Dollar Tree 301: Blaney goes back-to-back at New Hampshire, earns second lobster

LOUDON, N.H. — Although some early weather delays slowed the action in the Granite State, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney earned his 20th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series after a strong performance in the Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Blaney’s No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford led a race-high 115 of 301 laps en route to a 70-point day to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Cup Series Chase.

The win did not come easy for Blaney because after winning Stage 2, he suffered a setback on pit road that forced him to move through the field to get back to the front. Also, lapped traffic almost cost Blaney the win on the final green-flag run in Loudon.

“Yeah, it’s just staying in the game and fast cars,” Blaney said when asked about winning despite the adversity. “That definitely helped that. The opportunity came to throw two on it when we came before and did four and try to get the lead and see if we could hang on. Fortunately, we were able to — just barely. Just sticking with it all race and bringing really fast race cars and getting better through the race as well. It’s pretty awesome to finish it out.”

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace had his best run since finishing second at Naval Base Coronado back in June. Wallace led 22 of 301 laps and finished second, scoring 43 points and inching very close to clinching a spot in The Chase.

“That’s the thing, I kind of hate about this place,” Wallace said. “Last time we ran good, one of the worst driving cars we ever started. We had the worst driving car this year and I finished second. Just been saying it all week long, I think I finally know, throw out the field I’m chasing, which is hard to go as a race car driver, searching for the right front, it’s not really ever there. We fought, man. Had a nice day just by myself, regrouping. Got the head right. I knew I had to fight all day. That’s what it takes. Where it starts is with this No. 23 team. Man, they pushed me to be the absolute best. I fail them a lot, but they stick behind me. It’s super cool. I appreciate that. Appreciate Cincoro being on our Toyota Camry. Excited to get home and see Amanda, Becks and Cameron. Have some fun at Daytona.”

According to Toyota, Wallace’s second-place finish extended Toyota’s streak to 13 straight second-place finishes — every race since the All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway in May. Additionally, a Toyota driver has finished first or second in 22 of 24 races this season, with Talladega in April and Watkins Glen in May being the only events where a Toyota was not in the top two finishing positions.

Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry had another strong performance at New Hampshire. Berry started second, finished inside the top five in both stages, and led 73 of 301 laps, scoring 49 points with a third-place finish. In Berry’s three career races at Loudon, he’s finished third, second and third.

“It was a lot of fun,” Berry said. “Our car was really good. The guys did a great job. We had a solid weekend from start to finish and led a lot of laps. We were in control there for a little while, but that one caution fell and it just felt like that was one of them that was gonna bite us at some point and ultimately it did. I slid a little long and we didn’t have a great pit stop and lost a little track position, but I fought hard there. I was surprised we were able to get back to third and get as close as we could to those guys. I don’t know, we just needed to start a little closer.”

Also for Berry, New Hampshire marks his fourth consecutive top-10 finish in the Cup Series, which is the longest streak of his career. The driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford also becomes the first Wood Brothers driver since Morgan Shepherd (1994) to achieve that feat.

“I don’t know,” Berry added when asked about his New Hampshire success. “For one, we’ve had really good cars. I mean, especially the last two years we’ve had really good cars. I’ve said this the last couple of weeks, but we’re on four top 10s in a row. It should be five. I’m not doing anything different. I’m not racing any different. The cars are better.”

Results from the 2026 Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

The 2026 Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was moved up an hour due to the threat of inclement weather. However, the rain was still too much for NASCAR’s wet-weather tires, so the event’s start was delayed by nearly an hour. When the race began, teams were required to start on those wet-weather tires.

On Lap 1, Tyler Reddick spun from the lead before getting back to the start/finish line. In this spin, it also stopped his 23Xi Racing co-owner, Denny Hamlin, in his tracks. Both drivers had to restart at the back of the field, and both made it through the field at the end, as Reddick ended up eighth, while Hamlin finished seventh.

Hamlin also clinched the No. 1 seed in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase, as he sits 77 points ahead of Ryan Blaney heading into the final race of the regular season.

Noah Gragson had one of his best drives of the 2026 Cup Series season, with the Front Row Motorsports driver finishing 10th — his second top-10 finish of the year. This also marks the first time this season that Gragson has beaten both of his Front Row Motorsports teammates, Zane Smith and Todd Gilliland, in the same race.

“It was a great day for our MillerTech Front Row Motorsports team,” Gragson said. “It didn’t look good there in the rain. I think we were like the last car on the race track, but we continued to fight all day and came home with a top 10. I’m really happy about that and really thankful for all the guys on the MillerTech group. It’s a fun race. I used to hate this place and now I’ve really enjoyed it the last couple of years, so I had a lot of fun today.”

Ryan Preece, a New England native, also had a strong run in his No, 60 RFK Racing Ford as he tries to make a final push to make The Chase. After finishing third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race on Saturday afternoon, Preece led 17 of 301 laps and scored a much-needed 38 points after finishing ninth.

“We did a really good job,” Preece said. “I felt like the race, the majority of it, went our way. We had a really good car and before that last caution came out it looked like we were gonna go around the 23 (Wallace). We just got by the 21 (Berry), so for whatever reason, that last set of tires was just loose and that’s what killed us because I felt like on restarts, navigating through traffic and doing all of those things, we did everything right.”

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Denny Hamlin	14.86	4th	7th	14.62	3rd
Tyler Reddick	12.70	8th	8th	12.43	9th
Christopher Bell	10.79	17th	4th	11.07	16th
Ty Gibbs	10.73	19th	6th	10.77	18th
Chase Briscoe	10.55	21st	26th	10.12	22nd

Week 21 of the GRID Ranking:

Week 21 of the GRID Ranking saw the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs all gain a spot, while Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe lost a spot. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is just three points away from Briscoe’s spot in the NASCAR GRID Rating.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 29. Coverage of the regular-season finale begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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