For what people thought would be a wet and rainy Sunday in New Hampshire the Dollar Tree 301 was still getting the fans excited for Cup Series Racing at the “Magic Mile.” Their was some rain showers in the early afternoon which pushed the race back to its original start time of 3pm from its early start time of 2pm.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway may be the only racetrack where its fans want to see rain on a raceday for one reason and one reason only. The wet weather tires. During the 2024 race at New Hampshire a storm whipped through the racetrack which put the race on hold. Then once the rain disbanded NASCAR restarted the race with wet weather tires which at the time became the first oval that NASCAR ran the wet tires on. That race saw cars going 5 and 6 wide through the corners which is never done in dry conditions.
That 2024 Race had the New England Fans wanting to see more of that type of racing and they got it. Due to the early rain NASCAR made the announcement in The Driver’s Meeting that the Dollar Tree 301 would start on wet weather tires and they’ll see how the track conditions go from there. On Lap 40 NASCAR threw a competition caution with non-competitive pit-stops as the track seemed to be dry to where NASCAR felt confident with going to the slick tires.
On Lap 1 of the race the pole sitter Tyler Reddick would spin it around all by himself in Turn 4 which would bring the caution out early. After that, during that stretch of racing in the wet it was Shane VanGisbergen who dominated that portion of the race going back to his super car experience and leading several laps on an oval as SVG continues to improve and learn on ovals.
When the teams were told to go to slicks it completely flipped everything upside down. Early on it was Ryan Blaney with a ton of speed that would bring his Menards Penske Ford to the front with battles from Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, and William Byron. Larson and Blaney seemed to be the best cars during the green flag runs in Stage 1 but Blaney was having trouble getting around the top 5 after the field stretched out which would give Larson the opening stage win. Bell would be 2nd, Hocevar 3rd, Byron 4th, Berry 5th, and Blaney 6th.
Stage 2
Stage 2 would see an early caution for a multi-car incident on the frontstretch that was started from between the 88 of Connor Zilisch and Carson Hocevar. Hocevar took the blame in his post-race comments to the media. Joey Logano and Austin Dillon also went around in that area of the track as well but all 4 cars were able to continue. The incident with the 77 of Hocevar was started when Hocevar thought he was clear off the 88 but unfortunately made contact off of Zilisch’s front bumper which put him in the spin cycle.
The rest of Stage 2 would see a battle of the alliance cars between Penske’s Blaney and Wood Brothers Berry battling for the stage win. New Hampshire has proven to be a really good track for Josh Berry even going back to his O’Reilly starts at the track. Berry has finished no worse than 4th in his cup career at the track. This race proved to be no better for Berry with his speed has he ran in the Top 5 for 90% of the race. Blaney and Berry battled last year for the race win which saw Blaney get the better end of the deal then as Stage 2 would finish the same way with Blaney winning the stage and Berry would finish second.
Just like we’ve seen several times this season Blaney’s team would have a slow stop on pit-road trying to change the left front tire. From that moment it looked like that would end Blaney’s chance at back to back New Hampshire wins.
Hocevar would go on the spin cycle for the third time in the race on Lap 200 of 301. The theme of the day was pit stop trouble as Denny Hamlin and his team has they usually do use a code word for what they will do on that stop. None of the crew except for the fueler would go to the car which had Crew Chief Chris Gayle go over the radio saying “ what are you guys doing 4 tires go” as the confusion settled in on the 11 team.
During the next green flag run it was Berry, Wallace, and CT Native Ryan Preece having a great battle for the lead. Wallace was frustrated with the aggressiveness of the 21 of Berry with how they raced trading paint and door banging each other for the lead as Preece looked on closely. The next caution would fly on lap 225 Riley Herbst who went hard into the wall after contact from the 71 of Michael McDowell. Herbst would have damage to the rear of the car but Zilisch would lock the tires up trying to avoid and have another big hit for Herbst this time on the front end of the car which put an end to Herbst’s day.
On the ensuing pit stops it would be Berry with a slow stop after a 4 tire stop as his crew had issues putting the left front on. Blaney would be the first off pit road to take the lead for the first time since his stage 2 win and his slow stop. Very quickly after the restart on Lap 233 the 24 of William Byron would lose a left rear tire and would spin it around and tag the wall in turn 3 from the third spot to bring out another caution. As pit road struggles continued as the 24 team didn’t get the tire on tight enough before the incident.
The Byron incident would be the last caution of the day as we’d have a long green flag run to the checkered flag with Blaney leading the way. He would have a battle with Briscoe before Briscoe would fall back and eventually get lapped by Blaney in the latter stages of the race. The race came down to Blaney, Wallace, and Berry. Wallace was slowly closing the gap on his best friend Blaney while Berry definitely seemed like the best car as he was faster by about 3 tenths of a second lap by lap. The only issue for both Wallace and Berry was maneuvering around lap traffic. Wallace got to 3 tenths back on Blaney while Berry got to a second back. Unfortunately Wallace with 2 laps to go would lock the tires up entering turn 3 which ended up being his last shot at the 12.
Ryan Blaney would keep the hot streak going for Team Penske and pick up his 2nd straight Lobster from New Hampshire in the Dollar Tree 301. Wallace would finish 2nd, Berry 3rd, Bell 4th, and Larson 5th. Up Next Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to finish off the Regular Season.
| Pos | Driver |
| 1st | #12 Ryan Blaney |
| 2nd | #23 Bubba Wallace |
| 3rd | #21 Josh Berry |
| 4th | #20 Christopher Bell |
| 5th | #5 Kyle Larson |
| 6th | #54 Ty Gibbs |
| 7th | #11 Denny Hamlin |
| 8th | #45 Tyler Reddick |
| 9th | #60 Ryan Preece |
| 10th | #4 Noah Gragson |
| 11th | #6 Brad Keselowski |
| 12th | #2 Austin Cindric |
| 13th | #38 Zane Smith |
| 14th | #22 Joey Logano |
| 15th | #48 Alex Bowman |
| 16th | #71 Michael McDowell |
| 17th | #7 Daniel Suarez |
| 18th | #17 Chris Buescher |
| 19th | #77 Carson Hocevar |
| 20th | #20 Shane VanGisbergen |
| 21st | #34 Todd Gilliland |
| 22nd | #41 Cole Custer |
| 23rd | #16 AJ Allmendinger |
| 24th | #33 Austin Hill |
| 25th | #9 Chase Elliott |
| 26th | #19 Chase Briscoe |
| 27th | #10 Ty Dillon |
| 28th | #47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr |
| 29th | #51 Cody Ware |
| 30th | #24 William Byron |
| 31st | #40 John Hunter Nemecheck |
| 32nd | #3 Austin Dillon |
| 33rd(DNF) | #43 Erik Jones |
| 34th(DNF) | #35 Riley Herbst |
| 35th(DNF) | #88 Connor Zilisch |
| 36th(DNF) | #1 Ross Chastain |
Image Credit: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images