Ryan Blaney utilized a late two-tire pit stop strategy that enabled him to muscle his way to win the Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, August 23.
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion from High Point, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 115 of 301 scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in eighth place and navigated through a bizarre event that started on wet conditions and ended with dry conditions, with an abundance of on-track battles and drama ensuing within.
For Blaney, he settled in sixth place at the conclusion of the first stage period, and he outdueled Josh Berry following a green flag pit stop cycle to win the second stage period. Then, after having issues with his left-front wheel being tightened on pit road that dropped him out of the top-10 mark prior to the start of the final stage period, Blaney managed to withstand two caution periods and intense racing within the pack before he pulled off a two-tire pit call that enabled him to assume the lead prior to a restart with 70 laps remaining.
During the final restart with 63 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead despite having a tire disadvantage compared to most of the field. Despite being reeled in by Bubba Wallace and having lapped traffic interfere with his steady progress as the laps dwindled, Blaney managed to withstand the pressure, and he proceeded to notch his third victory of the 2026 Cup season and gain additional momentum with the Chase looming.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 22, Tyler Reddick captured the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 131.094 mph in 29.054 seconds. Josh Berry qualified in second place with a lap of 131.026 mph in 29.069 seconds.
Before the event, Ty Dillon and Cody Ware dropped to the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced amid a delay due to rain, pole-sitter Tyler Reddick, who opted to start on the outside lane, managed to maintain the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch while the field fanned out and scattered while trying to navigate through the slick conditions with the wet-weathered tires. Then through Turns 3 and 4, Reddick, who went wide, snapped and spun his No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE entry from the slick conditions. Reddick’s incident, which drew the event’s first caution, caused the field to scatter and both Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher to make slight contact with Reddick’s entry while trying to reduce pace as William Byron emerged as the leader.
The event’s next restart on the sixth lap featured William Byron and Shane van Gisbergen duking for the top spot through the first two turns until Byron, who restarted on the outside lane, motored ahead and led through the backstretch before he navigated his way through Turns 3 and 4. As Byron led the next lap, van Gisbergen maintained the runner-up spot in front of Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and Berry while Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Connor Zilisch and Erik Jones trailed within the top-10 mark, respectively. Amid the battles across the field with various competitors seeking dry grip around the slick surface, Byron led by four-tenths of a second through the Lap 10 mark.
On the 12th lap, Bell made a move towards the inside lane from Turns 3 and 4 as he then tried to slide in front of Byron in an early bid for the lead. Byron, though, fended off Bell from the outside lane entering the frontstretch. Byron then stretched his lead by more than a second on Lap 15 before his lead grew to two seconds just past the Lap 20 mark. With the field of 36 navigating and navigating through the slick tires with the track conditions starting to dry up, Byron had his lead shrink to three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging van Gisbergen at the Lap 25 mark. By then, Bell was back in third place ahead of Gibbs and Berry while Blaney, Larson, Briscoe, Zilisch and Ryan Preece trailed in the top 10, respectively.
At the Lap 26 mark, van Gisbergen overtook Byron for the lead. Van Gisbergen proceeded to stretch his lead by more than four seconds just past the Lap 30 mark while third-place Bell, who was being reeled in by Berry, trailed by more than nine seconds. Berry proceeded to overtake Bell for third place on Lap 32 as Gibbs, Larson and Blaney fiercely battled for fifth place. With Connor Zilisch, Preece and Briscoe occupying the final top-10 spots, van Gisbergen steadily grew his advantage up to nearly seven seconds nearing the Lap 40 mark.
On Lap 40, a competition caution flew and the field jumbled up, with NASCAR giving all teams the option to either pit or not pit non-competitively to remove the wet-weathered tires for dry tires. By then, van Gisbergen was leading by less than six seconds over Byron while Berry, Bell, Larson, Blaney, Gibbs, Zilisch, Preece and Carson Hocevar were in the top 10, respectively. During this caution period, Ross Chastain pitted prior to pit road being accessible for the field due to a mechanical issue. Chastain would eventually take his entry to the garage due to a drivetrain issue, which terminated his event and dwindled his hopes of making the 2026 Chase. Once pit road became accessible, the field led by van Gisbergen pitted for dry tires.
As the event restarted on Lap 49, van Gisbergen received a push from Byron from the outside lane through the frontstretch to motor ahead of Berry, with van Gisbergen leading through the first two turns and the backstretch. With van Gisbergen leading the next lap, Byron retained second over teammate Larson, Berry and Bell while the rest of the field behind fanned out and jostled for spots. The caution then flew on Lap 51 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose in front of Hamlin and spun backward towards the outside wall in the fourth turn.
With the field restarting on Lap 55, van Gisbergen fended off Byron to retain the lead from the outside lane through the first two turns. As van Gisbergen motored ahead entering the backstretch, Byron was attacked by teammate Larson and Bell for the runner-up spot. Larson would assume the spot and van Gisbergen led the next lap before Larson battled and overtook the latter by the following lap. As Larson proceeded to lead by a second on Lap 60, Bell, Hocevar, Byron, Gibbs, Zilisch and Berry navigated their way from second to seventh on the track while van Gisbergen slipped back to eighth place in front of Blaney, Preece, Bubba Wallace, Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Zane Smith and Michael McDowell, respectively.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Larson captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season by more than a second over Bell. Hocevar, Byron, Berry, Blaney, Gibbs, Preece, van Gisbergen and Briscoe were scored in the top 10, respectively, as 30 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap. Under the event’s first stage break period, a majority of the field led by Larson pitted while the rest, including Preece, Zane Smith, Chase Elliott, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer and Chris Buescher, remained on the track. During the pit stops, Bell dragged his right-front tire changer out of his pit box while Byron had a wedge wrench stuck on his car, thus leaving both penalized and sent to the tail end of the start of the next restart.
The second stage period started on Lap 78 as Preece and Zane Smith occupied the front row. At the start, the two leaders dueled through the first two turns until Preece motored his No. 60 Mowahk Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry ahead from the inside lane. As Preece led the next lap, Smith pursued Preece while the field behind fanned out and jostled for spots both inside and outside of the top-10 mark. On Lap 83, the caution returned when Hocevar and Zilisch made contact through the frontstretch, which got Hocevar, who spun in the opening pace laps from the slick conditions, spinning backward through the frontstretch. As the field scattered, both Logano and Austin Dillon spun and wrecked against one another as they were trying to cautiously navigate past Hocevar.
As the event restarted on Lap 89, Preece motored ahead of Berry, Zane Smith, Wallace, Blaney and the field through the first two turns just before the field fanned out through the backstretch. The field continued to fan out just past the Lap 90 mark as Berry assumed the lead from Preece. Berry proceeded to extend his advantage by more than a second on Lap 95 before he stabilized it to one-and-a-half seconds at the Lap 100 mark. Behind, Blaney, who overtook Preece for the runner-up spot, trailed by one-and-a-half seconds while Preece maintained third place in front of Wallace, Buescher, Larson, Zane Smith, Brad Keselowski, Cindric and Gibbs, respectively.
Just past the Lap 120 mark, Berry stabilized his lead to within half a second over a hard-charging Blaney while Wallace, Preece and Buescher were scored in the top five. Shortly after, Elliott made a strategic pit stall under green flag as the fuel window for the field opened up while Larson, Keselowski, Gibbs, Hamlin and Briscoe were in the top 10 on the track, respectively. Behind, Zane Smith and Cindric pitted their respective entries before Preece pitted under green on Lap 122.
By the Lap 131 mark, Wallace and Buescher pitted from the top-five mark, along with Hamlin, Bell, Van Gisbergen, Larson, Briscoe, Byron, and Gibbs, who pitted during the next lap. The leader, Berry, along with Blaney, Keselowski, and Reddick pitted on Lap 133. After the pit stops, Berry managed to beat Blaney off of pit road first, and the former reassumed the top spot by Lap 135. Despite having Blaney pressing in from behind, Berry maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second as the event surpassed the Lap 140 mark.
On Lap 147, Blaney seized an opportunity by drag-racing with Berry through the frontstretch before the former motored his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry ahead with the clean air by the next lap. Blaney proceeded to stretch his lead by as high as six-tenths of a second at the event’s halfway mark between Laps 150 and 151, with Berry, Wallace, Preece, Buescher, Keselowski, Larson, Gibbs, Hamlin and Briscoe occupying the top-10 spots ahead of Byron, Cindric, Bell, Daniel Suarez, Zane Smith, Reddick, Austin Hill, van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman and Elliott, respectively.
Through the Lap 160 mark, Blaney stretched his advantage by one-and-a-half seconds over Berry while third-place Wallace trailed by more than three seconds as Preece and Buescher rounded out the top five over Larson, Keselowski, Gibbs, Hamlin and Briscoe. Blaney then had his advantage decrease down to half a second on Lap 170 before he increased it back up to one-and-a-half seconds at the Lap 180 mark.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Blaney notched his seventh Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Berry trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Wallace, Preece, Larson, Keselowski, Buescher, Gibbs, Hamlin and Bell were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, only 15 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, with Reddick, Briscoe, Byron, Cindric and van Gisbergen managing to remain on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace exited pit road first ahead of Berry, Larson, Preece, Keselowski, Buescher, Gibbs, Bell, Briscoe and Reddick while Blaney, who had a slow pit stop due to having a left-front wheel tightened just before he could leave his pit stall, exited in 14th place.
With 108 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Wallace and Berry occupied the front row. At the start, the two leaders dueled for a full lap as the field behind fanned out and jostled for late spots, among which included Bell as the latter navigated his way towards the top-five mark. By the next lap, Berry used the inside lane to motor his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry ahead through the first two turns. This allowed Berry to lead the next lap over Wallace as Preece, Larson and Bell were in the top five in front of a stacked field. Amid the battles, Berry maintained his lead by six-tenths of a second over Wallace with 100 laps remaining.
Then with 98 laps remaining, the caution returned when Hocevar was involved in his third incident of the event, this time through Turns 3 and 4 after he got loose and spun by himself while mired a lap down. Hocevar’s incident occurred seconds after both Blaney and Hamlin bumped and rubbed fenders while battling fiercely for 10th place as Berry maintained a steady lead over Wallace. During this latest caution period, the front-runners led by Berry remained on the track while some that included Bell, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe, Byron, van Gisbergen, Zane Smith, Logano, Stenhouse, Bowman and Erik Jones pitted.
During the next restart with 93 laps remaining, Berry received a push from Preece from the outside lane to launch ahead through the frontstretch, but Wallace reeled in and kept the pressure to Berry as he then tried to side-draft and duel through the frontstretch during the next lap. With his move, Wallace motored ahead with the lead through the first two turns. As Wallace led by three-tenths of a second with less than 90 laps remaining, Berry trailed in second ahead of Preece, Larson, Gibbs and Keselowski while Bell, who pitted for fresh tires, was up to seventh place ahead of Reddick, Byron, Briscoe, Blaney and Hamlin.
Down to the final 80 laps, Wallace retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Berry while third-place Preece trailed by nine-tenths of a second in third place. Then a lap later, Berry bumped and overtook Wallace to resume the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Berry then went as low as possible through the first two turns before Wallace got back beneath Berry and reassumed the lead by the next lap. Wallace’s move to reassume the lead allowed Preece to reel in the two leaders as Larson also slowly crept in from fourth place.
Wallace maintained the lead by a steady margin over Berry, Preece and Larson with 78 laps remaining before the caution returned. The caution was due to Riley Herbst making contact with McDowell, spinning and wrecking hard against the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 just before Zilisch plowed into Herbst’s wrecked entry. During this caution, the leaders pitted, and the top-five competitors that included Blaney, Byron, Briscoe, Logano and Zane Smith exited pit road first with only two fresh tires, with Blaney leading, before Wallace, Preece, Gibbs, Larson, Bell and Berry followed suit.
The next restart with 70 laps remaining featured the field fanning out and shuffling for spots as Blaney maintained the lead for a full circuit while Briscoe and Wallace moved up to second and third. With 68 laps remaining, the caution returned when Byron, who was in fourth place, had a left-rear wheel detached and he spun his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry backward into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4.
For the next restart with 63 laps remaining, Blaney was challenged by Briscoe for the lead as they battled dead even in front of Wallace, Preece, Bell and the field beyond a full circuit. After dueling with Briscoe for three laps, Blaney managed to clear the latter through the frontstretch with 60 laps remaining. Behind, Wallace, who had third place in his sole possession, started to reel in Briscoe for the runner-up spot while Berry was mired in eighth place in front of Gibbs and Hamlin. As Blaney stretched his late lead by more than a second over Wallace with 55 laps remaining, Briscoe, Preece and Bell trailed by as far back as two seconds in the top five.
As the event reached its final 50-lap mark, Blaney continued to hold strong on his two fresh tires by leading by more than a second over Wallace, who had four fresh tires, while Preece, Bell and Berry were racing in the top five over Larson, Briscoe, Gibbs, Hamlin and Zane Smith. Behind, Noah Gragson, Reddick, Logano, Keselowski, Bowman, Hocevar, McDowell, van Gisbergen, Suarez and Buescher occupied the top-20 spots over Austin Cindric, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Elliott and Todd Gilliland. While Erik Jones took his entry to the garage due to a transmission issue, Blaney extended his advantage by nearly two seconds over Wallace with 45 laps remaining before the lead grew to two seconds with 40 laps remaining.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Blaney continued to lead by less than two seconds over Wallace as Wallace slowly trimmed Blaney’s advantage while being faster than the latter. Behind, Berry trailed in third place by five seconds while Bell and Preece trailed in the top five ahead of Larson, Gibbs, Hamlin, Zane Smith and Gragson. As Blaney started to catch lapped traffic with 25 laps remaining, Berry trailed the leader by four seconds in third place while Wallace continued to trail Blaney by a second in the runner-up spot. Berry then started to reel in Wallace for the runner-up spot as he trailed the latter by a second while Blaney stretched his lead by nearly two seconds with 20 laps remaining.
With 15 laps remaining, Blaney, who methodically navigated his way through lapped traffic, maintained the lead by less than two seconds over Wallace, and Berry trailed by three seconds in third place. By then, Berry trailed Wallace by a second for the runner-up spot, though Wallace then narrowed his deficit to Blaney, who was trying to reel in and lap Briscoe, by seven-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining. As Berry tried to reel in with a one-second deficit in third place, Wallace reeled in Blaney, who was mired in more lapped traffic, by four-tenths of a second with five laps remaining.
Then with four laps remaining, Wallace, who narrowed his deficit down to three-tenths of a second, briefly locked up the front tires of his No. 23 Cincoro Tequila Toyota Camry XSE entry while trying to reel in Blaney entering Turn 3. Amid the lock-up, he remained within striking distance of Blaney by trailing by six-tenths of a second during the next lap before he trailed by half a second with two laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained in the lead by six-tenths of a second over Wallace. Amid Wallace’s late charge, Blaney had enough momentum, horsepower and life with his two fresh tires to cycle around New Hampshire with the lead for a final time smoothly as he then claimed the checkered flag with the victory by half a second over Wallace while Berry followed suit by less than two seconds in third place.
With the victory, Blaney notched his 20th NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 403rd series start, his second in a row at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and his third of the 2026 campaign. Blaney’s victory was also the fifth of this season for both Team Penske and Ford, with Blaney maintaining a 44-point advantage for the runner-up spot in the regular-season standings prior to the 2026 Chase and his pursuit for a second championship.
“Yeah, [the lapped traffic] made it difficult, but it was a good [pit] call after our issue on pit road,” Blaney said on the frontstretch on USA Network. “We did two [tires] at the end to try and hopefully get the lead, and we did. It was a long run to the end there, the longest run we had. Just trying to manage my stuff and knew those four-tire guys would probably pressure me eventually. Bubba kind of came on pretty hard there. Just trying to manage the lapped traffic while also trying to manage tire and not make a mistake. What a cool race. What a fun day, starting in the rain and it end up being a beautiful day…It’s cool here to win here two in a row. I look forward in getting another lobster.”
Bubba Wallace, who started in 23rd place, navigated his way to tie his highest-finishing result of this season by finishing in second place after leading 22 laps. Meanwhile, Josh Berry, who led the second-most laps of the event at 73, settled in third place for his highest-finishing result through 25 events in 2026.
Amid the disappointment both competitors expressed on falling short of the New Hampshire race victory, they were also left satisfied with their strong rallies and results. For Wallace, his runner-up result enabled him to achieve a 75-point advantage in the regular-season standings as he is within striking distance of securing a 2026 Chase berth. Despite being eliminated from Chase contention, Berry continued his recent hot streak on the track with his fourth consecutive top-10 result as he also continues his pursuit of a ride in 2027.
“That’s the thing I kind of hate about this place,” Wallace said. “The last time we ran good, it’s one of the worst-driving cars, and we finished third. [Today was] The worst driving car I’ve had this year, and we finished second. We fought, man. I had a nice day just by myself, regrouping, got the head right and I knew I had to fight all day, and that’s what it takes. Where it starts is with these people on this No. 23 team. They push me to be the absolute best and I fail on them a lot, but they stick behind me and it’s super cool, so I appreciate that…I picked up a big vibration on the left front [from the lockup], and that was kind of it. [I] Didn’t need to make our great day go to crap and just salvage what we had.”
“That was everything I had, and that’s everything I could do today, and it was pretty good, I’ll say that too,” Berry said. “It was a lot of fun and just great job by these guys. The car was really solid and just to manage the rain and the drying track and all the different conditions we had to stay up front like we did, it was a good day.”
Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson finished in the top five. Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson completed the top 10 in the final running order, respectively.
This event featured 15 lead changes for seven different leaders, and nine cautions for 51 laps. In addition, 18 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 25th event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin has officially clinched the top seed and the 2026 regular-season championship with a 77-point advantage over Ryan Blaney.
Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, William Byron and Daniel Suarez have all clinched berths to the 2026 Chase. Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric and Shane van Gisbergen occupy the remaining three berths to the Chase, with van Gisbergen being 31 points ahead of Ryan Preece and 66 ahead of Brad Keselowski entering next Saturday’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Results:
- Ryan Blaney, 115 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Bubba Wallace, 22 laps led
- Josh Berry, 73 laps led
- Christopher Bell
- Kyle Larson, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Ty Gibbs
- Denny Hamlin
- Tyler Reddick
- Ryan Preece, 17 laps led
- Noah Gragson
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Cindric
- Zane Smith
- Joey Logano
- Alex Bowman
- Michael McDowell
- Daniel Suarez
- Chris Buescher
- Carson Hocevar, one lap down
- Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down, 30 laps led
- Todd Gilliland, one lap down
- Cole Custer, one lap down
- AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
- Austin Hill, one lap down
- Chase Elliott, one lap down
- Chase Briscoe, one lap down
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
- Cody Ware, one lap down
- William Byron, five laps down, 26 laps led
- John Hunter Nemechek, five laps down
- Austin Dillon, 19 laps down
- Erik Jones – OUT, Transaxle
- Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
- Ross Chastain – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, which also marks the final regular-season event of this season and will officially determine this year’s Chase field. The event is scheduled for next Saturday, August 29, and will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO Max.
