LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Ryan Blaney opened the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with an emphatic victory for Team Penske, which flaunted its speed at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, led 116 laps, including the final 39, to beat Josh Berry by 0.937 seconds for his third victory of the season.
Blaney, who is trying to reach the Championship 4 season finale for the third consecutive year, became the first driver to advance into one of the eight available
spots in the third round of the Cup playoffs.
“What a cool day, what a cool weekend, super fast car,” Blaney said. “It’s great to get a win in the first race of the round.”
William Byron finished third, and Joey Logano, Blaney’s Penske teammate, took fourth after leading a race-high 147 of 301 laps.
After qualifying 27th, last among the 12 playoff drivers, Chase Elliott raced to a fifth-place finish.
Christopher Bell took sixth as the top finishing driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, which went undefeated in the first round of the playoffs. Bell was followed by Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain as playoff drivers took seven of the top eight spots on the 1.058-mile oval.
The Penske Fords backed up their impressive performances in Saturday's qualifying when Logano won the pole position to cap a top-three sweep with Blaney and Berry, whose Wood Brothers Racing Ford has a competitive alliance with Penske.
The race turned awkward for Joe Gibbs Racing on Lap 110 when Denny Hamlin spun teammate Ty Gibbs into the Turn 2 wall while racing for 11th. Gibbs, the only JGR driver who failed to qualify for the playoffs, seemed to be impeding the progress of teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell when the incident happened.
“Does Ty know we’re running for a championship?” Hamlin said on his team radio shortly before they made contact. “What the (expletive) is he doing?”
After the wreck, Hamlin questioned whether the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs was getting preferential treatment. “Are they afraid to talk to him? That’s what I feel like,” Hamlin radioed his team. “They’re just scared of him.”
Ty Gibbs briefly returned to the track before being forced to the garage with damage to his Camry. He finished 34th and refused to address the incident or what Hamlin said when asked directly about both.
“It’s unfortunate, but I’m excited to go race next week and looking forward to it,” said Gibbs, the 2022 Xfinity Series champion who remains winless through 117 starts in the Cup series.
After dominating the first round with three consecutive victories, Joe Gibbs Racing surprisingly faltered in the first stage at New Hampshire, where the team had won the past three Cup races and six consecutive stages.
The team failed to earn any points in the first stage Sunday as Hamlin, Bell and Chase Briscoe finished outside the top 10 in the 70-lap segment.
The second race in the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Kyle Larson won at the 1.5-mile track on May 11.
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