Mobil 1 301: Team Penske dominates, Ryan Blaney wins at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. — Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney put on a clinic in the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led 116 laps en route to his third victory of the 2025 season and the 16th of his career.

Blaney started on the front row and spent most of his race inside the top five. The driver of the No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford won Stage 1, scored 57 points and locked himself into the Round of 8 with an impressive win at Loudon. After the victory, he was excited to hold the famous New England lobster.

“I’m looking forward to it and see how it tastes,” Blaney said. “I’ve wanted a lobster ever since I was a little kid coming to watch these races. I’ve always wanted one of those things, so I’m looking forward to it.

Blaney has now finished inside the top five in five of his last six races and inside the top 10 in nine of his last 10 races.

“I don’t know,” Blaney said on the biggest challenge of the race. “The way the pit cycles went sometimes. We lost control for a little bit, but then we were able to get it back before the green-flag stops in Stage 3. We were just kind of biding our time after the green-flag stop and then the caution came out and two was a great call. We saw two worked well in the first stage for a while and I figured if we could come out on the front row or something we would have a good shot and Josh [Berry] definitely didn’t make it easy on me. His car got rolling there for 10 or 15 laps and I really had to find new lanes and push harder. My car was going really free and then we were able to gap him there at the end with his right rear going away. It was a great race and a cool weekend, honestly. I couldn’t be prouder of everybody.”

Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry had his best run since March, when he won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Berry, who had finished in last place in the previous three races, finished second at the “Magic Mile” to his Ford technical alliance teammate.

“We lacked a little bit of fire off, but, honestly, ever since the start of the race, we were just mired in so much traffic,” Berry said. “It was hard to know what we needed. Our long run seemed really strong, so I think it could have gone a couple different ways. Obviously, if it stays green, I think we have a chance at it. Maybe we should have taken two tires there, but, ultimately, we were down a set from the spin, so we didn’t want to take our last tires that early. Still, it’s just a great day. We had a great car. Everybody did a great job. The pit stops were awesome and we have a lot to look forward to.”

Berry recovered from an early spin, due to contact with Shane van Gisbergen that put the No. 21 Motorcaft/Quick Lane Ford back in the field. He fought back and earned his third top five of the 2025 season.

“For one, we had a really good car,” Berry said. “It was a grind for sure, but we had a really good car and we just chipped away at it. I kind of wish at times maybe we should have stayed out or took two tires. I don’t know, but we just kept putting four on it and kept moving forward and did it the old fashioned way. It was a lot of fun.”

It was a very quiet day for the third-place finisher, William Byron, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver earned his first top 10 at New Hampshire and moves on to Kansas after scoring 50 points.

“It was a good day overall for this No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet team,” Byron said. “I felt like a lot of things that we’ve just kind of been building on for the short tracks were working for us. I feel like New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been tricky for me in the Cup car. I felt like I was good in the other series, but this place in the Cup car has been tough on us. We’re just trying to build little bits here and there, and I just felt like we could really stack runs together.

“We had a couple of weak runs in Stage 1 and the start of Stage 2. But once we got that out of the way, I felt like we were really strong. The Penske guys were super fast, like they were in another zip code. But I felt like other than that, we were really competitive. Just really proud of our team. If we can just build on this, I think our short-track program will start coming together.”

Joey Logano seemed to have the car to beat all weekend. The three-time Cup Series champion started on pole, won Stage 2 and led a race-high 147 laps before finishing fourth. Logano’s 52 points scored were the second most among all drivers and moved him from below the cutline to 24 points above it in the playoffs.

“The 12 was wicked fast in practice and he showed that again in the race,” Logano said. “Our only chance was beating him on pit road and beating on details, but they were able to make up their track position when they put four on. Over time they got back up there. That last restart, I could have restarted behind him and probably finished third in the race, but I wanted a chance to win and if I was behind the 12, I wasn’t gonna win.

“I went for it and it cost us a spot, but, overall, I’m proud of the execution. We obviously got a ton of points today. I think we got a second and a first in the first two stages and a top-four finish, so we did what we needed to do. We’re plus the cutline. I’d rather win. That’s just the greed in me, especially when it’s home.”

Results from the 2025 Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Joe Gibbs Racing, along with Toyota as a whole, had down days. The most notable incident involving Toyota drivers was a battle between JGR teammates Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell.

Hamlin was very animated on the radio, questioning why Gibbs was racing him and his other teammates so aggressively. After laps of not giving each other an inch, Hamlin made contact with Gibbs, which sent him up the track and into the wall. This effectively ended the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota driver’s race.

Bell went on to be the best JGR finisher in sixth, with Chase Briscoe in 10th and Hamlin crossing the line in 12th place.

For the other Toyota drivers, specifically the 23XI Racing’s playoff drivers, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace had very lackluster days. Reddick finished 21st after starting fourth, and Wallace finished one lap down in 26th after not being near the top 10 all day.

Reddick and Wallace now sit 23 and 27 points below the cutline, respectively, heading into the second race in the Round of 12.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch performed poorly all weekend long. With a 30th-place finish, Busch has now finished 30th or worse in five of the last six New Hampshire races, including the last three races with RCR.

On Lap 237, Carson Hocevar set the Xfinity Fastest Lap with a 29.923-second lap. Hocevar finished 11th and was the only driver to have a lap time in the 29-second range.

With Daniel Suárez getting caught up in another driver’s mess again, he now has nine DNFs and has finished 35th or worse in the last three races.

The Cup Series Playoff Standings have been updated after Loudon:

GRID RANKING