Ryan Blaney Holds Off Hard-Charging Wallace, Berry For Loudon Cup Win

Ryan Blaney is widely regarded as one of the best drivers in NASCAR today, and for good reason. On Sunday, in the NASCAR Cup Series Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse continued to showcase why.

Blaney, who lost control of the race due to a late-race miscue on pit road, regained the lead in the final stages of the race thanks to a two-tire pit strategy call by his crew chief, Jonathan Hassler. After getting a second wind, Blaney was forced to get up on the wheel over the final 63-lap green-flag run as he had to defend against those behind him with better tires.

"Yeah, that made it difficult," Blaney said of the pit road miscue that put them behind. "No, it was a good call after our issue on pit road. We did two at the end to try to hopefully get the lead, and we did."

In the closing laps, Blaney, who looked to have a comfortable lead for the majority of the final run, saw Bubba Wallace, the driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, and Josh Berry, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, looming larger in his mirror with each passing lap.

But caution, objects in Blaney's mirror were even closer than they appeared.

Wallace knifed to within striking distance of Blaney, who was dealing with lapped traffic, however, with a few laps to go, Wallace locked up his tires, and slid up the track, which provided just enough breathing room for the Team Penske racer.

"It was a long, long run to the end, longest run we had," Blaney explained of the late-race green-flag stretch. "Just tried to manage my stuff. Knew the four-tire guys would pressure me eventually. Bubba came on hard there. Just tried to manage the lap traffic and manage the tire, not make a mistake."

While he got heated by some lap traffic in the closing laps, Blaney stayed mistake-free and would cross the finish line ahead of Wallace by a margin of 0.586 seconds, as he scored his third victory of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season and the 20th win of his 403-race career.

Blaney's hopes to snatch the No. 1 seed in the Chase from Denny Hamlin, the point leader coming into the day, ultimately came to an end on Sunday, as Hamlin scored enough points to lock the honor up a week early. Still, Blaney has his sights set on a second championship-winning run.

"You always want to continue momentum. Team Penske has been on a heck of a tear the last couple months. Props to everybody at Team Penske who is keeping their head down, working hard," Blaney said.

Wallace came up shy, by one point, of securing his berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase with his runner-up finish. Still, he found himself late in the race with a chance at his first win of the season. Unfortunately, for Wallace, his brake lockup with a few laps to go ended his bid to defeat Blaney.

"It did. I picked up a big vibration on the left front. That was kind of it," Wallace explained. "So... Made our great day go to crap and salvaging what we had."

Berry, who is seeking a ride for the 2027 season, would collect his fourth consecutive top-10 finish as he came home in third, 1.964 seconds behind Blaney.

As Berry cut the deficit from over five seconds back on the final run, his crew chief, Samuel Stanley, kept encouraging him on the radio that he was on pace to make it close for the win. Berry joked afterward that none of the coaching mattered as he was pushing as hard as he could, regardless.

"Well, I don't know if he knows this or not, but I was driving my ass off every lap," Berry quipped. "It didn't get much more out of me. Made me overdrive it a couple times. Yeah, I don't know. Did everything I could, for sure."

Christopher Bell continues to zero in on his first win of the season as he finished fourth, and Kyle Larson locked up his berth in the Chase with a fifth-place result in the Dollar Tree 301.

Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, and Noah Gragson rounded out the top-10 finishers in the event.

Sunday's race started out as a new-school wet-weather race, as storms prior to the green flag forced the sanctioning body to call for teams to start the race on Goodyear's wet-weather tires. As the track surface dried out, the race turned into an oldschool battle between comers and goers

Shane van Gisbergen was the best driver in the wet, as he clawed his way to the race lead, and actually pulled out to a more than seven second lead before NASCAR threw a caution for teams to bolt on slick tires.

Van Gisbergen, who led 30 laps on the day, would end up 20th, one lap off the pace. With one race remaining until the start of the Chase, van Gisbergen holds a 31-point lead over Ryan Preece, the first driver outside of the Chase cutline. Brad Keselowski is the only driver, in addition to Preece, who is still mathematically eligible to work himself into the Chase next weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway is scheduled for Saturday, August 29 and will be televised on NBC. TV coverage for the race is set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET, while the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast for the event.

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