Only two NASCAR Cup Series regular season races and a few dozen points are left to decide which 16 drivers will compete in The Chase for the 2026 championship – and for native New Englander Ryan Preece, Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) represents a now-or-never opportunity to put himself among those title eligible.
The driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford comes into the weekend ranked 17th in the standings, 50 points behind Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen holding the last transfer position in the final regular season push to become title eligible. Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain is just behind Preece, 63 points out.
Perhaps, there’s no better place for Preece, one of New England’s most popular home-tested drivers – to kickstart his challenge bid.
“I did feel like going into the short tracks and New Hampshire it kind of gives me a little bit of optimism and I’m certainly excited about coming here to my home track – New England,” Preece said. “Every time I come back home, it feels good. It feels different.
“I believe we can go here and hopefully qualify well and be a contender. I felt like Richmond [last week] was a good example of we had a good car, so we’ll see if we can continue down that path and control the things that we can control and do what we can there.”
With an outstanding short track background, Preece had every good intention and high confidence in making a more drastic move up in the standings at the Richmond .75-miler last week. But the always unpredictable timing of cautions affected strategy for the No. 60 team and ultimately derailed the best laid plans, while his chief challenger Van Gisbergen’s was able to benefit from a late race strategy gamble.
Although Preece has spent many years competing at New Hampshire in various series, his best finish in six NASCAR Cup Series starts is 11th in 2024. He does have a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at the track in 2021 and will be pulling double duty this weekend, competing in Friday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race. He figures laps on track – especially at place he knows so well – can only benefit.
“I did go back and look at Shane [Van Gisbergen] at Richmond, and you know what they did, they did a Hail Mary, and it worked out,” Preece said of Van Gisbergen’s 14th-place finish after starting 31st.
“It’s one of those things where sometimes the ball is in your court and it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t, so I’m looking forward to going to New Hampshire and do the things that we know we can do, control the things that we can control and it’s gonna be what it may.”
There is a positive precedent for Preece, who won the preseason non-points paying Clash. There have been three first-time winners this season (Ty Gibbs at Bristol, Tenn., Carson Hocevar at Talladega, Ala., and Corey Heim at San Diego) after a total of only three first-time winners in the previous three seasons combined.
Last week’s Richmond (Va.) Raceway champ Joey Logano has certainly proven where there’s a will there’s a way – having been on the outside Playoff contention less than two months ago. His Richmond victory moved him from 13th to ninth in the championship, only a single point behind reigning series champ, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson.
And he’s only 36 points behind Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell who are tied in points, sitting sixth and seventh, respectively, in the standings.
The bad news for the rest of the series is that the three-time champ Logano considers New Hampshire one of his favorite places – not only because of its proximity to his Connecticut hometown, but also because he’s a two-time winner there. In fact, he scored his first career series victory at the New Hampshire mile in 2009 – marking the last time a driver scored his first win at the track.
Logano’s won on two of the six tracks this year that are a one-mile or shorter – and his Penske team brings plenty of reason to feel optimistic this weekend. Logano’s teammate, 2024 series champ Ryan Blaney is the defending New Hampshire race winner leading a Ford charge that included three of the top four finishers a year ago. Among those was Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry, who carries a three-race top-10 streak into Loudon.
A good finish for Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford could be impactful for the points standing. He’s currently surrounded by ambitious and capable Toyota drivers. Blaney is second in the standings, a full 112 points off championship leader and three-time New Hampshire winner Denny Hamlin’s pace in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. But Blaney is only 12 points up on JGR’s Ty Gibbs and only 23 points up on the season’s five-time winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
Van Gisbergen is the only Chevrolet driver in the last 11 races to celebrate in Victory Lane (Sonoma, Calif.). The New Zealander and former Australian Super Cars Series champion finished 32nd last year in his only New Hampshire start, involved in a pair of incidents on track.
His Trackhouse teammate Chastain is one of eight drivers who won in 2025 but are still looking to hoist that first trophy of this season.
Good to know: New Hampshire has had only one overtime finish (2024) in the last 14 races. … Past series champions have won 13 of the last 17 races. … Joe Gibbs Racing is a 16-time runner-up…. Two-time race winners Logano and 23XI Racing’s Corey Heim are the only repeat winners in the last nine series races… The winner of Stage 1 has gone on to win the race only twice in the last 20 races. …Nine of the season’s first 24 races have been won by the driver who started first on the grid. …The driver who led the most laps has won three of the last five races.
Practice is Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET, both sessions on TruTV, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
— NASCAR News Wire —