NASCAR playoffs at New Hampshire: Where to watch, live stream, race preview, pick to win for the Mobil 1 301

In the fall of 2004, a new chapter of NASCAR history began when the sport opened its very first postseason battle for the championship -- then dubbed the "Chase for the Cup" -- with a trip to New England and to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a day which would end with Kurt Busch winning the very first race in Chase history on his way to earning the 2004 championship. Through the 21 years that have passed, a number of iterations of postseason and playoff formats have been implemented, the current one returns now to the place where it all began.

The Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs opens with the sport's annual trip to New Hampshire for the Mobil 1 301, a race which officially opens the fall and resets 12 drivers' run to the Cup championship. So far, the 2025 playoffs have been dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, with Christopher Bell's win in the Bristol Night Race a week ago giving JGR a sweep of the three races in the Round of 16.

NASCAR playoffs 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks

Steven Taranto

For the rest of the field, the task in beating the Joe Gibbs cars gets no easier this weekend, as JGR has won the last three New Hampshire races dating back to 2022 -- two of which have come virtue of Bell as he now seeks his fifth win of the season.

Where to watch the NASCAR playoffs at New Hampshire

When: Sun., Sept. 21, 2 p.m. ET
Where: New Hampshire Motor Speedway -- Loudon, New Hampshire
TV: USA | Stream: Fubo (Try for free)

Starting lineup

New England native Joey Logano won the pole for the Mobil 1 301 in qualifying on Saturday, posting a lap of 29.159 (130.622 MPH) to earn his second pole of the 2025 season. Logano has two career New Hampshire wins, including his very first Cup win back in 2009.

1. #22 - Joey Logano
2. #12 - Ryan Blaney
3. #21 - Josh Berry
4. #45 - Tyler Reddick
5. #24 - William Byron
6. #77 - Carson Hocevar
7. #48 - Alex Bowman
8. #1 - Ross Chastain
9. #11 - Denny Hamlin
10. #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
11. #71 - Michael McDowell
12. #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
13. #54 - Ty Gibbs
14. #23 - Bubba Wallace
15. #17 - Chris Buescher
16. #5 - Kyle Larson
17. #6 - Brad Keselowski
18. #19 - Chase Briscoe
19. #20 - Christopher Bell
20. #38 - Zane Smith
21. #7 - Justin Haley
22. #2 - Austin Cindric
23. #60 - Ryan Preece
24. #8 - Kyle Busch
25. #35 - Riley Herbst (R)
26. #43 - Erik Jones
27. #9 - Chase Elliott
28. #3 - Austin Dillon
29. #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
30. #10 - Ty Dillon
31. #41 - Cole Custer
32. #99 - Daniel Suarez
33. #4 - Noah Gragson
34. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
35. #51 - Cody Ware
36. #34 - Todd Gilliland

Storyline to watch

One week after a Bristol race that featured extremely aggressive levels of tire wear and falloff, tires will yet again be a major influence over Sunday's race. Goodyear is bringing its lauded "short track" tire to New Hampshire, a softer compound that was featured earlier this year at Bowman Gray Stadium, Martinsville, North Wilkesboro and Richmond. This will be perhaps the biggest test of this tire compound yet, as the mile-long New Hampshire will mark the biggest and fastest track this tire has been used on yet.

This tire compound was settled upon following a Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire in July, which featured three different playoff drivers. Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain and Joey Logano all partook in July's tire test, and all three now return to New Hampshire having made it to the Round of 12 in the playoffs armed with advance information about exactly what to expect from their tires at this particular track.

"The tire setup we're bringing to New Hampshire has performed very well at various tracks this year, including the recent race at Richmond," said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear's NASCAR product manager. "This is the first time that NASCAR Cup Series teams will see this setup at New Hampshire. We introduced this setup to deliver more grip and increased lap-time fall-off over the course of a run and it has certainly met those expectations so far this year."

NASCAR news of the week

• NASCAR announced this week that its annual Awards Banquet will be held on Nov. 4 in Scottsdale, Arizona, this year, just two days after the end of the sport's Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The Awards Banquet, which was traditionally held anywhere from late November to early December, moves to Scottsdale after previously being held in New York City, Las Vegas, Nashville, and most recently in Charlotte a year ago.
• Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing announced Friday that they have reached a settlement in their legal dispute over the terms of a charter sale, with Ware agreeing to sell one of its charters to Legacy Motor Club. Terms of the settlement will remain confidential, but a Rick Ware Racing team statement said that the team's No. 51 Ford will continue to be fielded as a chartered car in 2026.
• Following the loss of an improperly installed right front wheel last week at Bristol, Joe Gibbs Racing has elected to defer a two-race suspension for tire changer Austin Maloney and jackman Joel Bouagnon, allowing the No. 11 team to have their entire pit crew available for this weekend's race at New Hampshire. Maloney and Bouagnon's suspension will be served in the next two races following Loudon at Kansas and the Charlotte Roval.
• RFK Racing has announced the hiring of veteran sports executive Chip Bowers as its new team president, bringing Bowers to NASCAR after previously working in the NBA, WNBA, and MLB. Bowers replaces Steve Newmark, who left the team earlier this year to become Director of Athletics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Pick to win

Christopher Bell (+330 at DraftKings) – Across different series and across all different types of car, Christopher Bell has long proven that he has the magic touch at The Magic Mile. Not only has Bell won two of the last three Cup races at New Hampshire, but his resume at the track includes a win in the Craftsman Truck Series (2017), four wins in four Xfinity Series starts, and only two finishes worse than 2nd across all three of NASCAR's national touring series. If you exclude two finishes outside the top 25 in Cup, Bell's average New Hampshire finish is a staggering 1.2 whenever he's raced there.

A trip to New Hampshire is incredibly well-timed considering Bell is coming off a win at Bristol a week ago, as it finally got his No. 20 team over the hump and back to their winning ways – Just in time to try and make a run at the Cup championship they missed out on a year ago.