With the first round of the playoffs in the books, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series run down a dream this weekend in Loudon, NH for the 33rd running of the Mobil1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The first round saw the eliminations of Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, multi-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, and Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry, leaving a dozen drivers to battle it out for the Bill France Cup.
After Joe Gibbs Racing stormed through the first round with wins by each of their playoff drivers, the second round provides more variety: Loudon’s flat, 1-mile oval opens up the round before the series heads to the progressively banked Kansas Speedway prior to the cutoff race at the ever-daunting Charlotte Roval.
This round seeks to trim the fat off of the playoff grid, casting aside the pretenders in favor of the true threats to the NASCAR Cup Series crown. the Magic Mile shapes up to be a good test of strength for the remaining championship hopefuls.
301 laps over 301 miles tends to get the best of even the best drivers in the field as they vie for a chance to hoist one of the most legendary (and most delicious) trophies in all of sports: Loudon the Lobster, a massive crustacean that goes to the winner of the event.
With an automatic berth to the next round on the line for the 12 remaining playoff racers, the Magic Mile is certain to grant someone’s wish for New England notoriety and strike down others that step over the line.
Welcome to New Hampshire and the Round of 12.
Last Week at Bristol…
While AJ Allmendinger sat on the pole for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, the Goodyear tires he rode for the first 25 laps gave out on him, setting the stage for a race of attrition and burnt tire rubber.
Several drivers saw their playoff hopes go up in smoke, including Josh Berry whose day literally ended with his car catching fire in the first 100 laps.
Through the chaos and the carnage, Christopher Bell surged to the lead on the final restart with a set of fresh tires on his DeWalt Camry, leading to his fourth win of 2025 and his first since Phoenix in March.
This Week in NASCAR
Right after the posting of last week’s newsletter, Motorsport.com senior NASCAR editor Matt Weaver publicly released documents on social media provided by the 23XI-FRM side of the federal antitrust lawsuit levied against NASCAR and the France family.
The documents displayed come from “Operation Gold Codes”, an initiative NASCAR intended to enact in the event that the current chartered teams in the sport performed a large-scale boycott of the sport. To learn more about NASCAR’s view of the future of the sport, read my article from a few weeks ago.
While that court case rages on, another NASCAR lawsuit got buried this week as Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing appear to have settled, allowing RWR to field a full-time, chartered car next season while LMC waits to debut their third team in 2027.
In the dirt racing world, Rico Abreu elected to link up with Tony Stewart Racing for 2026 and beyond in the Kubota High Limit Racing series.
Abreu, a multi-time Chili Bowl winner and the reigning Knoxville Nationals champion, will essentially pilot his current operation under the Tony Stewart Racing banner after the shock departure of Donny Schatz.
Truck Series standout Rajah Caruth joins the Xfinity Series for a one-off start with Hendrick Motorsports at Kansas next week, piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevy Camaro.
The Craftsman Truck Series made their way up north with Cup to Loudon this weekend for the EJP 175 where Corey Heim took the pole and — for the ninth time this season — scored the victory, tying Greg Biffle with the most wins in a Truck Series season.
On the other side of the coin, Ford drivers Chandler Smith and Jake Garcia saw themselves eliminated from the first round of the Truck playoffs after tough results in the first two races of the round.
In Cup qualifying, defending series champion Joey Logano shocked many after going 25th in practice to top of the board in qualifying. For a full race lineup, click here.
The Race
Today’s Mobil1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be broadcast at 2pm Eastern time on USA Network with Leigh Diffey, all-time NHMS wins leader Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte.
As described in the intro, the 301 in the race title stands for both the amount of miles and laps around this 1-mile facility. Those 301 circuits get split up into three stages that end on the following laps: 70-185-301.
When looking at the record books, this is what the average race at New Hampshire looks like: 9 cautions for 46 caution laps, 12 lead changes, an average duration of three hours and eight minutes, the lap of final caution flying around lap 258 (or 44 laps to go), and just one instance of overtime in the last decade: last year’s race.
Writer’s Pick
Last week, I picked Bubba Wallace to win the Bristol Night Race. That pick looked good until it didn’t. Bubba fell back late in the event, and he found himself in a late-race crash with Cole Custer and Brad Keselowski, finishing 34th.
This week, I’m riding with a familiar name to this segment: Ryan Blaney.
The Libman Menards Mustang couldn’t quite muster the same lap as his teammate Joey Logano, but Blaney dusted most of the field in 10-lap averages in practice.
Not a normally quick qualifier, Blaney may only need to pass one car to get himself out front today, putting him in prime position to potentially dominate this event on the way to his third win of the year.
The 2023 champion hasn’t mustered much of a good result here in the NextGen era, but the same could be said for Nashville prior to his victory there earlier this season.
(Top Photo Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
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