Ryan Blaney wins the NASCAR Cup Sequence’ Spherical of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon within the Mobil 1 301
LOUDON, N.H. – Group Penske Fords had been quick in apply, quick in qualifying, and quickest within the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when it counted Sunday afternoon, with Ryan Blaney taking a .937-second victory over fellow Ford driver Josh Berry within the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Sequence Playoffs’ Spherical of 12.
The race marks a definite aggressive flip on this 12 months’s championship. Three Fords ending among the many top-five with three Chevrolets among the many top-eight on the one-mile New Hampshire monitor. Toyota swept the Playoffs’ opening three-race spherical.
Blaney’s No. 12 Group Penske Ford – which began on the surface of the entrance row – led 116 of the race’s 301 laps, together with the ultimate 39 laps. He held off the Wooden Brothers Racing driver Berry, who had rallied again in his No. 21 Ford after a spin on lap 21.
“Most likely the toughest 20 laps I drove,” Blaney, 31, stated of the race’s closing laps. “Was making an attempt to bide my stuff and he [Berry] actually began coming. He began to get tremendous free, and it was all I may do to carry him off. It was good racing. Clear racing, and I recognize Josh not throwing me the bumper when he may have.”
Blaney’s victory cashes the favored 2023 collection champion’s ticket into the Spherical of 8. He’s formally in pursuit of his second NASCAR Cup Sequence title. Vital each Sunday and certain additional within the Playoffs because the season’s three-race winner he can count on fierce competitors from his Penske teammate. The three-time and reigning collection champ, Joey Logano, will possible intensify the playoffs.
The 2 had been quickest all through preparation for Sunday’s race. They maintained that edge all through the day, combining to guide 263 of the 301 laps.
The pole-winner Logano led essentially the most laps (147) and completed fourth. He crossed the road simply behind one other Playoff-eligible driver. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, whose teammate, Chase Elliott, turned in an inspiring comeback efficiency with a fifth-place displaying. Elliott had a Twenty seventh-place beginning place.
“We ran effectively, we simply weren’t the quickest automobile,” Logano stated. “The 12 [Blaney] was quickest in apply, and he confirmed that once more within the race. Our solely likelihood to beat him was on pit highway and beat him on particulars. However they had been capable of make up their monitor place after they put 4 [tires] on. That final restart, I may have began behind him and completed third within the race, but when I used to be behind the 12 [Blaney] I wasn’t going to win.”
It maybe marked a big flip in competitors – early on this spherical, a minimum of – with the highest Toyota driver, the race’s defending winner, Christopher Bell, main that producer with a sixth-place end Sunday. He gained only a week in the past, capping a three-race Toyota successful sweep within the opening Playoff collection.
Playoff driver Hendrick’s Kyle Larson was seventh. He’s adopted by Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell. Playoff drivers Ross Chastain (Trackhouse Racing) and Chase Briscoe (Joe Gibbs Racing).
Operating within the prime ten many of the day, JGR’s veteran driver, Denny Hamlin, was concerned in an incident along with his youthful teammate, Ty Gibbs, mid-race. Hamlin dropped from the championship lead coming into New Hampshire and is now fifth place within the factors with a Twelfth-place run. The season’s five-race winner had no remark, nevertheless, in regards to the contact with Gibbs that put the younger third-year driver into the wall and out of the race whereas they each raced among the many prime ten.
Blaney’s victory – the sixteenth of his profession – mechanically strikes him into the subsequent spherical of the Playoffs. Byron is now second within the standings, 47 factors above the cutoff line. Larson is 41 factors up and Bell is 29 factors to the nice.
“The Penske vehicles had been super-fast, sort of in one other zip code,” stated Byron, whose third-place end marks his first profession prime ten displaying in eight New Hampshire races.
“If we will simply construct on this, all our brief tracks are coming collectively,” stated Byron. “It’s no respiratory room as a result of it’s important to go on the market and execute each week and preserve your foot on the gasoline on this deal. However hopefully we will go to Kansas and be up entrance, contending for a win.
“…Undoubtedly wasn’t anticipating to be this robust right here, so hopefully we will to Kansas and be actually good.’’
Hamlin is now fifth within the standings with a 24-point cushion on the elimination line. He’s adopted by Logano (plus-24), Elliott (plus-14). Briscoe, who holds a 12-point benefit over Chastain for the eighth. He’s within the closing Playoff place to advance following the Kansas race subsequent week. The Charlotte ROVAL race is the Spherical of 12 elimination in two weeks.
Group Penske’s Austin Cindric (minus-19) and 23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick (minus-23). Subsequent is Bubba Wallace (minus-23) can also be beneath the Playoff line heading to Kansas. Cindric completed seventeenth on Sunday, Reddick was twenty first, and Wallace was twenty sixth.
Up Subsequent
The Cup Sequence strikes to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s Hollywood On line casino 400 (3 p.m. ET on USA Community, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chastain is the defending race winner.
