Ryan Blaney is staking his claim as the NASCAR Cup Series championship favorite.
Blaney held off Josh Berry to win the Mobil 1 301 on Sept. 21 at New Hampshire and advance to the Round of 8.
Given how the final four races set up in Blaney’s (and Team Penske’s) favor from a track standpoint, getting to the Round of 8 was key.
Hendrick drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson had good points days, as did Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano. But nothing beats a win in this playoff format.
Here are the other winners and losers from the NASCAR New Hampshire race:
As much-maligned as crew chief Alan Gustafson may be among Chase Elliott fans on social media, his decision to have the No. 9 Chevrolet stay out when most of the other leaders pitted worked out.
Elliott was just outside the top 10 before the final caution after staying out a little later than others on what was the final green-flag pit cycle, then restarted second alongside Berry with 41 laps to go.
His tires were about 15 laps older than those who pitted, though most teams that pitted took right-side tires only. And after slipping to fourth on the initial restart and finally relinquishing that position in a lengthy battle to Logano, Elliott finished fifth after a hard day’s work.
Remember that Elliott started in 27th, steadily moving up the leaderboard through the first two stages before recording four stage points in Stage 2. If he advances to the Round of 8, he earned it at New Hampshire.
This space will be used predominately to talk about playoff drivers going forward, but the hometown paper isn’t going to ignore Berry’s runner-up finish after three straight last-place results.
No one can fault him if he never even felt a part of the Cup playoffs in the Round of 16. He wrecked on Lap 1 at Darlington and returned to the track more than 100 laps down, then DNF at Gateway and Bristol.
It’s difficult to make three straight last-place finishes sound worse than that, but Berry completed just 349 of 1,107 laps in the Round of 16.
At New Hampshire, Berry contended all day after qualifying third. He led for the first time since Texas in the spring, then kept up with Blaney in a battle for the lead on older tires in the final run before settling for second.
A good finish to the season could give Berry some needed confidence heading into 2026, and Kansas should give him another chance for a good day.
Reddick and 23XI Racing struggled for most of the day (his playoff teammate shows up in the next entry) relative to their playoff competitors.
The No. 45 Toyota started fourth, slipped to eighth by the end of Stage 1 and rarely drove into the top 10 in the final 100 laps.
Reddick had an issue on his final pit stop after nearly colliding with Larson, costing him track position when he had to reverse back into his stall.
Even still, Reddick started the final run in 19th and slipped back to 21st by the end.
Reddick will go to Kansas with a 23-point deficit to make up to the playoff cutline.
Wallace’s day was worse than his teammate’s.
While Reddick at least recorded stage points, Wallace never threatened the top 10 and fell outside the top 20 by the beginning of the final stage before finishing 26th (lowest of all playoff drivers).
Wallace’s playoff cutline deficit is now at 27 points, and both 23XI Racing drivers need really good results the next two weeks at Kansas and the Charlotte Roval.
And with Wallace’s general struggles at road courses (no top-10s this season on those tracks), that’s a tall task.
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