Six more drivers locked themselves into the Chase with their New Hampshire performance, but it’s the battle among four drivers for the final three positions in the 16-car field that will garner the attention in the regular season finale at Daytona.
Ryan Preece’s ninth place-finish coupled with his eighth place in Stage 1 and fourth place in Stage 2 allowed him to cut the deficit to the 16th place Shane van Gisbergen to 31 points. Van Gisbergen placed 20th after leading 30 laps and finishing ninth in Stage 1.
“I’m on offense. I’m not playing defense,” Preece said about Daytona. “Hopefully, Daytona is gonna love me back for once.”
Preece has experienced two horrifying crashes at the 2.5-mile Daytona track. The first occurred in August 2023 when his car flipped and barrel rolled approximately 13 times on the backstretch. Then in the 2025 Daytona 500 Preece’s car traveled on its rear wheels in an unusual wheelie fashion before flipping onto its roof and sliding into the outside wall. It then landed back on its wheels.
However, everyone is arriving in Daytona with a different superspeedway package, and no one knows what to expect.
“I guess we’re all on a level playing field when we go into that one,” Preece said. “If you worry about the things you can’t control, it’s gonna eat you alive. I’ve always just worried about the things I can control and make sure I do them well.”
Van Gisbergen admitted the New Hampshire event was a “tough day for what we needed.”
When the race started about 45 minutes late due to rain, relegating the cars to wet weather tires for the first 40 laps, Van Gisbergen performed superbly, building up a 5.870-second lead over William Byron. However, once the field changed to dry or slick tires, Van Gisbergen lost his competitive edge.
“Being that fast on wet weather tires and falling that fast shows that we were missing something to have grip on the slick tires,” Van Gisbergen said. “Hopefully, there are some learnings on that because Connor (Zilisch) and I just went backwards as fast as we could when the track dried. It’s just a disappointing way to end the day.”
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Connor Zilisch (left) and Shane Van Gisbergen race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The other two drivers racing for a position in the Chase in the regular season finale are Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric. Wallace’s second-place finish to winner Ryan Blaney leaves him 44 points above the cutline, while Austin Cindric’s 12th place left him 13 points to the good.
The 13 drivers who have secured a position in the Chase for the Championship are 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.
Hamlin Secures Top Seed, But…
Denny Hamlin secured the No. 1 seed position for the Chase with a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver wasn’t happy with his performance.
“We were just a pedestrian today. We just didn’t quite have it,” Hamlin said.
During the 301-lap race, Hamlin had two incidents that cost him valuable track position. The first occurred before lap one had concluded. Tyler Reddick, who started on the pole, spun off turn four on the first lap. All of the cars were on wet weather tires and Hamlin and Chris Buescher couldn’t avoid tagging Reddick.
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Tyler Reddick (#45) spins ahead of Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher.
Then when the code word “enchilada” was given for a pit stop, Hamlin’s crew appeared confused when he darted onto pit road. The gasman immediately began fueling the car, but the rest of the crew stood on the wall for a few seconds before changing four tires on the No. 11 Toyota.
“This are our bad days, bad-ish,” Hamlin said, “but I feel good about where our team is right now. We don’t have a whole lot of weaknesses. We’re just not as strong as the Penske cars on these types of race tracks. 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.”
Another Top 10 for Berry
Josh Berry’s third-place finish at New Hampshire provided the Wood Brothers with something that team hasn’t had since 1994 with Morgan Shepherd—four consecutive top 10s.
Berry isn’t returning to the Ford team next year and he has been vocal about the fact that he’s racing for his career. In the New Hampshire race won by Ryan Blaney, Berry led four times for 73 laps in the 301-lap race, second only to Blaney who held the No. 1 position for 115 laps.
“We were in control there for a little while, but that one caution fell and it just felt like that was one of them that was gonna bite us at some point and ultimately it did,” said Berry, who was running down Blaney at the finish, placing 1.962 seconds behind him. “I slid a little long and we didn’t have a great pit stop and lost a little track position. I was surprised we were able to get back to third and get as close as we could to those guys.”
Berry admitted he possibly drove a “little rougher” in Sunday’s race than he likes.
“I don’t necessarily like racing like that, but these guys know what I’m up against right now,” Berry said. “I think most of them have a lot of respect for me, so I think they understand. Knocking everybody out of the way as soon as you get to them is not something that’s sustainable over the course of a Cup season, but I think in this scenario you’re just fighting for everything you can.”
Bell’s Crewman Escapes Injury
Christopher Bell’s front tire changer Blake Houston escaped injury during Sunday’s New Hampshire race after getting dragged out of the pit box by his driver’s car.
Bell had pitted on lap 73 during the race’s fourth caution period. Houston placed his hand on the car’s right-front fender and started to get up when the jack dropped, which is the driver’s signal to go. Houston was dragged from the pit box, spun around and then fell to the ground still holding his air wrench which was attached to the air hose. Medical personnel immediately went to Houston, who told them he was fine.
“Whenever the jack dropped, I saw he was still there, then I saw him kind of flopping around in my rearview camera,” Bell said. “I didn’t feel my car jump up in the air, so I knew I didn’t run him over. I hope he didn’t get his fingers stuck in the wheel or anything. I’m glad Blake is OK.”
Gragson Snares 2nd Top 10
Noah Gragson, who recently signed a contract extension with Front Row Motorsports, recorded his first top 10 since April when he finished 10th at New Hampshire.
“Grant (Hutchens) is a first-year crew chief, and I think it’s no secret that it took a little bit of time, but I feel like we’re really meshing and jiving right now,” Gragson said.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.