Ryan Blaney did something he’s never done before Sunday—he finally conquered New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After 13 tries, the Team Penske driver took his first Loudon win, and this one carries extra weight: it locks him into the next round of NASCAR’s Playoffs.
Blaney held off Josh Berry for his third win of the season and the 16th of his career. Berry, who spun early and somehow still found himself leading with 45 laps to go, was powerless when Blaney slipped past with 38 remaining.
“Yeah, that was probably the hardest 20 laps that I drove,” Blaney said. “I was trying to kind of bide my stuff and kind of pull Josh a little bit. Then he really started coming, and I started to get super free. It was all I could do to hold him off, trying new lanes.”
Despite throwing everything he had at it, Berry trailed Blaney by .937 seconds at the line.
“I was honestly surprised,” Berry said. “I was a little worried when he got around me as quick as he did, but it seemed like it leveled out, and I was able to keep him honest at least at the end.”
William Byron and Joey Logano followed, while Chase Elliott turned a miserable 27th-place starting spot into a fifth-place finish.
Blaney’s day looked promising from the start. After teammate and polesitter Logano sprinted away early, Blaney sank like he’d dropped an anchor, falling back to seventh. But he regrouped, carved back through the pack, and stole the lead on lap 53—just dodging trouble when Cody Ware and Austin Dillon clashed right in front of his bumper ten laps later. He then survived a one-lap shootout to take Stage 1.
Stage 2 played out much the same: Blaney in command up front, chaos behind. The rest of the field seemed to think they were auditioning for a demolition derby—three- and four-wide, bodywork clattering like a bar fight.
Berry’s run unraveled on lap 82 when he came down into Shane van Gisbergen while battling for fifth, spinning himself out. Ty Gibbs then took center stage, aggravating just about everyone, including teammate Denny Hamlin. After several laps of door-banging for 11th, Hamlin snapped and spun him on lap 110.
During the ensuing pit stops and desperate for track position after running outside the top 15 most of the day, Chase Briscoe’s crew went for a Hail Mary—just two tires on pit road. It worked, at least on paper, getting him out front for the restart on lap 117. Trouble was, the lap never finished.
Carson Hocevar had stayed out and tried to make the outside work looking for the lead, but chaos erupted mid-pack when Brad Keselowski, trapped on the bottom of a four-wide gaggle, bounced off the inside wall coming out of Turn 2. The accordion that followed swallowed SVG, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, and Justin Haley in one ugly heap. Somehow, Playoff contenders Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, and Austin Cindric threaded the needle and got through untouched.
Logano regained control on lap 138, but ten laps later John Hunter Nemechek overcooked a move on Riley Herbst and hammered the Turn 3 wall, ending his day. Lesson learned: the next round of stops saw everyone in the top 10 take two tires. Blaney stuck with four, restarted 11th, and had to claw back.
Logano won Stage 2 with Blaney charging to fourth. By lap 193, Logano was once again at the point, leading the field into the final stage.
That stage shaped up as a straight fight between the Penske teammates. After green-flag stops cycled through by lap 232, Blaney was back in front. With under 50 to go, Ware resurfaced—this time spinning into the Turn 2 wall, possibly while trying (and failing) to pay back Austin Dillon.
On the restart, Berry and Elliott stayed out. Berry led for four laps on worn tires before Blaney blew back by. Behind them, Logano and Elliott brawled while Byron took advantage, sliding into third. By the time Logano finally cleared Elliott, he was more than three seconds off the leaders.
That left Blaney and Berry to settle it. Berry hounded him with 20 to go, sliding around like he was driving on ice. But with five laps left, Berry’s car was out of breath. Blaney eased away, took the checkered flag, and stamped his ticket into the next Playoff round.
Bell brought it home sixth, Kyle Larson finally made a long-awaited appearance top 10 in seventh, and Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain, and Briscoe rounded out the first ten.
Next stop: Kansas, race two of the Round of 8—where Chastain is the defending winner.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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