{"id":60201,"date":"2026-08-20T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=60201"},"modified":"2026-08-22T20:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T01:29:19","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-new-hampshire-motor-speedway-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/20\/nascar-weekend-preview-new-hampshire-motor-speedway-5\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: New Hampshire Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Preece Looks to Keep Championship Hopes Alive at New Hampshire<\/b><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Only two NASCAR Cup Series regular season races and a few dozen points are left to decide which 16 drivers will compete in The Chase for the 2026 championship – and for native New Englander Ryan Preece, Sunday\u2019s Dollar Tree 301 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) represents a now-or-never opportunity to put himself among those title eligible.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A general view of Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards\/Libman Ford, leading the field during the NASCAR Cup Series Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 21, 2025 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford comes into the weekend ranked 17th in the standings, 50 points behind Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Shane Van Gisbergen holding the last transfer position in the final regular season push to become title eligible. Van Gisbergen\u2019s Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain is just behind Preece, 63 points out.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, there\u2019s no better place for Preece, one of New England\u2019s most popular home-tested drivers – to kickstart his challenge bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did feel like going into the short tracks and New Hampshire it kind of gives me a little bit of optimism and I\u2019m certainly excited about coming here to my home track \u2013 New England,” Preece said. \u201cEvery time I come back home, it feels good. It feels different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we can go here and hopefully qualify well and be a contender. I felt like Richmond [last week] was a good example of we had a good car, so we\u2019ll see if we can continue down that path and control the things that we can control and do what we can there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an outstanding short track background, Preece had every good intention and high confidence in making a more drastic move up in the standings at the Richmond .75-miler last week. But the always unpredictable timing of cautions affected strategy for the No. 60 team and ultimately derailed the best laid plans, while his chief challenger Van Gisbergen\u2019s was able to benefit from a late race strategy gamble.<\/p>\n

Although Preece has spent many years competing at New Hampshire in various series, his best finish in six NASCAR Cup Series starts is 11th in 2024. He does have a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at the track in 2021 and will be pulling double duty this weekend, competing in Friday\u2019s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race. He figures laps on track  \u2013 especially at place he knows so well \u2013 can only benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did go back and look at Shane [Van Gisbergen] at Richmond, and you know what they did, they did a Hail Mary, and it worked out,” Preece said of Van Gisbergen\u2019s 14th-place finish after starting 31st.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where sometimes the ball is in your court and it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t, so I\u2019m looking forward to going to New Hampshire and do the things that we know we can do, control the things that we can control and it\u2019s gonna be what it may.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a positive precedent for Preece, who won the preseason non-points paying Clash. There have been three first-time winners this season (Ty Gibbs at Bristol, Tenn., Carson Hocevar at Talladega, Ala., and Corey Heim at San Diego) after a  total of only three first-time winners in the previous three seasons combined.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s Richmond (Va.) Raceway champ Joey Logano has certainly proven where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way \u2013 having been on the outside Playoff contention less than two months ago. His Richmond victory moved him from 13th to ninth in the championship, only a single point behind reigning series champ, Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s only 36 points behind Hendrick\u2019s Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Christopher Bell who are tied in points, sitting sixth and seventh, respectively, in the standings.<\/p>\n

The bad news for the rest of the series is that the three-time champ Logano considers New Hampshire one of his favorite places \u2013 not only because of its proximity to his Connecticut hometown, but also because he\u2019s a two-time winner there. In fact, he scored his first career series victory at the New Hampshire mile in 2009 \u2013 marking the last time a driver scored his first win at the track.<\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s won on two of the six tracks this year that are a one-mile or shorter – and his Penske team brings plenty of reason to feel optimistic this weekend. Logano\u2019s teammate, 2024 series champ Ryan Blaney is the defending New Hampshire race winner leading a Ford charge that included three of the top four finishers a year ago. Among those was Wood Brothers Racing\u2019s Josh Berry, who carries a three-race top-10 streak into Loudon.<\/p>\n

A good finish for Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford could be impactful for the points standing. He\u2019s currently surrounded by ambitious and capable Toyota drivers. Blaney is second in the standings, a full 112 points off championship leader and three-time New Hampshire winner Denny Hamlin\u2019s pace in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. But Blaney is only 12 points up on JGR\u2019s Ty Gibbs and only 23 points up on the season\u2019s five-time winner, 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen is the only Chevrolet driver in the last 11 races to celebrate in Victory Lane (Sonoma, Calif.). The New Zealander and former Australian Super Cars Series champion finished 32nd last year in his only New Hampshire start, involved in a pair of incidents on track.<\/p>\n

His Trackhouse teammate Chastain is one of eight drivers who won in 2025 but are still looking to hoist that first trophy of this season.<\/p>\n

Good to know: New Hampshire has had only one overtime finish (2024) in the last 14 races. \u2026 Past series champions have won 13 of the last 17 races. … Joe Gibbs Racing is a 16-time runner-up\u2026. Two-time race winners Logano and 23XI Racing\u2019s Corey Heim are the only repeat winners in the last nine series races\u2026 The winner of Stage 1 has gone on to win the race only twice in the last 20 races. \u2026Nine of the season\u2019s first 24 races have been won by the driver who started first on the grid. \u2026The driver who led the most laps has won three of the last five races.<\/p>\n

Practice is Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET, both sessions on TruTV, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.<\/p>\n

Championship drama at the Truck Series Chase cutoff line<\/b><\/p>\n

With one race remaining and one position yet to be decided in setting the 10-driver NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship-eligible field, there\u2019s potential for a lot of action and drama in Saturday afternoon\u2019s Team EJP 175 (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

The regular season finale will officially set the Chase field. Only six drivers have fully guaranteed their entry, including points leader, Front Row Motorsports\u2019 Layne Riggs, TRICON Garage\u2019s Kaden Honeycutt, Rigg\u2019s teammate Chandler Smith, McAnally-Hilgemann\u2019s Christian Eckes, TRICON Garage\u2019s Gio Ruggiero and ThorSport Racing\u2019s Ty Majeski.<\/p>\n

CR7 Motorsports\u2019 Grant Enfinger and ThorSport\u2019s Ben Rhodes haven\u2019t officially clinched their positions, but they have enough of a points cushion, it should be a formality.<\/p>\n

McAnally-Hilgemann teammates Daniel Hemric and Tyler Ankrum, however, still need to turn in a good performance to solidify the final Chase spots. Hemric holds a 35-point advantage on 11th place Stewart Friesen and Ankrum is up 20. He and Friesen exchanged the final transfer points position following Richmond when Ankrum finished 11th and Friesen crashed out, suffering a last place 36thplace<\/p>\n

ThorSport\u2019s Jake Garcia is only a single point behind Friesen.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be the first guy who blinks at New Hampshire,” Ankrum said after climbing out of his truck following the Richmond race. \u201cPressure was on today. I don’t know exactly what happened to Friesen, whether somebody got into him or it was self-induced. That’s just one of those things where it’s like, just one of those uncontrollable factors. Nothing that’s anybody’s fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, going to New Hampshire, it’s still a tall hill for everybody to climb,” he added. \u201cWe’re all going to have to rise to the top and perform really, really well, and I feel like that the person who doesn’t blink first will be the one to make it to the Chase.”<\/p>\n

Reigning series champion Corey Heim is the defending race winner, claiming pole position and leading a dominating 124 of the 175 laps last year.<\/p>\n

Practice is set for Friday at 4 p.m. ET followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 5:05 p.m. ET \u2013 available on Fox One.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Preece Looks to Keep Championship Hopes Alive at New Hampshire LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Only two NASCAR Cup Series regular season races and a few dozen points are left to decide which 16 drivers will compete in The Chase for the 2026 championship – and for native New Englander Ryan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":54696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,466],"class_list":["post-60201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-new-hampshire-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fEZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2236617116-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60204,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60201\/revisions\/60204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}