New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s lone NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2026 season will use the same short-track tire setup in Sunday afternoon’s Dollar Tree 301 that was used at Richmond last weekend.
So, what else can be expected from the 1.058-mile racing surface that has been called “Martinsville on steroids” in Loudon, N.H., roughly twice the length but similarly banked as the Virginia track?
First, there’s a decent chance a Ford or Toyota will be celebrating in Victory Lane when the 301 laps are clicked off in the Granite State.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, whose No. 12 Ford has blazed through qualifying the past two weeks, is the defending race winner, leading 116 laps and beating Wood Brothers driver Josh Berry by 0.937 seconds on Sept. 21.
Fourth in the overall standings, Tyler Reddick broke Blaney’s two-race hold on qualifying Saturday by claiming his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of 2026.
Reddick toured Loudon’s flat track in 29.054 seconds in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. The lap was good enough to beat Josh Berry (29.069) in the No. 21 Ford of Wood Brothers Racing.
William Byron, points leader Denny Hamlin and Shane van Gisbergen completed the top five.
Blaney’s No. 12 qualified eighth, while Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, last week’s winner at Richmond, was 21st.
Ford’s recent record at NHMS, which has hosted only one race each campaign since 2018, is impressive.
A car featuring the blue oval on the hood has won five of the last eight races at Loudon, though 2020 winner Brad Keselowski is the only other active Ford driver to be first to the checkers in that stretch.
Toyota can also thump its chest. The manufacturer has won eight of 14 races since Matt Kenseth and the late Kyle Busch started the run by sweeping the 2015 events.
Chevrolet has only been triumphant once in the past 19 races: Kevin Harvick in 2016.
Among the drivers, no one has sizzled like three-time Cup Series champion Logano, a two-time winner over the past four events, both on short tracks.
In fact, it’s been a rousing past six starts as the 36-year-old Middletown, Conn., native has advanced from 20th to ninth in the standings, spotlighting him as a driver who could embark on another title run.
Logano followed up a 12th-place run in Chicago with a ninth-place finish at Atlanta and won in North Wilkesboro. The No. 22 then came home third at Indianapolis, 14th at Iowa and was victorious again at Richmond.
Not a bad summer spree for the driver many fans feel benefited most from the previous “win and you’re in” playoff format. Logano became the poster boy for the more gimmicky format that produced championships that some have referred to as “Mickey Mouse.”
His most recent hardware in 2024 cemented their opinion. Logano made the Championship 4 despite having just seven top-five finishes the entire season, while Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson had six victories and was left out.
Worse still, Logano’s average finish of 17.1 was the poorest ever for a full season by a Cup champion.
“They’re all legit,” Logano said. “I don’t care what the format is. Everyone knew the rules when it started, OK? … Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? Yes. That’s a clear yes. So much that our little team slogan in our hauler, our scoreboard, is ‘4 the Haters.’
“That’s where we’re at. That’s a little good extra motivation.”
Harvick shared his thoughts this week on his “SPEED” podcast with IndyCar announcer Will Buxton. “When you look back at it, I think that’s the reason that (NASCAR) changed the format because it was a little Mickey Mouse,” he said.
That opinion has not put a governor on Logano’s hot pursuit of a fourth crown.
–Field Level Media
