LOUDON, NH. – Ryan Blaney led a race-high 115 laps, including the final 74, to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the second year in a row.
The win was Ford’s fourth in the last six races and second in as many weeks after Joey Logano won last weekend in Richmond.
Blaney overcame some pit stop adversity between stages two and three with a two-tire pit stop with 70 laps to go. That enabled him to restart in the lead and after battling side-by-side with Chase Briscoe for three laps, he was able to drive away and then hold off a hard-charging Bubba Wallace, who took four tires on his final stop.
Josh Berry was also a fixture at the front all day as he led 73 laps, but he came off pit road eighth for the final restart with 63 laps to go and that cost him a chance to win in the final laps. He managed to aggressively work his way up to third, which represented his fourth straight top 10 finish for Wood Brothers Racing.
Ryan Preece cut into his deficit for the final Chase berth, going from 50 points out at the start of the race to 31, with a ninth place result. Noah Gragson made it four Ford’s in the top 10 with a 10th place finish.
The final race of the regular season is scheduled for Saturday, August 29 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM, HBO Max).
NCS RACE TOP-10 UNOFFICIAL FINISHERS
1st – Ryan Blaney
2nd – Bubba Wallace
3rd – Josh Berry
4th – Christopher Bell
5th – Kyle Larson
6th – Ty Gibbs
7th – Denny Hamlin
8th – Tyler Reddick
9th – Ryan Preece
10th – Noah Gragson
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
11th – Brad Keselowski
12th – Austin Cindric
13th – Zane Smith
14th – Joey Logano
18th – Chris Buescher
21st – Todd Gilliland
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THIS TEAM BEING ABLE TO GET IT DONE DESPITE ADVERSITY?
“Yeah, it’s just staying in the game and fast cars. That definitely helped that. The opportunity came to throw two on it when we came before and did four and try to get the lead and see if we could hang on. Fortunately, we were able to – just barely. Just sticking with it all race and bringing really fast race cars and getting better through the race as well. It’s pretty awesome to finish it out.”
HOW MUCH TIRES DID THOSE LEFT SIDES HAVE BECAUSE YOU HAD A LOT OF LAPS ON THEM?
“I didn’t have much left, honestly. I tried to manage early. I tried to build a gap, but then manage and then Bubba got to second on four tires. I knew he was gonna eventually be creeping in, so I tried to keep the tire management in mind, but then he started closing a little bit, so you’ve got to pick the pace up and use more tire. And then lap traffic, you never know how it’s gonna go. Fortunately, we were able to pick our way through that just enough to stay in front of him, but I was hanging on for sure.”
HOW BIG IS IT TO BE HOT RIGHT NOW AND TO BE WINNING AT THIS TIM
E OF YEAR?
“The momentum that Team Penske has on their side is great, and Ford. Team Penske in general has been a pretty good tear the last couple of months and it’s been fun to work through it with everybody and try to get better and better. We’ll just keep going. I’m a big believer in momentum and things like that we just have to keep working at it and hopefully we make a run at it.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It was a lot of fun. Our car was really good. The guys did a great job. We had a solid weekend from start to finish and led a lot of 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. I slid a little long and we didn’t have a great pit stop and lost a little track position, but I fought hard there. I was surprised we were able to get back to third and get as close as we could to those guys. I don’t know, we just needed to start a little closer.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE YOU LIKE SO MUCH?
“I don’t know. For one, we’ve had really good cars. I mean, especially the last two years we’ve had really good cars. I’ve said this the last couple of weeks, but we’re on four top 10s in a row. It should be five. I’m not doing anything different. I’m not racing any different. The cars are better.”
WALK US THROUGH THE BATTLE WITH BLANEY FOR ABOUT 50 LAPS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE?
“Honestly, I thought he was a good bit better and I tried to help hold him off for a little bit and then we kind of leveled out and I was surprised we were able to stay in front of him as long as we did. After we pitted, we weren’t quite as good firing off there and then finally I had to yield it to him. I felt like I had been holding him off for 50 laps or something, so I yielded to him and kind of rode out and then we made some good adjustments and got back in the game.”
DID YOU LOSE TIME ON YOUR LIGHTS COMING DOWN PIT ROAD?
“Yeah. They weren’t great. I don’t know why. Our pit road run on the rain tires wasn’t great, but it’s a different stagger tire, so we were kind of thrown off a little bit. But that last one I was running my lights and Kyle was hitting me and knocking me past my lights, and then I’m not sure. Obviously, I don’t want to speed in that situation either, so I tried to get a little too much getting in the box. I slid a little long. The pit stop wasn’t great either and that’s all she wrote.”
WHAT DID YOU PROVE TO THE NASCAR COMMUNITY TODAY?
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s like I’ve said the last few weeks. I’m not doing anything different. Maybe I was a little rougher today than normal. I don’t necessarily like racing like that, but these guys know what I’m up against right now. 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. Like I said, I’m not doing anything different. I’m not prepping any different. I’m not studying any different. I’m doing the same things I’ve always done and we’ve just had better cars and, honestly, better luck. It feels nice to capitalize on it. I have four top 10s in a row and it really would be five if it wasn’t for getting wrecked at Wilkesboro.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Mohawk Northeast Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“We did a really good job. I felt like the race, the majority of it went our way. We had a really good car and before that last caution came out it looked like we were gonna go around the 23. We just got by the 21, so for whatever reason that last set of tires was just loose and that’s what killed us because I felt like on restarts, navigating through traffic and doing all of those things, we did everything right.”
YOU DO THE SAME THING NEXT WEEK AND HOPE IT’S ENOUGH, RIGHT?
“I’m on offense. I’m not playing defense, so we’ll go into Daytona swinging and we’ll keep digging.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 MillerTech Batteries Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It was a great day for our MillerTech Front Row Motorsports team. It didn’t look good there in the rain. I think we were like the last car on the racetrack, but we continued to fight all day and came home with a top 10. I’m really happy about that and really thankful for all the guys on the MillerTech group. It’s a fun race. I used to hate this place and now I’ve really enjoyed it the last couple of years, so I had a lot of fun today.”
YOU GUYS HAVE GAINED SOME MOMENTUM.
“Grant 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. I’m really proud of where we’re at as a team and I want to just keep on making steps and progress and keep it going.”
