What Happened?
Ryan Blaney held off a hard-charging Josh Berry at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to win his third NASCAR Cup Series race of the season on Sunday (Sept. 21). William Byron, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott finished behind them to round out the top five.
Blaney is now locked into the Round of 8 — the sixth time he’s done so in his career.
What Really Happened?
Here we go again.
For three straight years, we’ve watched as the Team Penske cars have waited until the playoffs to begin dominating races and clinching spots into the postseason. Each time, they’ve gone all the way into the Championship 4, and each time, they’ve brought a bomb of a car to the finale race and won the title out of nowhere.
And after Sunday’s race at New Hampshire, I’m not convinced it isn’t going to happen again.
After sweeping the front row in qualifying, Logano, Blaney and even Berry led a combined 273 out of 301 laps at The Magic Mile on Sunday.
It was a performance that we haven’t seen out of the Penske camp on a non-superspeedway track since … well, the championship finale race last year. In fact, it was statistically Logano’s best performance in a race all year.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the organization. Blaney is now locked into the Round of 8 and heading into a part of the postseason where he has a combined five wins at two of the tracks.
Logano finished fourth, making it his third-consecutive top five result — his longest top five streak since 2019. He is now sixth in the standings with a whole 24 points between him and ninth-place driver Ross Chastain heading into a track where he has three wins.
Even Berry, who had what is likely the worst opening playoff round in NASCAR history in the last three weeks, was laps away from winning a second race in 2025.
To top it off, Penske just had what was its best race all year at a track that is very comparable to the similar flat-banked championship finale track of Phoenix Raceway.
Coincidence? Probably not.
Who Stood Out?
Logano and Blaney’s dominance cannot, and should not, be understated. Both drivers alone led 263 of the Penske camp’s aforementioned 273 laps.
But those other 10 laps were led by Berry, who in the final 50 laps, showed signs of making Wood Brothers Racing history.
After starting third, the No. 21 Ford was hovering inside of the top five for much of the opening stage. He finished fifth in stage one. It was the first time he’s earned stage points since Richmond Raceway.
However, he got tangled in an incident with Shane van Gisbergen, who was also having an uncharacteristically great day in the top 10, on lap 83, mere laps after the stage two beginning.
It was only chapter four of what had been a nightmarish postseason for the storied race team.
But it didn’t end like the others. In fact, Berry only got faster.
So fast, that the Tennessee native actually caught back up into the top 10 and finished 10th, securing another stage point.
It was an astonishing recovery in such a short amount of time. To make things better, Berry had such speed that with less than 100 laps to go, he was challenging his pseudo-teammates of Blaney and Logano for the lead.
If it weren’t for the final caution allowing Blaney to gain two fresh tires, Berry likely would have ran down the Nos. 12 and 22 and even passed them.
Alas, he stayed out on the final stop, and while he had the lead on the final restart with 42 laps to go, Blaney took the lead back and didn’t give it up.
But that certainly didn’t stop the WBR driver from trying.
In all, it was Berry’s best chance at a win since perhaps when he was leading at Texas Motor Speedway in the spring. Like his Penske allies, his sudden burst of speed came right in the middle of the playoffs at a track and on a tire similar to Phoenix.
Who Fell Flat?
Believe it or not, 23XI Racing was actually in the race today.
At a track where Toyota has been dominant, playoff drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace were seemingly nowhere to be found.
Reddick, who had started fourth on Sunday afternoon, fell to the back quickly before the end of stage one. Wallace, who started 14th, experienced the same fate as he battled with an ill-handling car all day.
And that’s where they stayed.
I wish there was some explanation as to why both 23XI’s cars finished outside of the top 20. Something such as a flat tire, a speeding penalty or being involved in an early crash would at least offer some explanation for why both teams are now at least 23 points below the cutline, but there isn’t one other than their cars just weren’t fast.
Reddick finished the day in 21st with Wallace in 26th.
It was a throwaway day for the Toyota program, and while they are now 11th and 12th in the standings, at least they are heading to Kansas Speedway where they have won three of the seven Next Gen races held at the 1.5-mile circuit.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Look away Yankees fans.
What can I say? I’m a sucker for number font changes.
It’s not the first time RFK Racing has had a Boston Red Sox-themed livery. Heck, it’s not even the second time. However, seeing race teams pay homage to local sports teams has made for some pretty stellar designs. RFK’s Red Sox paint schemes are no different.
The Red Sox No. 6 is the highlight, but seeing the traditional teal and black color scheme of the Buildsubmarines.com sponsorship go to the Boston baseball franchise’s red and white is a neat change of pace to what I argue is one of the best normal liveries in the field this season.
What’s Next?
NASCAR follows the yellow brick road.
The Cup Series returns to the Midwest for the last time in 2025 when it arrives at Kansas Speedway for the second race of the Round of 12.
Coverage for the 400-mile race will be live on USA Network on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. ET.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT