 laps over the last five races after totaling 480 in the first 19. Logano arrives at his home track fresh off a Richmond victory, his second win in four races, while Blaney sits second in points and returns as the defending New Hampshire winner.
Even Austin Cindric, whose Loudon history is considerably quieter, enters with some momentum after a season-best third-place finish at Richmond moved him to 15th in The Chase standings, 57 points above the elimination line. The Nos. 2 and 22 each turned in top-five times in practice, with Blaney’s No. 12 topping the board in 30-lap averages.
The timing could hardly be better for Penske to arrive at one of its best recent tracks.
DATE
TRACK
FINISH
April 19
Kansas
4th
May 3
Texas
2nd
May 24
Charlotte
3rd
May 31
Nashville
1st
June 7
Michigan
1st
June 14
Pocono
1st
July 5
Chicago
3rd
July 19
North Wilkesboro
2nd
July 26
Indianapolis
5th
Aug. 9
Iowa
5th
Aug. 15
Richmond
4th
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Loudon hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more • Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind in the Granite State | Read more
• Analysis: Why Loudon is the perfect pre-Chase heat check for Hendrick | Read more • Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks ready to tackle the “Magic Mile” | View gallery • Neil Paine: Did Joey Logano just go from Chase bubble to title contender (again)? | Read more • NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from New Hampshire | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Preece turns to Loudon home turf with Chase hopes on the line | This week’s ranks
LOUDON, N.H. — Josh Berry and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team nearly won last year’s NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
With a notebook full of goods, crew chief Miles Stanley returns to the “Magic Mile” hoping their setup allows them to pull off their best trick yet in Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Wetookalotofwhatwelearnedherelastyearandtestedthatat (North) WilkesboroinJanuaryandthenkindofcarriedthatovertoWilkesboroafewweeksagoandthenRichmondandIowaaswellandbacktohere,” Stanley told NASCAR.com. “Sohopefullyitallapplies,andwecanimprovealittlebitonwhatwedidherelastyear.”
The recent run of success shows positive steps forward for the No. 21 team, which enters the relatively flat, 1.058-mile track after three consecutive top-10 finishes for the first time in Berry’s career: seventh at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, fourth at Iowa Speedway and eighth at Richmond Raceway. The surge comes as Berry auditions for a ride, as he won’t return to the No. 21 Ford in 2027.
“Themomentumisreal,” Stanley said. “Justtryandkeepthatandcarrythatintopracticeandintoqualifyingandthenhopefullythroughtherace.”
Practice is also back in full force for the remainder of 2026 with a single full-field, 50-minute session each weekend, with the exception of Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. That added time comes with an extra set of tires, all of which Stanley views as a positive change for the garage.
“Ithinkthat’sabigthingforus,” Stanley said. “Iknowthere’svariedopinionsacrossthegarageofwhetherit’sgoodorbadorwhatweneedorwhatwedon’tneed,butIlikeitpersonally.Ithinkit’sagreatthing.Ithinkitgivesustheopportunityasateamtostrategizealittlebitabouthowweapproachthatpractice,whatweusethatsecondsetoftiresforandjustgivesusanopportunitytolearnmorereps,morechancestolearnsomething.”
Ryan Sparks, crew chief of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and driver Daniel Suárez, agreed that added practice is an overall plus. Previously, the field was split into two groups for separate, single 25-minute sessions. With all 36-plus cars on track, teams can gather more applicable data for Sunday’s true tests.
“Ithinkitjustgivestheteamsanotheropportunitytooptimize theattitudeofthecar,understandingwhereyourheightsneedtobe,” Sparks told NASCAR.com. “There’salotmorecarsontrackatthesametimenowsincethere’snogroups,soyoucankindofunderstandhowyourcarbehaves in trafficandthingslikethat. Doublepracticetime,justmoreopportunitytolearnaboutyourcarandhowit’sgoingtohandlethatweekend.”
One additional benefit the No. 7 team finds is added track time with Suárez, who is going to tracks with Spire for the first time this season.
“Every week, I feel like, builds a notebook, especially for us with Daniel for the first year,” said Johnny Branzelle, lead engineer on the No. 7 car. “A lot of these places, it’s one thing to keep in mind that we’re going to these places with Daniel for the first time and we have limited practice, so there’s limited opportunity to change things. So each week, we’re going into it based on what we did last year and what our teammates have and trying to just build from there.”
Sunday’s forecast also includes the chance of precipitation, which necessitated a one-hour-earlier-than-planned start to Sunday’s race at 2 p.m. ET. While rain wouldn’t be ideal, Goodyear will provide teams four sets of wet-weather tires if conditions demand them.
There is also a playbook for wet-weather racing at New Hampshire, where teams competed in the inclement conditions in a notable success that saved officials from calling the race prematurely.
“It’sjustsomethingelsewehavetopreparefor,” Stanley said. “Ihopethatwedon’treallyhavetheweather,honestly,butit’sjustanotherlayertoit. Wehavesomenotesnow.IthinkthatLoudonraceacoupleyearsagowasprettymuchthefirstovalthatwe (had) donethaton.We’vedoneitnowonceatWilkesborowithacoupleheatracesandthings.BowmanGray,wediditthere. … But we’ve got a little bit of data, and we have a little bit of an idea of what we need to do for changes and kind of how long we think tires will last and those sorts of things.
“NASCAR’s gotten more educated now (and) with that experience has a bit of better idea how to officiate that whole thing, too. I think that race a couple years ago, we weren’t all quite sure how we were going to do it and everyone was learning, but now I think we have a clearer picture of, OK, if it’s wet and you have a certain allotment of wet tires, you can come down pit road and change to another set of wet tires if you’d like to.”
Following Layne Riggs’ sixth victory of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the grid for this year’s Chase is now set.
Riggs will start The Chase as the top seed, followed by Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes and Gio Ruggiero, rounding out the top five. Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum complete The Chase field.
Ankrum barely secured the 10th and final spot after battling brake issues at Loudon, edging Stewart Friesen and Jake Garcia, who were the first two drivers outside the postseason field. The No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver weathered the storm to finish 16th in the Granite State.
Friesen’s fourth-place finish was not enough to advance to The Chase, as he missed out by seven points. Garcia missed out on a Chase berth by 11 points after a 14th-place result Saturday.
Ten drivers will compete for the 2026 Truck Series championship in the final seven races of the year, starting with The Chase opener Thursday, Sept. 17, at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LOUDON, N.H. – Layne Riggs capped his 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season with his series-best sixth win of the year, claiming the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon in a dramatic double overtime victory in the regular-season finale.
The 24-year-old North Carolinian claimed a 0.293-second win over his Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith — Riggs’ pole-sitting No. 34 Front Row Ford leading a race-high 106 of the 189 laps, including the last 71 through a pair of overtime restarts. It’s his 11th career Truck Series win.
“Statement win, this is awesome,” a grinning Riggs told a thrilled New Hampshire Motor Speedway grandstand, receiving cheers as he spoke about how much he loves racing in New England.
“Thank you to everybody at Front Row Motorsports and Ford Racing. I thought I was off a little bit and thought I was in trouble,” Riggs said, of finishing second and third in the stages to NASCAR Cup Series regular Connor Zilisch, who swept Stages 1 and 2 of the race.
But Riggs credited his team with making the key adjustments to his truck to close out the race, and the young talent took it from there in what’s been his most successful season of NASCAR competition.
“One, two, Front Row Motorsports, it’s in the name,” he added of his and Smith’s effort Saturday. “Let’s bring on the Chase. Only got seven [races] left. No mercy.”
Another big winner on the day was McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum, claiming the 10th and final position for the seven-race Chase that will decide the ultimate 2026 season champion. Ankrum persevered after his No. 18 Chevrolet suffered mechanical gremlins mid-race, dropped nearly a lap down but rebounded for a 16th-place finish in the 36-truck field.
Although disappointed with the struggles, the finish was good enough to give Ankrum a seven-point edge over veteran Stewart Friesen and an 11-point advantage over Jake Garcia, both of whom were vying with him for the final Chase position. Both of those drivers led multiple laps, but ultimately, Ankrum’s points advantage coming into the race was enough cushion to keep him in that final championship transfer position.
Friesen’s No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota finished fourth while Garcia’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford was 14th. Garcia’s hopes faded with a penalty for pitting his No. 98 ThorSport Ford outside the box during the Stage 2 intermission.
Ankrum was excited about making the Chase, but still visibly frustrated with an emotional day full of challenges to get to that point.
“It’s extremely rare you come to a place as fast as this and have no rear brakes and can’t fix the problem,” Ankrum said. “We’ve had adversities like this through the year, and I thought we were done with them. Luckily, Eddie D’Hondt, my spotter, gave me some advice [in the closing laps].
“Definitely did not want to come to New Hampshire and perform like that. Got lucky. Did not perform like we belong in the Chase,” he added, promising in a couple hours he would be able to “move on past this and go to the shop and improve and race for the championship.”
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
Friesen, whose fourth-place run at New Hampshire was his fourth top-five finish in the last five races, was proud of his team effort despite the near miss. A heart-breaking 36th-place finish at Richmond, Va., last week after an early-race crash essentially made the mathematical difference.
“It was what it was, proud of the Halmar team,” the 43-year-old Friesen said. “We just didn’t bring enough speed all year. We battled today, [crew chief] Bruce [Cook] made a good call to get two tires and up in the front we got the balance pretty close and found a lane I could work with.
“It’s a bummer, I think we’re definitely at top-10 team, we just had some misfortune at Richmond last week and some other times throughout the season. We’ll just go back to work and keep building this team up and get better and better, I promise you that.. … We’ll go back to work and finish the year as strong as we can and bring better stuff for next year.”
Tricon Garage driver Kaden Honeycutt finished third in another remarkable competitive recovery – a tire went down in the opening stage, and he ended up losing a lap but battled back to his 11th top-five on the season. He’ll start the Chase ranked second in the reseeded championship standings, 25 points off Riggs.
Friesen was fourth with Zilisch rounding out the top five in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – his effort coming the same week he announced big plans to move in 2028 to the Hendrick Motorsports organization in the NASCAR Cup Series.
His Spire Motorsports teammate, Tristan McKee, continued his impressive work, the 16-year-old answering an eighth-place finish in his series debut last week at Richmond with a sixth-place showing in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet on Saturday.
Christopher Bell, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at New Hampshire was seventh with McAnally-Hilgemann’s Daniel Hemric, Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley and Niece Motorsports’ Parker Eatmon rounding out the top 10.
The Craftsman Truck Series takes a four-week break before starting its seven-race Chase run to the title. Joining Riggs and Honeycutt in that championship run are Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes, Tricon Garage’s Gio Ruggiero, ThorSport’s Ty Majeski, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, Hemric, three-time series champion and ThorSport Racing vet Ben Rhodes, and Ankrum will contend for the season trophy.
The Craftsman Truck Series’ next race is scheduled at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the seven-race Chase postseason will open Thursday, Sept. 17 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Riggs is the defending race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Layne Riggs as the winner. The Nos. 11, 14, 77 and 88 will be taken to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection. The No. 9 truck had one lug nut not safe and secure post-race, resulting in a loss of pit selection for The Chase opener at Bristol.
LOUDON, N.H. — With more championship rings than can fit on a single hand, Michael Jordan knows a thing or two about elevating one’s performance when the postseason lights shine bright.
As NASCAR readies for a return to The Chase early next month at Darlington Raceway, the NBA Hall of Famer’s 23XI Racing finds itself on a bit of uneven ground in the Granite State ahead of Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
So the G.O.A.T. decided to drop by Airspeed recently to check in with the team and also offer some (perhaps somewhat direct) words of encouragement.
“I think it’s a little bit of both (just dropping by the shop, but also picking up the team),” team co-owner Denny Hamlin said Saturday morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I think that he always makes surprise pop-ins to the team and we know ahead of time, but I think this was a good time. Just, you know, they were in a little bit of a rut and kind of lost some momentum.”
… But was the message more of a pat on the back or a kick in the rear?
“I think it was a little bit of both, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “And, again, he’s always a big self-reflection guy. You know, what can you do better? Stop worrying about everybody else.”
The pep talks appear to be paying dividends for one team already well-clinched into The Chase field, while the other one in postseason contention is still grasping at straws with the minimal but all-too-real risk of potentially missing it.
Bubba Wallace looked fast in practice, turning in the third-fastest overall speed among a three-team Toyota contingent atop the leaderboard, sporting long-run speed as well, before chunking it in qualifying to set up a P23 spot on the grid for Sunday’s starting spot.
Compounding the frustration?
His teammate will start from the pole — after landing 31st on the charts in practice.
“Justgetsoldstarting from behind. (We’re) way better than 14th (in the standings), that’s for sure. It’s just unfortunate we’re having to think about (points),” said Wallace, who was top three in points from EchoPark to Darlington earlier this season, before cooling off through the late spring and summer. “Startlosingfocusonwhatyouneedtodo,andthingshappen.Soyeah,wejusthave to haveagooddaytomorrow.Weshouldbefine.”
Even before Sunday, Wallace has started outside the top 20 in six of the past nine races. Only three of those races, understandably, resulted in top 10s, but there’s perhaps some reason for optimism, as he was able to claw through the field a bit at a somewhat comparable Iowa a few weeks ago, going from 26th to finish 12th, leading 35 laps in the process.
Loudon is also notoriously hard to pass at, but will he be able to replicate that forward momentum?
“Potentially. Idon’tknow,man.WerevampedourweekendplanssinceIowatodo mock Q andpractice,andfeltlikewelearnedalittlebit,but it stilldidn’ttranslatetomuchspeed.Sowejust …thisplace (has) gotournumberrightnow,andI’mlookingforwardtothetesttomorrow.Notthrowinginthegloves, justfrustrating. …Imaysoundworsethanwhatweare,butitjustfeelslikewehaven’tmadeanyprogress,whichisunfortunatebecause(Loudon)wastheonethatweworkedsohardon.Wethrewallofourresourcesandeffortsintothisone,andtheweekend’sjustgettingstarted,so before y’all createheadlineswhereBubba’sgivingupandallthis(expletive), that’snotthecase.Icanunmuteandbefrustratedathowwe’requalifying.Soyeah,it’sjustoneofthesethingsthatwehaven’tfiguredoutyet.”
And that was part of the message from MJ.
They know they can do it. All the pieces are there. It just needs to click.
And as frustrated as Wallace was with his qualifying effort, Reddick was equally mystified that he’d even been able to win the pole, given how off the No. 45 car was in practice. The funny thing, though?
He couldn’t wait to debrief with his teammates and figure out what they were doing better than him.
“Yeah,that’swhathavingteammates is allabout:workingtogether,helpingeachotherout,” said Reddick after securing his fifth pole of the season. “It’sprobablygonnasoundcrazy, but theguystartingfirst isgonnabereallyleaningontheseteammates tofigureoutwhatto do. We got plenty of things to discuss and figure out. You know, yeah, it’s a confidence boost, right? It’s like, OK, well, we know we can at least get it right.”
Massive shot in the arm for a No. 45 team searching for late-summer answers after beginning the season on an unprecedented scorcher. The No. 23 team, however, could still use a boost, with little time remaining to find one.
More than likely, Wallace will still be part of The Chase field after the checkered flag falls at Daytona, and, silver lining, there aren’t too many in the sport (or elsewhere) who can lean on pep talks from an NBA legend to recenter and refocus when the going gets tough. Still, for the many-layered Wallace, he’s thankful that other outlets exist to release some of that frustration, too.
“Goodmusic.Theheavier,thebetter,” he said. “Callthewifeandkiddos.Venttoher.Thinkthatshe’llhavethemagicalfix, and we’ll just re-rack ’em tomorrow.”
It’s time for lobster fishing as the NASCAR Cup Series treks to New England for a Sunday contest at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The bout at the 1.058-mile track will act as the penultimate race of the 2026 regular season, and with drivers on the bubble jockeying for Chase positioning, the action is surely going to be tense from start to finish. Positioning will be critical; five of the last six New Hampshire races were won from a top-five starting position, with the Stage 1 winner going on to win the last three Loudon contests. That said, the driver starting on the pole has won only once over the last 21 New Hampshire Cup races, so positioning is certainly not the end-all, be-all theme.
Every point matters, and at this juncture, every maneuver and strategy call could be the difference between capturing a coveted Chase berth — and perhaps netting the famed lobster trophy — and going home empty-handed. So, how does Racing Insights project Sunday’s race playing out? Let’s give it a look, with full race projections from first to 36th.
DRIVERS TO WATCH
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: Though he dropped to 16th in The Chase standings following action at Richmond Raceway, the 37-year-old Kiwi gained three markers to the cutline. While he is known for his road-course acumen, van Gisbergen has shown marked improvement on ovals and short tracks, with a 14th-place showing at Richmond nothing to scoff at. That said, he finished 32nd in last year’s New Hampshire Cup contest — his only career Cup start there — so the No. 97 driver isn’t out of the woods entirely.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: The No. 6 RFK Racing Ford lost 30 points to The Chase cutline following a 26th-place finish at Richmond, but Loudon could see those fortunes flip for the better. Keselowski has two career victories at New Hampshire to go along with 10 total top fives and 16 top 10s in 25 starts. Experience — especially in the championship department — also tends to play here, with 13 of the last 17 Loudon victors being Cup Series champions. Could the 2012 Cup Series champion break out in a big way this weekend?
ROSS CHASTAIN: A 12th-place finish at Richmond resulted in Chastain remaining 18th in the Cup Series table but losing 16 points to the cutline. However, momentum could be on the upswing for the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver, who has six top-15 finishes in the last nine races after two such results over the season’s first 15 contests. Chastain has four top-10 finishes at New Hampshire in seven career Cup starts, with a best finish of eighth twice.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LOUDON, N.H. – With seven runner-up finishes in NASCAR Cup Series competition this season, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell smiles and anticipates the question: how close is he to finally hoisting a trophy in 2026?
For what it’s worth, this week’s stop at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway one-miler has been a particularly strong venue for the 31-year-old Oklahoma native. He’s won two of the last four races in his No. 20 JGR Toyota and was strong in Saturday’s practice with top-five single lap speed early in the session and tops on 10-lap speed. It’s one of only two tracks (also Phoenix) where Bell has won multiple races.
Bell will roll off the grid from sixth position and comes into the weekend ranked seventh in the championship standings — tied with sixth place, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott — with a reasonable opportunity to move up in points considering he’s only 20 points behind fifth place, his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe.
Bell’s finished top five in five of the last seven races – turning in four of his season’s seven runner-up efforts in that span.
“We know that this is a huge opportunity for us and then Daytona is going to be a complete unknown,” Bell said of the two remaining regular-season races to formally set the 16-driver Chase-eligible standings.
“I think this one is kind of in our hands to where we can control our own destiny. And then Daytona, we’re just going to go out there and basically ‘go to Vegas and gamble’ and see what happens.
“Obviously with Briscoe having that huge day at Richmond [runner-up], we got some ground to make up on him. Myself and Chase Elliott, are tied for sixth place. I think we’re in as good a spot as we could have asked for given the circumstances of 2026 for us.”
