Blaney's New Hampshire win leaves Daytona with three open Cup playoff spots: Week 35

The New Hampshire weekend settled the Truck Series Chase field and left NASCAR's final three Cup playoff places for Daytona. 12 IMSA's GTD fight changed leaders at VIR, while three NHRA class winners left Brainerd with new points leads for the stretch to Indianapolis. 34 This issue covers Aug. 17-23 results and the Aug. 24-30 watch list, with all schedule times converted to UTC from the published listings. 5

Ryan Blaney won the Dollar Tree 301 by 0.586 seconds over Bubba Wallace. Blaney led 115 of 301 laps, and the result gave Team Penske its third Cup win of the season. Kyle Larson won Stage 1; Blaney won Stage 2. 16

Rain shaped the opening 40 laps, when the field ran wet-weather tires as the track changed. Reddick's first-lap spin blocked Hamlin and Chris Buescher, while John Hunter Nemechek hit the wall on Lap 22. Ross Chastain retired with drivetrain trouble after 41 laps. A Lap 84 incident involving Carson Hocevar and Connor Zilisch also collected Joey Logano and Austin Dillon. 1

The standings now leave three open Chase places for Daytona. Hamlin leads Blaney by 77 points. Bubba Wallace sits 14th, 75 points above the cutoff; Austin Cindric is 15th, 13 points ahead of van Gisbergen; and Preece trails van Gisbergen by 31 points. The 16-driver field locks after Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400. 1

Layne Riggs won the Team EJP 175 in double overtime, beating Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith by 0.293 seconds. Riggs led 106 of 189 laps, including the final 71 across the two overtime restarts. The win was his sixth of 2026 and secured the No. 1 seed for the Truck Series Chase. 7

Tyler Ankrum claimed the 10th and final Chase place, seven points ahead of Friesen and 11 ahead of Jake Garcia. Ankrum lost nearly a lap with a no-rear-brakes problem, then recovered to 16th. Garcia finished 14th after a pit-box penalty. The seven-race Chase opens at Bristol on Sept. 17, with Riggs 25 points ahead of Honeycutt. 2

IMSA's Michelin GT Challenge at VIR ran 84 laps over two hours and 41 minutes. Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell led 69 laps in Pfaff Motorsports' No. 9 Lamborghini Temerario GT3 and won the GTD PRO class. The victory was Pfaff's second straight after Road America and moved the pair to third in the class standings. 38

The GTD lead changed in the final hour. Philip Ellis passed Tom Gamble in Turn 3 with seven minutes left, and Gamble received a drive-through penalty after contact while trying to take the place back in Turn 4. Ellis and Russell Ward won their third straight GTD race in the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG and moved from 300 points behind after Watkins Glen to a 36-point championship lead. 3

The next 2026 WeatherTech round is the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis from Sept. 18-20. IMSA's current event page lists the date and venue, while session times and broadcast details remain to be added there. 9

The Brainerd Nationals was the 13th of 20 NHRA Mission Foods Series events. Matt Hagan won Funny Car, Doug Kalitta won Top Fuel, and Greg Anderson won Pro Stock. 4

The next national NHRA event is the U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Sept. 2-7. 10

Max Reaves led 97 of 100 laps to win the ARCA Menards Series Calypso 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Isaac Kitzmiller finished second, Thomas Annunizata third, Taylor Reimer fourth and Gavan Boschele fifth. Boschele made a late attempt to split Reaves and a lapped car, then hit the inside guardrail after contact and lost the lead. Points leader Jake Bollman finished sixth. 11

Jonathan McKennedy won the Whelen Modified Tour's Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire by 0.215 seconds over Tommy Catalano. Ryan Preece finished third, Tyler Rypkema fourth and Trevor Catalano fifth. McKennedy led a top 10 completed by Michael Christopher, Chase Dowling, David Sapienza, Teddy Hodgdon and Andrew Molleur. 12

Austin Hill will drive Richard Childress Racing's No. 33 Chevrolet for the full 2027 Cup Series season. Hill will finish 2026 in both Cup and the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, then leave the O'Reilly Series for his first full-time Cup campaign. 13

NASCAR also added confirmed dates and venues to its 2027 national-series schedule. The published list includes the Feb. 21 Daytona 500, the Aug. 28 Coke Zero Sugar 400, and the Sept. 26 return to New Hampshire; start times and additional event details are still pending. 14

The Whelen Modified Tour will use a new tire combination from Stafford through the remaining 2026 races. The plan pairs the softer left-side tire with the harder right-side tire tested at New Hampshire, and teams may scuff qualifying sets for the rest of the season. NASCAR and American Racer said the change aims to improve grip, tire fall-off and passing while addressing heat and tire-size concerns. 15

Daytona is the weekend's decision point. Blaney arrives as the recent winner, three Cup playoff places remain open, and the Truck field is already set. 12 The regional choices then split across Stafford, the two Virginia short tracks, Barber's club-racing weekend, Minnesota's forest stages and High Limit's Gold Cup in California. 5161718