Blaney Becomes Back-to-Back NASCAR Cup Winner at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. -- Ryan Blaney became a back-to-back winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series. 

Blaney's crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, made a two-tire call that put Blaney back in the lead on lap 228 with the best car of the 301-lap race. He led twice for a race-high 115 laps and held off a charge from Bubba Wallace to get his third win of the 2026 season.

"I was aware of it, for sure. Timmy was giving me gaps. I tried to build the gap early in the run, knowing we were going to go a long way on tires. I had two," Blaney said. "He was able to close in a little bit. Was able to get through that fairly decent. But, I mean, gosh, with 20 to go, kind of as I was working through traffic, I was starting to struggle. Two, kind of fading. Couldn't get off the corners as good as I wanted to. My entry started to go away.

"If Bubba got there, he got there. We'll race it out. I just didn't want to make a mistake slipping into the corner or something, overdriving it."

While Blaney didn't overdrive any of the corners in the final laps, Bubba Wallace did with a few laps to go. He locked up the brakes, creating a vibration for the final laps and letting Blaney get away. 

Despite not winning, Wallace had his best finish in two months. Matching a second-place effort at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego in June, the 23XI Racing driver led double-digit laps for the fourth time in the last seven races and the sixth time in 25 races in 2026.

"We had the worst driving car this year and I finished second," Wallace said. "We fought, man. Had a nice day just by myself, regrouping. Got the head right. I knew I had to fight all day. That's what it takes. Where it starts is with this No. 23 team. Man, they pushed me to be the absolute best. I fail them a lot but they stick behind me. It's super cool," Wallace said after his best oval finish since his last win, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway now 39 races ago in July of 2025. 

While Wallace was one point short of clinching a Chase spot, boss Denny Hamlin finished seventh and earned enough points to clinch the No. 1 seed over Blaney.

“I feel good about where our team is right now. Everyone is kind of clicking well and we don’t have a whole lot of weaknesses. We’re just not as strong as the Penske cars on these types of racetracks but Martinsville we are good, Phoenix we’ve been good, just over the last few years this has not been as strong as those guys. And when I say strong, I mean top five, top seven, so it’s something we can work with. The mile and-a-half’s are certainly something that’s been our strength for a couple of years now. I look forward to getting the Chase started and seeing where it goes," Hamlin said.

TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 301): Ryan Blaney (led 115 laps), Bubba Wallace (led 22 laps), Josh Berry (led 73 laps), Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson (led 18 laps), Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece (led 17 laps), Noah Gragson. 

The only other lap leaders were Shane van Gisbergen and William Byron. SVG finished 20th after leading 30 laps, while Byron finished 30th, five laps down.

SVG led after the race started with tires appropriate for running on damp conditions. Once the cars put the slicks on, SVG never had the same speed.

Meanwhile, Byron led 26 laps and was up front on the penultimate restart when a wheel came loose and sent him into the outside wall.

Byron was just 15 points away from being on the Chase bubble heading into Daytona:

Had NASCAR not penalized 25 driver points from Preece for an incident at Texas Motor Speedway, he would've been six points behind SVG, 19 behind Cindric and 50 behind Wallace, as well as 58 behind Daniel Suarez and 64 behind William Byron heading into Daytona.

That battle -- including Keselowski (66 below the cutline) -- still exists for the owner's Chase that determines the payouts for their teams.

Everyone else below Keselowski in points is out of mathematical contention for the driver's Chase, while everyone above Wallace is locked in: