Tyler Reddick wins in overtime at Kansas Speedway after three-wide move
Tyler Reddick made a three-wide move in overtime to grab the victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway and advance out of the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career.
Reddick lined up fifth on the overtime restart in the Hollywood Casino 400 and took advantage of those on older tires in front of him. Reddick quickly went to third and made the three-wide move on Erik Jones and Joey Logano coming to the white flag.
The pass for the lead and the win was completed into Turn 1 and Reddick drove away. Reddick led two laps in Sunday’s win: the final two.
“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said. “We had really good pace but couldn’t get ahead of Denny [Hamlin] there. But chaos ensued; people stayed out, some took two tires, and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy.”
The victory is Reddick’s second with the No. 45 team at 23XI Racing. It’s his first at Kansas Speedway in nine starts.
Denny Hamlin finished second to the car he co-owns. Hamlin was in firm control of the race — over Reddick — before the final caution flew with seven laps to go when Chris Buescher blew a right-rear tire and hit the wall, bringing the field down pit road. A four-tire call resulted in Hamlin leaving pit road fourth behind the two tires of Jones, Logano and Kyle Busch.
Daniel Suarez, however, stayed out and inherited the race lead. Hamlin chose the outside lane and restarted sixth; he was in the same row as Reddick. However, Hamlin admitted he was lagging on the restart and didn’t get the same jump as Reddick did.
“Four fresh tires and send it in there and slide up,” Reddick said of his move. “Just hats off, as I said, to everybody at 23XI. This Toyota Camry TRD had a lot of pace, and we’ve had a lot of really fast cars with this MoneyLion scheme, and it’s really great to get it back to victory lane.”
Jones finished third, Kyle Larson finished fourth and Logano finished fifth. Chase Elliott finished sixth, Kyle Busch finished seventh, Christopher Bell finished eighth, Brad Keselowski finished ninth and Alex Bowman was 10th.
Larson won the first stage and Keselowski won the second stage. Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was dominant through the first two stages, leading 99 of the first 165 laps. Larson led the most laps Sunday.
Multiple playoff drivers had trouble in Kansas.
William Byron finished 15th after a spin. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 23rd and had contact with the wall. Michael McDowell got into the back of Austin Cindric to cause a caution in the second stage and struggled with his Front Row Motorsports Ford. McDowell finished 26th.
Buescher finished 27th after the blown tire. He was running 12th at the time.
Bubba Wallace was running second when he blew a right-rear tire and hit the wall. Wallace finished 32nd.
Martin Truex Jr. did not finish the race. Truex was the first driver to make an exit after crashing on lap 4 because of a blown tire.
The four drivers below the playoff grid cutline going into the elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway are Truex (-7), Wallace (-19), Stenhouse (-22), and McDowell (-40).
There were nine cautions Sunday afternoon. There were 19 lead changes among 10 drivers.