Ryan blaney goes back-to-back at New Hampshire, secures 20th Cup Series win
What a wild afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Ryan Blaney proved he is an absolute force to be reckoned with, taking his second consecutive giant lobster in Victory Lane and securing his third win of the season with a 0.586-second victory in Sunday's Dollar Tree 301. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver led a race-best 115 of the 301 laps, overcoming a frustrating mid-race pit stop to make a huge statement as a championship favorite right before the 10-race Chase begins.
It was a chaotic day from the very start, featuring changing weather, a rain delay, 40 laps on wet-weather tires, and nine caution flags. Blaney's crew made a brilliant two-tire call on the final pit stop to cycle to the lead over the four-tire runners. That set up a tense, long run to the finish where Bubba Wallace hunted him down hard. Wallace, racing for his first win of the season in the 23XI Racing machine, pushed his best friend all the way before locking his brakes with five laps remaining and picking up a big vibration on the left-front, settling for second.
Behind them, Josh Berry put on a stellar performance in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, finishing third. It marks Berry's third consecutive top-five showing at New Hampshire and his fourth straight top-10 result, a feat the iconic Wood Brothers team has not matched since 1994 with driver Morgan Shepherd. Christopher Bell finished fourth for Joe Gibbs Racing, while reigning series champion Kyle Larson rounded out the top five for Hendrick Motorsports after taking the Stage 1 victory.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin finished sixth and seventh respectively. Hamlin overcame a pit stop miscue and officially claimed the top seed in the Chase as he leads the championship standings by 77 points over Blaney. Polesitter Tyler Reddick recovered from an opening-lap spin in the wet conditions to take eighth, Ryan Preece finished ninth for RFK Racing, and Front Row Motorsports' Noah Gragson rounded out the top 10.
Sunday's race locked in six more drivers for the postseason field: Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, and Daniel Suárez, joining Hamlin, Blaney, and others who had already punched their tickets. Meanwhile, the battle at the cutline heated up massively. Preece's ninth-place finish cut his deficit to the cutoff line down to 31 points behind Trackhouse Racing's Shane Van Gisbergen, while Austin Cindric sits just 13 points up on SVG in 15th.