After 301 hard-fought miles around New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the Cup Series playoff picture took a major swing.
Sweeping the first-round races, Joe Gibbs Racing struggled Sunday at the “Magic Mile”, opening the door for Team Penske to reassert itself into the championship picture. Before the Round of 12 moves on to a high-stakes race at Kansas Speedway next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), see who put together good days in Loudon and who’s on the back foot going to the Sunflower State.
WINNER
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Team Penske had the cars to beat with Blaney and Joey Logano starting on the front row and owning Saturday’s session. Technical alliance teammate Josh Berry (Wood Brothers) was also among the fastest cars of the day, placing second and giving the No. 12 driver everything he had in the closing laps. It’s the fifth consecutive season Blaney has reached the semifinal round, and he’ll have three favorable tracks (Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville) to set himself up for his third consecutive berth to the Championship 4.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Loudon
WHO’S HOT?
Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Logano is teasing championship pace right now, nabbing a third consecutive top-five finish, which he hasn’t accomplished since the spring of 2019. The three-time titleholder won the pole Saturday, took a Stage 2 win and led a race-high 147 laps before settling for a fourth-place result at New Hampshire. Kansas is next as Logano looks for four straight top fives for the first time since 2017.
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Entering Sunday’s race, it looked like Hendrick Motorsports would struggle on pace. Elliott started 27th but slowly crept his way through the field and tallied a massive fifth-place result. A call from crew chief Alan Gustafson to stay out after a Lap 255 caution placed vital track position to keep the 2020 series champion toward the front to close the day strong. Kansas will have some question marks for the No. 9 camp as they finished 15th earlier in the spring.
WHO’S NOT?
Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Base hits in the Round of 16 turned into a “golden sombrero” for Wallace at New Hampshire as the No. 23 team struggled to find speed all weekend. Wallace finished worst of the title-eligible drivers remaining — one lap down in 26th. With no stage points and minimal points to coincide with the finish, Wallace will need to find the speed in his Toyota that earned him a victory in the 2022 Kansas playoff race.
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Penske and Wood Brothers had the speed to run up front, but Cindric was the lone wolf outside the top 10 among the four cars. Crew chief Brian Wilson tried taking a big swing with a two-tire call during the Stage 2 yellow, but it was all for naught as Cindric immediately lost spots and ultimately finished 17th at the “Magic Mile.”
BUBBLE WATCH
| RANK | DRIVER | +/- |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Christopher Bell | +29 |
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | +27 |
| 6 | Joey Logano | +24 |
| 7 | Chase Elliott | +14 |
| 8 | Chase Briscoe | +12 |
| CUTLINE | ||
| 9 | Ross Chastain | -12 |
| 10 | Austin Cindric | -19 |
| 11 | Tyler Reddick | -23 |
| 12 | Bubba Wallace | -27 |
NASCAR INSIGHTS
One of the key playoff story lines recently has been the suspect execution of Hamlin and the No. 11 crew on pit road. That wasn’t the case Sunday as they were the best on pit road at New Hampshire, according to NASCAR Insights. However, the lack of speed and a pedestrian 22nd in restarts deemed a perfect day on pit road null and void as Hamlin finished outside the top 10. Why is this key? Kansas awaits, and in last year’s playoff race at the 1.5-mile oval, the No. 11 had one of its worst days on pit road despite finishing inside the top 10. We will see if Hamlin and co. can keep up the momentum in the stall heading to the Sunflower State.
QUOTABLE
“That was the longest day I’ve had in a race car in a long time. Just a head-scratcher and that’s how it really was (since) the start of the weekend. In practice, I didn’t really know which way to handle the balance. I thought we were neutral, and we obviously fired off and didn’t really have much to speak for. So I hate that. It looks like our whole team struggled just to find the speed and the feel that we needed. This is a tricky place, but to be that far off, it kind of caught off all of us by surprise. — Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, on trying to find pace at New Hampshire.
NEXT RACE
The Cup Series Playoffs continue next Sunday as the circuit returns to Kansas for its annual playoff race. Kyle Larson walloped the field in the spring as he led 221 of the 267 laps. Don’t underestimate Ross Chastain, however. The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver played spoiler in the Kansas playoff race last year as he took the checkered flag and will look to repeat his triumph in hopes of clinching a Round of 8 berth.
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