Tyler Reddick dominated the start of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, winning five of the first nine races, but he had to wait six months for his sixth victory.
The 23XI Racing driver capitalized on bad luck that befell Chase points leaders Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin to win the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway and put himself in serious contention for the season championship.
Hamlin was having a solid day until he suffered a flat tire in the final stage that led to a pit lane speeding penalty, and he finished the race a lap down in 28th, while Larson had a flat that put him into the wall and out of the race with a 34th-place result.
Larson’s wreck brought out a yellow flag and Reddick, who finished ninth and seventh in the first two stages, stopped for two tires to gain track position. He took the restart from the second row and passed leader Chase Briscoe for the lead with 17 laps to go.
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“Good strategy. I think Billy (Scott, his crew chief) had a really good idea what we needed to do there, going off what our balance was,” Reddick said after the race. “Yeah, just got really fortunate. I didn’t have a good launch. There was a hole. I was able to get through it. I thought the 19 (Briscoe) was going to be able to cover the move into three. I got him loose. We checked out.”
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Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Corey Heim, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez and Briscoe followed him across the line as the Chase standings tightened up. Larson remains in first, but only five points ahead of Bell, who moved into second, and 24 points ahead of Briscoe in third. Hamlin dropped two spots to fourth, 31 points back, and Blaney (-40), Joey Logano (-44) and Reddick (-56) are all within spitting distance of the lead with three races left in the Chase. None of the 16 Chase racers have technically been eliminated, but Ryan Preece (-211) and Chris Buescher (-204) are at the bottom with a maximum of 228 points left on the table as the series heads to Talladega on Oct. 25.
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