NASCAR Mobil 1 301 Preview: Can JGR Keep Dominating in New Hampshire? (2025)

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will hit a reset this Sunday at a track that hasn’t hosted a playoff race in eight years.

NASCAR heads north to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Mobil 1 301, the first race in the second round of the postseason. Twelve drivers remain, and none have clinched their way into the Elite 8.

The first round of the playoffs were dominated by Joe Gibbs Racings, with each race being won by the three JGR drivers. It’s the first time a team has swept all three races in the first round of the playoffs, and the first time since 2015 a team has swept any round.

And it looks like the team could carry that momentum into Round 2, because two JGR drivers — Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell- have five combined wins at New Hampshire.

A Joe Gibbs driver has finished in the top two in each of the last 13 New Hampshire races.

Bell won the most recent New Hampshire race in June, 2024, after leading the final 64 laps. In five career races at the track, Bell has finished either first or second three times.

Hamlin leads all active drivers with three New Hampshire victories, the most recent coming in the spring of 2017. His last top-5 was in the spring of 2020. Since then, he’s finished 10th, 6th, 7th, and 24th.

Hamlin is currently first in the playoff standings, 26 points above the cutline. Bell is fourth in the standings, 20 points above the cut.

The other JGR driver, Chase Briscoe, is sixth in the playoff standings, 10 points above the cut. Briscoe won the second race of the playoffs, and is the only playoff driver to finish in the top 10 in all three postseason races so far. He also led 451 laps between the first three races, the third most any driver has ever led in the first three races in playoff history.

Here’s a look at this weekend’s race, the playoff standings, and what drivers had to say about New Hampshire.

The Place: New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Track Length: 1.058 Mile Asphalt Oval

The Date and time: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET

TV: USA, 1:30 p.m. ET

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)

Distance: 318.46 miles (301 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 185), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 301)

Playoff Standings

1. Denny Hamlin (26 points above cutoff)

2. William Byron (+24)

3. Kyle Larson (+24)

4. Christopher Bell (+20)

5. Ryan Blaney (+19)

6. Chase Briscoe (+10)

7. Chase Elliott (+5)

8. Bubba Wallace (+1)

9. Austin Cindric (1 point below cutoff)

10. Joey Logano (-1)

11. Ross Chastain (-2)

12. Tyler Reddick (-3)

What drivers are saying about New Hampshire:

AJ Allmendinger: “I would say New Hampshire is probably one of the toughest racetracks we go to just in the sense of trying to drive. The seams are difficult and the track being really flat, it’s always difficult setup-wise and on the driving side of it to go out there and find speed. We know our program has speed. We’ve shown that over the last few weeks, even if the end result doesn’t always show it. We’re looking to put together a solid run this weekend and get a little bit of momentum back.”

Josh Berry: “The track raced well last year, and I thought it put on a good show at the end. We were in the thick of the battle those last closing laps. I’m excited to go back and study it a little bit more — it was a great opportunity for us last year, and I’m looking forward to seeing how we stack up this time around.”

Alex Bowman: “Unfortunately, we had a mechanical failure there last year while running like top 10. So, that was a bummer. I like New Hampshire but we haven’t had much luck or speed there in the past. Hoping to turn that around this weekend.”

Kyle Busch: “New Hampshire is a really tricky racetrack. It’s super flat and has bumpy characteristics to it as well. The asphalt has really gotten old over the years. It feels like racing over highway cracks, but those are all characteristics of a good racetrack. It’s just really challenging and very tough to pass. Everybody says it’s multi-groove. You could run three different grooves there, but there’s really only one that’s fast and that’s the middle one. It makes for a challenging Sunday.”

William Byron: “New Hampshire hasn’t been great to me in the Cup Series, but in my early years it was one of my best tracks. I’m hoping that what we’ve been learning on tracks similar to this one will help us here as well. I definitely think we’ve made some ground up on this style of track this season. It would be nice to start off this round of the playoffs with a strong start, especially since the rest of the round are good tracks for us.”

Ross Chastain: “I’m glad we survived and made the second round of the Playoffs. Obviously, I wish it was more than survival but I feel pretty good about this round. We have New Hampshire this weekend and we did the tire test there so hopefully we learned some things we can apply. Then we have Kansas (Speedway), which we won last year, so I think that bodes well for us. The Roval is probably going to be the wild card for me in this round, but we’ll see how everything shakes out. I’m going to do the things I do to prep for the races and hope the results earn us enough points to get to the next round.”

Austin Dillon: “New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a flat mile. It’s a bigger short track. I always love going there. It’s a challenging place. You get to slip and slide around a little bit. The exit of Turn 2 is rough. The track has a lot of content, so finding a good balance in the race car is important.”

Chase Elliott: “It’s a place that is unique in some ways. I do think it’s probably most similar to Gateway (WWT Raceway). I felt like we had a really solid run. I was proud of our performance at Gateway. I hope that some of, if not all of, those things can carry to Loudon, so I’m looking forward to getting up there and giving it our best shot.”

Justin Haley: “Bristol was a solid weekend from start to finish for the No. 7 team. We had a great car all weekend and we executed well. We are putting together weekends and that gives us confidence heading to New Hampshire. One-mile race tracks are always tricky, so we’re looking to be fast when we unload and execute a solid weekend.”

Carson Hocevar: “Crazy things have been known to happen at New Hampshire. I don’t have a ton of experience there so it’s still a learning experience for me when we unload on Saturday. Thankfully I have a good group of guys on the No. 77, and Luke (Lambert, crew chief) and Tyler (Green, spotter) do a great job of coaching me through everything. I think we have a good opportunity to finish out the season strong.”

Kyle Larson: “Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports has been putting a lot of emphasis on short tracks for a while now, really focusing on improving our performance. The speed we had at WWT Raceway was encouraging. I felt we were a top-two-or-three car, maybe even better. That gives us a lot of optimism for the rest of the year, especially at the shorter, flatter tracks like New Hampshire and Phoenix.”

Michael McDowell: “I hope it rains. The best I’ve run at New Hampshire is in the rain. It has not been a great track for me statistically, but the short tracks for us this year have been better than what the short tracks have been in the past for me, so I feel like we have another opportunity. Similar to Martinsville and Phoenix, we feel like we’ve made gains and hopefully we’ll keep that going this weekend at Loudon.”

Shane van Gisbergen: “I knew it was going to be a long shot last weekend at Bristol, but I’m still proud of what we have achieved this year. It’s been a huge privilege to be in the Playoffs, but everyone knew the first round was going to be difficult. I just didn’t do a good enough job on the ovals. I know we’re strong on the road courses, but I just need to keep improving at the ovals.”