Team Penske's Ryan Blaney entered Sunday afternoon's Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as one of three drivers still mathematically eligible to swipe the regular season points lead away from Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin and win the regular season title over the final two races before the postseason.
Blaney sat 115 points behind Hamlin with 152 points left up for grabs, just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs (-127) and 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick (-138).
Hamlin had a quiet afternoon at the four-turn, 1.058-mile (1.703-kilometer) "Magic Mile" oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, finishing seventh on a day that saw Blaney earn his third win of the year and reduce Hamlin's points lead by 38.
But Hamlin did just enough to seal the regular season championship with just 76 points now up for grabs, as he's still 77 points ahead of the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
Denny Hamlin clinches NASCAR Cup Series regular season crown
Hamlin has clinched the 100-point bonus (25-point bonus over second place) to begin the 10-race "Chase" postseason, and Blaney's battle is now for second, as Gibbs and Reddick were both eliminated from regular season title contention as well.
Gibbs is 44 points behind Blaney, and Reddick is 20 points behind Gibbs, so Blaney, a two-time Coke Zero Sugar 400 winner, is in a pretty solid position heading into this coming Saturday night's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Dayton Beach, Florida oval.
Second place is worth 10 more points than third place when it comes to playoff seeding.
There are plenty of other tight battles elsewhere in the top 16 that are set to be decided in the regular season finale. Fifth through eighth place are separated by 31 points, ninth through 11th place are separated by 10 points, and 12th through 14th are separated by 14 points.
15th through 17th place would be separated by just 19 points, but the gap is really 44, thanks to Ryan Preece's 25-point penalty in May. Aside from Preece, teammate Brad Keselowski is the only other driver below the cut line who still has a chance to qualify for the postseason, but at 66 points back, he's in a must-win situation just to even have an outside shot.
Tune in to NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, August 29 for the live broadcast of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!
Add us as a preferred source on Google