NASCAR Dollar Tree 301 takeaways: Ryan Blaney overcomes pit road setback for New Hampshire win

Blaney has now won two of the last six races and has led triple-digit laps in three of them. Even with the adverse conditions to begin the day and the setback that was thrown his way late in the going on Sunday, Blaney's superb driving and long-run speed paid dividends once again.

Ryan Preece gains ground on final Chase spot

While Denny Hamlin officially clinched the No. 1 seed for the Chase with a pedestrian seventh-place finish, the attention now turns to the bottom of the 16-driver field and who will round out the group of title contenders.

Preece entered the race 50 points outside the provisional field, but after scoring points in both stages and finishing ninth, he trimmed the deficit to bubble driver and 20th-place finisher Shane van Gisbergen to 31.

With Daytona representing the regular-season finale on Saturday night and Austin Cindric just 13 points ahead of van Gisbergen in the standings, all eyes will be on the Chase bubble going to the "World Center of Racing."

Carson Hocevar's rough stretch carries over to New Hampshire

It was not that long ago that Hocevar was fifth in points, but a pair of finishes outside the top 30 dropped him to 11th before New Hampshire. While he maintained that position in the standings, it was not without some more adversity after finishing one lap down in 19th.

The trouble even found him on the pace laps when he spun out in the rain. 

It only got worse from there for Hocevar when he and rookie Connor Zilisch got together down the frontstretch and triggered a multi-car crash on Lap 84.

Hocevar was also involved in a separate spin with 99 laps to go as his spiral continues at the worst possible time of the season.

William Byron's misfortune takes another turn

Coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes in points races for the first time since March 29 at Martinsville, Byron entered New Hampshire with some newfound momentum. However, he lost a left-rear wheel and crashed in Turn 3 with 69 laps remaining before finishing five laps down in 30th, keeping the three-race winner from 2025 searching for answers.