Blaney makes it back-to-back Cup wins at New Hampshire, Hamlin secures top seed in the Chase: Under varying weather conditions, a rain delay, 40 laps driving on wet weather tires and then the race slowed nine times for caution flags before the bright sun emerged for the final run to the checkered flag, Ryan Blaney proved himself best again at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, hoisting his second consecutive giant lobster in Victory Lane and just as importantly making a bold statement about his Penske team’s intent to surge into the Chase an absolute championship favorite.[Read More]
#12-Ryan Blaney won the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The win is his third win of the year, second at New Hampshire and 20th career win.
#23-Bubba Wallace finished 2nd followed by #21-Josh Berry, #20-Christopher Bell, #5-Kyle Larson, #54-Ty Gibbs, #11-Denny Hamlin, pole winner #45-Tyler Reddick, #60-Ryan Preece, and #4-Noah Gragson.
Blaney led a race-high 115 laps. He took two tires on the final pit stop of the day to come out first and he held the lead the rest of the day.
The race was moved up an hour because of rain in the forecast. NASCAR was able to get the cars on track with wet-weather tires, but the rain became too heavy to start the race. The green flag was delayed until just after 3:00pm/et. Teams ran on wet-weather tires for the first 40 laps of the race. There were no additional issues with rain after the start.
Hamlin clinched the top seed in the Chase with his finish.
Stage 1 was won by #5-Kyle Larson. Stage 2 was won by #12-Ryan Blaney.
The fastest lap bonus a earned by #77-Carson Hocevar
There were 15 lead changes among 7 drivers and 9 cautions for 51 yellow flag laps.
The average speed of the race was: 94.133mph.
See race details at: Race Results, Driver Points Standings, Owner Points Standings, Cumulative Report, Infraction Report.
Race Fast Facts – New Hampshire:
Ryan Blaney won the Dollar Tree 301, his 20th victory in 403 Cup Series races.
This is his third victory and 17th top-10 finish in 2026.
This is his second victory and sixth top-10 finish in 14 races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Bubba Wallace (second) posted his third top-10 finish in nine races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It is his 11th top-10 finish in 2026.
Josh Berry (third) posted his third top-10 finish in three races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Connor Zilisch (35th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Denny Hamlin leads the point standings by 77 points over Ryan Blaney.
Driver Points / Chase Standings after New Hampshire:
Race 25 of 26 in the regular season:
1) #11-Denny Hamlin, 1001, +446 [Chase top seed]
2) #12-Ryan Blaney, 924, +369
3) #54-Ty Gibbs, 880, +325
4) #45-Tyler Reddick, 860, +305
5) #20-Christopher Bell, 738, +183
6) #19-Chase Briscoe, 727, +172
7) #5-Kyle Larson, 708, +153
8) #9-Chase Elliott, 707, +152
9) #22-Joey Logano, 682, +127
10) #17-Chris Buescher, 676, +121
11) #77-Carson Hocevar, 672, +117
12) #24-William Byron, 644, +89
13) #7-Daniel Suarez, 638, +83
Drivers above have clinched a Chase spot
14) #23-Bubba Wallace, 630, +75
15) #2-Austin Cindric, 599, +44
16) #97-Shane Van Gisbergen, 586, +31
Outside the top 16:
17) #60-Ryan Preece, 555, -31
18) #6-Brad Keselowski, 520, -66
19) #1-Ross Chastain, 505, -81
20) #43-Erik Jones, 490, -96
See the Driver Points Standings and Owner Points Standings.
Race updates:
Checkered flag for Blaney. He wins by .6 second over Wallace.
White flag for Blaney.
Lap 299 – Blaney by .6 second.
Lap 297 – Five to go. Blaney by .4 second over Wallace. Berry 1.4 second back.
Lap 292 – Ten to go: As Blaney works through lap traffic, his lead over Wallace is down to .7 second. Berry has closed to 1.9 seconds back.
Lap 287 – Blaney lead is staying consistent with fifteen to go.
Lap 282 – Twenty to go. Blaney over Wallace by 1.9 second. Preece is 3.4 seconds back.
Lap 277 – Twenty-five laps to go. Blaney lead Wallace by 1.67 second and Preece by 4.3 seconds. Fourth place Bell is 6.4 seconds back.
Lap 270 – Wallace has cut Blaney’s lead to 1.67 seconds.
Lap 259 – Blaney has pulled out to a 2 second lead over Wallace. Third place Preece is nearly 4 seconds back.
Lap 252 – Fifty laps remaining. Blaney leads Wallace by 1.5 second. Then Preece Bell Berry Briscoe Larson Gibbs Hamlin Smith.
Lap 246 – Wallace now solidly second, 1.1 second behind Blaney.
Lap 245 – Wallace battling Briscoe for second.
Lap 244 – Herbst and Zilisch officially done for the day.
Lap 243 – Blaney has now moved out to a .67 second lead over Briscoe. Wallace is 1 second back. Then Preece and Bell.
Lap 239 – Back to green: Blaney Briscoe Wallace Smith Preece Bell Logano Berry Gibbs Larson the top 10.
Lap 235 – Pit road is open. Leaders stay out.
Lap 234 – CAUTION for Bryon into the wall in 3 & 4 and he’s lost a wheel.
Lap 233 – Blaney holds the lead on the restart. Briscoe to second, the Byron Wallace and Smith.
Lap 232 – Green flag with 70 laps remaining.
Lap 227 – Pit road is open. Leaders come in. Off pit road: Blaney Byron Briscoe Logano Smith – all with two tires – then Wallace Preece Gibbs Larson Bell and Berry.
Lap 225 – CAUTION out for Herbst in the wall in turns 3 and 4. Zilisch runs into him. Just before the caution, Preece took second from Berry.
Lap 224 – Wallace takes the lead back and Preece had caught the leaders as well.
Lap 223 – Berry takes the lead back from Wallace after some contact between the two.
Lap 211 – Wallace back to the lead.
Lap 209 – Back to green. Berry Wallace Preece Larson Gibbs Keselowski Buescher Reddick Cindric Bell.
Lap 205 – Pit road open and a few take advantage: Bell, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe, Byron, SVG, Smith, Logano, Stenhouse, Bowman, Jones.
Lap 203 – CAUTION for a spin by Hocevar in turn 4. Gragson is the free pass.
Lap 196 – Berry takes the lead from Wallace.
Lap 194 – Green flag for the start of the final stage. 108 laps remaining.
Lap 189 – Pit road is open. Leaders are in. Off pit road: Wallace Berry Larson Preece Keselowski Buescher Gibbs Bell Briscoe Reddick. Blaney had a bad stop with trouble on the left front tire. He came off 14th. A few sprinkle being reported again. No issues expected.
Lap 186 – CAUTION for the end of stage 2. Blaney leads Berry Wallace Preece Larson Keselowski Buescher Gibbs Hamlin and Bell. 15 drivers on the lead lap. Free pass will be Smith.
Lap 177 – Blaney with a 1.2 second lead over Berry as the stage winds down. Wallace, in third, is 4.4 seconds back.
Lap 161 – Twenty-five laps left in stage 2. Blaney leads Berry Wallace Preece Buescher Larson Keselowski Gibbs Hamlin and Briscoe. 19 drivers on the lead lap.
Lap 152 – Blaney leads Berry by .6 second with the race now over halfway and official.
Lap 149 – Blaney takes the lead from Berry. Wallace remains third.
Lap 143 – Berry leads Blaney by .2 second. Then Wallace 3 seconds back followed by Preece and Buescher.
Lap 135 – Berry back to the lead with Blaney .5 second back.
Lap 133 – Pit stops picking up, including Berry and Blaney from the front of the pack.
Lap 132 – Wallace comes to pit road.
Lap 128 – Berry’s lead is 1 second over Blaney. They will pit in the near future.
Lap 121 – Elliott has been on pit road as the window opens for the stage.
Lap 118 – A few drivers reporting light sprinkles.
Lap 112 – Berry leads Blaney by .3 second. Third place Wallace is now 4.7 seconds back.
Lap 103 – Berry continues to lead. Blaney to second, then Wallace Preece and Buescher.
Lap 100 – ADillon penalized for exceeding the time DVP allowance on pit road.
Lap 93 – Berry takes the lead from Preece. Wallace up to third.
Lap 90 – Back to green flag racing. Preece leads Smith Berry Buescher and Larson.
Lap 84 – CAUTION for Hocevar spinning after contact with Zilisch. Separately, Logano and ADillon get together and spin.
Lap 79 – Green flag for the start of the second stage.
Lap 76 – After staying out, the leaders are Preece Smith Elliott Herbst Custer and Buescher.
Lap 74 – Pit road is open. Most leaders are in. Off pit road: Larson Byron Berry and Gibbs. Byron has the wedge wrench still stuck in the car. Bell dragged his tire changer out of the pit.
Lap 71 – CAUTION out for the end of stage 1. Larson over Bell Hocevar Byron Berry Blaney Gibbs Preece SVG Briscoe. Reddick is the free pass.
Lap 65 – Six laps left in stage 1. Larson leads. SVG has fallen to 8th.
Lap 58 – Larson takes the lead from SVG.
Lap 57 – Chastain is officially done for the day.
Lap 56 – Green flag with SVG leading Byron Larson Berry and Bell.
Lap 52 – CAUTION for a spin by Stenhouse in turn 4. He backs into the wall.
Lap 50 – Green flag. SVG Byron Berry Bell Larson Blaney Gibbs Zilisch Preece Hocevar the top 10.
Lap 44 – Pit road is open. These will be non-competitive pit stops and everyone will maintain their position. Chastain goes to the garage for repairs after hitting the wall just before the caution.
Lap 41 – Competition CAUTION is out. Herbst, in 30th, is the free pass.
Lap 36 – If there is not a natural caution by lap 40, NASCAR will throw a caution to allow teams to remove wet weather tires.
Lap 31 – SVG already has a 4 second lead.
Lap 27 – SVG takes the lead from Byron.
Lap 21 – Byron leads Bell SVG Gibbs Berry Blaney Larson Briscoe Jones Zilisch the top 10.
Lap 11 – Byron continues to lead SVG. Already reports of the track drying in spots. Lap times have dropped about 4 seconds per lap already.
Lap 7 – Back to green: Byron SVG Gibbs Berry Bell the top 5.
Lap 2 – Byron leads the first lap as the CAUTION comes out for Reddick spinning off turn 4. Hamlin hits him slightly.
• 3:06pm/et – Green flag for the start of the race.
• 3:02pm/et – Two laps until the race is started.
• 3:00pm/et – Drivers say the track is ready. NASCAR is clearing a few more spots and the race will be ready to begin.
• 2:50pm/et – Cars are rolling again. There will be several laps under caution while they dry pit road.
• 2:49pm/et – Engines have been re-fired.
• 2:44pm/et – Teams can uncover the cars. Air Titans will finish working the backstretch and then clear pit road.
• 2:40pm/et – Track drying is underway now. The track should be ready pretty soon.
• 2:30pm/et – Rain continues but has gotten lighter. Still in a holding pattern.
• 2:22pm/et – The rain is not expected to last long. Once it gets light enough, NASCAR will blow off any standing water and resume as quickly as possible.
• 2:20pm/et – NASCAR has called off the start due to the amount of rain at the moment. Cars will come back to pit road.
• 2:19pm/et – Hocevar spun around on the warm up laps but didn’t hit anything.
• 2:11pm/et – Engines are fired.
• 2:02pm/et – Pre-race ceremonies are underway.
• 2:00pm/et – USA Network now has live coverage.
• Adverse conditions time is set for 6:05pm/et. If the race has not been completed by that time, NASCAR will give two laps to go and the race will conclude.
• 1:09pm/et – NASCAR confirms: All Cup Series cars will be gridded on wet weather tires.
• 12:30pm/et – Just a light sprinkle now.
• 11:35am/et – It is currently raining at the track.
• TDillon and Ware will drop to the rear today for unapproved adjustments.
• No cars reported to the rear as of Saturday evening. SVGs team thought they would have to make an unapproved adjustment because of the starter but did not.
• Looking at the hourly forecast, there is just a 30% chance of rain at start time, but that increases to about 60% by 5:00pm/et.
• National Weaver Service forecast: A chance of showers before 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 2pm and 5pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 5pm. Patchy fog before noon. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Race details:
Broadcast: USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 301 laps / 318.46 miles
Stages: 70 / 185 / 301
Average time of race: 3:05:35
Pit road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 50 mph
Fuel Window: 100 laps
Timing (all times local & subject to change)
- Drivers Meeting will begin at 1:10 p.m. in the Infield Hospitality Tent across from Victory Lane.
- Driver Intros will begin promptly at 1:35 p.m. on stage at the S/F line.
- NO RIDEAROUNDS.
- Drivers will walk to their cars on the grid.
Invocation: 2:02:20 p.m.
Canadian Anthem: 2:02:45
National Anthem: 2:04:10 p.m.
Command: 2:11:00 p.m.
Green Flag: 2:21:00 p.m.
Paint Schemes
Cars to the rear: #10-Ty Dillon (unapproved adjustments), #51-Cody Ware (unapproved adjustments)
Pit Stall Selections: The selections of pit stalls for the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway have been made.
Pole winner #45-Tyler Reddick chose pit stall 1.
Outside pole sitter #21-Josh Berry took the 6th stall, with an opening in front of it.
See all pit choices on the New Hampshire Pit Stall page.
#45-Tyler Reddick won the Busch pole for the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a speed of 131.094mph for his fourth pole of the year, first at New Hampshire and 16th of his career.
#21-Josh Berry will start second followed by #24-William Byron, #11-Denny Hamlin, #97-Shane van Gisbergen, #20-Christopher Bell, #54-Ty Gibbs, #12-Ryan Blaney, #5-Kyle Larson, and #48-Alex Bowman.
See the complete qualifying results and the Dollar Tree 301 Starting Lineup.
New Hampshire – Qualifying Fast Facts:
Tyler Reddick won the Pole Award for the Dollar Tree 301 with a lap of 29.054 seconds, 131.094 mph.
This is his 16th pole in 243 NASCAR Cup Series races.
This is his fifth pole and 17th top-10 start in 2026.
This is his first pole in seven races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Josh Berry (second) posted his fifth top-10 start of 2026 and his third in three races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
William Byron (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It is his 11th in 25 races this season.
Connor Zilisch (20th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.
Qualifying Order
NASCAR Cup Series pre-race inspection at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is complete. No multiple failures.
The start time for Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been moved up one hour to 2 p.m. ET due to forecasted inclement weather.
NASCAR, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and USA Network worked together to move the start time earlier to give fans the best opportunity to enjoy the full race before forecasted weather reaches the area.
The Dollar Tree 301 was originally scheduled for 3 p.m. but Sunday’s forecast calls for inclement weather later in the afternoon and evening. The race will be broadcast live on USA, Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM Radio (Channel 90).
The opening times for the following locations have been moved up an hour as well – parking lots (7 a.m.), ticket booths (8:30 a.m.) gates (10 a.m.) and the NASCAR Cup Series garage (11 a.m.).
Practice for the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is over. The results:
#43-Erik Jones 130.251
#54-Ty Gibbs 130.157
#23-Bubba Wallace 130.095
#22-Joey Logano 130.055
#2-Austin Cindric 130.006
Slowest: #10-Ty Dillon 127.979mph
Most laps run: #21-Josh Berry, 80 laps.
Best 10 consecutive lap avg (of 36 drivers): #20-Christopher Bell, 128.887mph.
Notes: Practice was a single 50 minute session for all drivers.
See the fastest speeds, best 10 consecutive lap average, laps run on the Dollar Tree 301 Practice speeds page.
Crew Rosters
The entry list for the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is posted, 36 teams/drivers [for 40 spots] are listed.
There are no open teams entered.
See the full entry list on the Dollar Tree 301 Entry List page.
Goodyear Fast Facts — New Hampshire: NASCAR Cup Series teams will run the same Goodyear Racing Eagle tire setups at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend as at Richmond Raceway last weekend.
Statistical Advance: Analyzing the Dollar Tree 301: A look at some of the top statistical performers at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, going into the Dollar Tree 301 on August 23
Race rules and information:
