Practice Results: 2025 NCS Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Ayrton Breckenridge/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs “Round of 12” is officially underway at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and based on early results from practice, it appears that William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team have turned a page.

Byron, a 15-time race winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, paced the practice session (despite being in the second group of cars), getting around the 1.018-mile oval in 29.795 seconds, a lap time equivalent to an average speed of 127.833mph.

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Byron has surprisingly never finished inside the top-10 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, recording a best finish of 11th at the racetrack on two separate occasions. Sunday’s Mobil 1 301 will serve as an opportunity to reverse those misfortunes.

RELATED: How The 12 Playoff Drivers Historically Perform at New Hampshire

AJ Allmendinger, driving the No. 16 Campers Inn RV Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, was the second fastest driver in the practice session. The Los Gatos, California-native is looking for a repeat of last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the 43-year-old driver came out of nowhere to collect his first pole position in more than a decade.

Ryan Preece was third quickest in the session, after waiting until a couple of minutes after the green flag dropped to post a lap, while NASCAR Cup Series rookie Riley Herbst put forward his best practice result of the season in fourth-place.

Cole Custer and Haas Factory Team rounded out the top five. More than a decade ago, Custer won a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at New Hampshire and thus became the youngest driver to ever win in one of NASCAR’s National Series.

The rest of the top-10 in Saturday’s combined practice session (which was made up of two groups each getting 25 minutes on-track) were NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace in sixth and seventh, the history-seeking Ty Gibbs in eighth, and non-playoff drivers Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top-10.

Qualifying will take place at 4:10 PM ET on TruTV. The Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will air on USA Network on Sunday, September 21 at 2:00 PM ET. Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 will have radio coverage of the first race in the NASCAR Playoffs "Round of 12".

Mobil 1 301 Practice Results:

Pos	#	Driver	Time	Speed
1	24	William Byron (P)	29.795	127.833
2	16	AJ Allmendinger	29.839	127.645
3	60	Ryan Preece	29.877	127.482
4	35	Riley Herbst	29.896	127.401
5	41	Cole Custer	29.901	127.380
6	12	Ryan Blaney (P)	29.926	127.273
7	23	Bubba Wallace (P)	29.941	127.210
8	54	Ty Gibbs	29.942	127.205
9	71	Michael McDowell	29.953	127.159
10	99	Daniel Suarez	29.958	127.137
11	7	Justin Haley	29.964	127.112
12	3	Austin Dillon	29.970	127.087
13	43	Erik Jones	29.972	127.078
14	47	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	29.979	127.048
15	21	Josh Berry	29.980	127.044
16	5	Kyle Larson (P)	29.991	126.998
17	4	Noah Gragson	29.995	126.981
18	45	Tyler Reddick (P)	30.042	126.782
19	17	Chris Buescher	30.042	126.782
20	9	Chase Elliott (P)	30.047	126.781
21	20	Christopher Bell (P)	30.050	126.748
22	77	Carson Hocevar	30.051	126.744
23	11	Denny Hamlin (P)	30.065	126.685
24	42	John Hunter Nemechek	30.110	126.496
25	22	Joey Logano (P)	30.111	126.491
26	19	Chase Briscoe (P)	30.114	126.479
27	2	Austin Cindric (P)	30.123	126.441
28	88	Shane Van Gisbergen	30.151	126.324
29	6	Brad Keselowski	30.153	126.315
30	1	Ross Chastain	30.170	126.244
31	10	Ty Dillon	30.189	126.165
32	48	Alex Bowman	30.192	126.152
33	38	Zane Smith	30.233	125.981
34	8	Kyle Busch	30.417	125.219
35	34	Todd Gilliland	30.418	125.215
36	51	Cody Ware	30.427	125.178