LOUDON, N.H. — Ryan Blaney opened the second spherical of the NASCAR Cup Collection playoffs with an emphatic victory for Group Penske, which flaunted its velocity at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, led 116 laps, together with the ultimate 39, to beat Josh Berry by 0.937 seconds for his third victory of the season.
Blaney, who’s making an attempt to succeed in the Championship 4 season finale for the third consecutive 12 months, grew to become the primary driver to advance into one of many eight out there spots within the third spherical of the Cup playoffs.
“What a cool day, what a cool weekend, tremendous quick automotive,” Blaney stated. “It is nice to get a win within the first race of the spherical.”
William Byron completed third, and Joey Logano, Blaney’s Penske teammate, took fourth after main a race-high 147 of 301 laps.
After qualifying twenty seventh, final among the many 12 playoff drivers, Chase Elliott raced to a fifth-place end.
Christopher Bell took sixth as the highest ending driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, which went undefeated within the first spherical of the playoffs. Bell was adopted by Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain as playoff drivers took seven of the highest eight spots on the 1.058-mile oval.
The Penske Fords backed up their spectacular performances in Saturday’s qualifying when Logano received the pole place to cap a top-three sweep with Blaney and Berry, whose Wooden Brothers Racing Ford has a aggressive alliance with Penske.
Teammates tangle
The race turned awkward for Joe Gibbs Racing on Lap 110 when Denny Hamlin spun teammate Ty Gibbs into the Flip 2 wall whereas racing for eleventh. Gibbs, the one JGR driver who didn’t qualify for the playoffs, gave the impression to be impeding the progress of teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell when the incident occurred.
“Does Ty know we’re operating for a championship?” Hamlin stated on his crew radio shortly earlier than they made contact. “What the f— is he doing?”
After the wreck, Hamlin questioned whether or not the grandson of crew proprietor Joe Gibbs was getting preferential remedy. “Are they afraid to speak to him? That is what I really feel like,” Hamlin radioed his crew. “They’re simply fearful of him.”
Ty Gibbs briefly returned to the monitor earlier than being pressured to the storage with injury to his Camry. He completed thirty fourth and refused to handle the incident or what Hamlin stated when requested straight about each.
“It is unlucky, however I am excited to go race subsequent week and looking out ahead to it,” stated Gibbs, the 2022 Xfinity Collection champion who stays winless via 117 begins within the Cup collection.
After dominating the primary spherical with three consecutive victories, Joe Gibbs Racing surprisingly faltered within the first stage at New Hampshire, the place the crew had received the previous three Cup races and 6 consecutive phases.
The crew didn’t earn any factors within the first stage Sunday as Hamlin, Bell and Chase Briscoe completed exterior the highest 10 within the 70-lap section.
The second race within the second spherical of the NASCAR Cup Collection playoffs is Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Kyle Larson received on the 1.5-mile