NASCAR Mobil 1 301 takeaways: Ryan Blaney locks up Round of 8 spot

Ryan Blaney capped off a dominant day for Team Penske at New Hampshire by holding off a late challenge from Josh Berry to clinch a spot in the penultimate round of the playoffs.

Here are three takeaways from the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12 opener at the "Magic Mile":

Blaney dominates for first New Hampshire win

After teammate Joey Logano set sail for multiple stints throughout the race and led 147 laps, Blaney paced the field for 116 laps and kept Berry at bay over the final 42-lap run to pick up his third win of the season and his first in the "Granite State."

Berry and Chase Elliott elected to stay out during the race's final caution and restarted on the front row. After making quick work of Elliott, Blaney eventually got around Berry three laps later and never relinquished the lead from there.

It was a relatively quiet opening round of the playoffs for Blaney and Team Penske, but Sunday served as a reminder to not count the organization out, especially after winning the last three titles.

Tension at Joe Gibbs Racing

In what turned out to be an eventful return to the playoffs for New Hampshire Motor Speedway, JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs were not seeing eye-to-eye early in Stage 2.

After being held up by Gibbs for multiple laps, Hamlin got into the left rear of Gibbs in Turn 1 on Lap 110. The collision put the 22-year-old Gibbs into the outside wall and nearly took fellow JGR driver and Bristol Night Race winner Christopher Bell with him.

While Gibbs is not in playoff contention and did not have much to say regarding the incident that took him out of the race in 35th, the 44-year-old Hamlin is as he continues to pursue his first Cup Series championship. Although Hamlin still came away with a 12th-place finish and finds himself 27 points above the cutline, It should all make for an interesting team meeting. 

Rough start to the Round of 12 for 23XI Racing

The talk coming out of the opening round was about JGR's sweep of the three races and the lack of speed from Hendrick Motorsports. While the three remaining playoff drivers for HMS each finished inside the top 10 and JGR took a backseat to Team Penske's domination, another Toyota team finds itself at the bottom of the standings.

23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick (-23) and Bubba Wallace (-27) are now at the bottom of the playoff standings after poor showings at New Hampshire. Reddick, who finished 21st, missed his stall during his final stop while Wallace dealt with handling issues the entire race and finished one lap down in 26th.

After each driver contended for wins in the opening round, Sunday was the complete opposite and it was not even close. As the series prepares for two distinct races at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway and the Charlotte Roval the next two weeks, points should be at a premium for the pair of 23XI Racing playoff drivers if they are going to claw their way back.