By AMANDA VINCENT
Ryan Blaney repeated as winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon Sunday. He claimed his second-straight win of the Dollar Tree 301. It was his third win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
“The momentum that Team Penske has on their side is great, and Ford,” Blaney said. “Team Penske, in general, has been a pretty good tear the last couple of months, and it’s been fun to work through it with everybody and try to get better and better. We’ll just keep going. I’m a big believer in momentum and things like that. We just have to keep working at it, and hopefully, we make a run at it.”
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. finished second, and Josh Berry was third.
“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.”
Blaney led a race-high 115 laps of the 301-lap race. He took his race-winning lead by getting off pit road first with a two-tire stop during a lap-225 caution for Connor Zilisch and Riley Herbst.
“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,” Blaney said. “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.”
Wallace was the leader at the time of caution. He took the lead from Berry on lap 210, a lap after the restart from a lap-203 caution for Carson Hocevar.
After the lap-225 caution, William Byron lost his left-rear wheel, resulting in the ninth and final caution of the race on lap 233.
Kyle Larson won the 70-lap opening stage with Christopher Bell in second
After an approximate hour-long delay for rain, the race started with cars on wet-weather tires. They switched to dry-weather slicks during a lap-40 competition caution.
Tyler Reddick started on the pole but spun from the lead on lap one. William Byron, who started in the third position, assumed the lead.
Shane van Gisbergen took the top spot on lap 26 but lost the lead to Larson on lap 57, a lap after a restart from a lap-53 caution for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Van Gisbergen, then, lost several more positions.
Blaney won the 115-lap second stage at lap 185. Berry was second at stage-end. Blaney took the lead from Berry on lap 148.
Ryan Preece, Zane Smith and Chase Elliott stayed out after stage two to restart in the top-three. Berry was in the top-three by a lap-84 caution for Hocevar, Zilisch, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.
Berry took the lead on lap 92. After pitting on lap 134 during a cycle of green-flag stops, he cycled back to the lead a lap later.
After his stage win, Blaney lost several positions on pit road because of an issue with the left-front lug nut. Instead, Wallace was first off pit road with Berry in second. Berry took the lead on lap 195, a lap after the restart.
Bell and Larson rounded out the top-five of the race finishing order. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin finished sixth and seventh, respectively. With the top-10, Hamlin clinched the top seed into the Chase. Reddick finished eighth, Preece ninth and Noah Gragson 10th.
