Ryan Blaney Wins At New Hampshire To Snag A Spot In The NASCAR Playoffs Round Of 8

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Sep 21, 2025
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Ryan Blaney at New Hampshire
Credit: NASCAR via Getty Images

It was Team Penske all day.

Teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney started the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on the front row and dominated the race the rest of the way.

Blaney won Stage 1 and Logano won Stage 2 on the way toward leading a combined 263 of 301 laps, but Blaney won the most important one to take checkered flag ahead Josh Berry, William Byron, Logano and Chase Elliott.

It was Blaney’s third win of the season and the first of his career at the mile-long track, which he left at the top of the playoffs standings.

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Las Vegas winner Berry, who was knocked out of championship contention last week at Bristol and spun by Shane van Gisbergen early at New Hampshire, made a valiant effort to steal the victory in the closing laps, but just didn’t have enough to get by.

“Probably the hardest 20 laps that I drove,” Blaney said after the race. “He really started coming, I started getting super free and it was all I could do to hold him off.”

Logano jumped from 10th to sixth in the standings with his fourth place finish, while Eillott drove from 27th at the start to fifth to hold on to seventh place in the points.

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Byron now has the most points without a Round of 12 win. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell finished seventh and sixth in the race to stay at second and third in the standings for another week.

Denny Hamlin came into the race first in the playoffs points, but had a rough day that included spinning his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs and finished 12th, which drops him to fifth. Hamlin voiced his frustration on the radio with the way he thought Gibbs, who did not make the playoffs, was racing him.

“What the [expletive] is he doing?” Hamlin said.

“Those guys’ll get together on their own and figure it out,” team owner Joe Gibbs told NBC.

Hamlin’s teammate Chase Briscoe finished 10th and is now the last driver above the cut-off line in eighth.

Ross Chastain, Austin Cindrick, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace are all below the line as the Cup Series heads the the Round of 8’s second round at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 28th.

Full Results:

  1. (2)  Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 301.
  2. (3)  Josh Berry, Ford, 301.
  3. (5)  William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 301.
  4. (1)  Joey Logano (P), Ford, 301.
  5. (27)  Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 301.
  6. (19)  Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 301.
  7. (16)  Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 301.
  8. (11)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 301.
  9. (8)  Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 301.
  10. (18)  Chase Briscoe (P), Toyota, 301.
  11. (6)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 301.
  12. (9)  Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 301.
  13. (28)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
  14. (23)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 301.
  15. (7)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 301.
  16. (33)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 301.
  17. (22)  Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 301.
  18. (15)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 301.
  19. (36)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 301.
  20. (12)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 301.
  21. (4)  Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 301.
  22. (25)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 301.
  23. (17)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 301.
  24. (31)  Cole Custer, Ford, 301.
  25. (34)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 300.
  26. (14)  Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 300.
  27. (20)  Zane Smith, Ford, 300.
  28. (26)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 300.
  29. (30)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 300.
  30. (24)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 297.
  31. (35)  Cody Ware, Ford, 296.
  32. (10)  Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 250.
  33. (21)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 207.
  34. (29)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, Accident, 146.
  35. (13)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, Accident, 134.
  36. (32)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 117.