AVONDALE, Ariz. — With Sunday’s victory in the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway, Tyler Reddick got an upgrade from “written off” to “suddenly relevant,” where the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 is concerned.
Reddick arrived at the one-mile track in the Phoenix’s West Valley 114 points behind Chase leader Kyle Larson with four races left in the postseason. When it came to the series title, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota wasn’t even part of the conversation.
That changed radically and dramatically on Sunday when Reddick won for the first time since April 19 at Kansas Speedway, and Larson suffered through an absolute disaster of a race.
The net result was a 58-point swing in Reddick’s favor, putting him 56 points behind Larson — certainly within reach of the lead based on the huge swings at Phoenix.
With new life in the Chase, Reddick nevertheless doesn’t plan to change his approach to the next three races. Getting though next Sunday’s unpredictable YellaWood 500 Talladega Superspeedway is the top priority.
“I think for us, (it’s) week-to-week, primarily still just focusing on trying to win races,”
Reddick said in his post-victory press conference. “If we can have a calm ‘Dega, get stage points, finish with a car in one piece, I think we’ll have another good points day. Then it will fall to Martinsville.
“Historically it’s not been a great place for us. I mean, I like the progression that we’ve made in the last year. I mean, yes, we hadn’t won on a short track yet, but we were able to check that box today…
“Look ahead to Martinsville, I’m excited about it. I feel like I don’t say that too often about Martinsville. I’m always excited to learn and get better. Very excited to see what we’ll have there.”
Reddick still faces a formidable obstacle. After his victory at Phoenix, he’s seventh in the Chase standings, with six drivers to leap-frog for a potential title.
The five drivers between Reddick and Larson all qualified in the top five at Phoenix, and like sharks sensing blood in the water, they indulged themselves in a feeding frenzy when it became apparent that Larson was a lost cause.
Christopher Bell finished fourth and took a 46-point bite out of Larson’s lead. Now second in the standings, Bell is just five points out of first place, as the air of inevitability Larson enjoyed through six races blew away like a dust devil in the desert.
Typically dissatisfied with anything but a win, Bell was upbeat after the race.
“I think we’re right in the mix, and that’s awesome,” Bell declared.
Chase Briscoe, a two-time winner in the postseason, is 24 points behind Larson after an eighth-place finish at Phoenix. Denny Hamlin—despite a tire failure late in the race—trails by 31.
Team Penske Ford teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano are 40 and 44 points in arrears, respectively.
The real mystery of Phoenix was why Larson arrived with a car that didn’t work and couldn’t be fixed. The balance was off in practice. He qualified 22nd, and no attempt at race strategy could stop him from falling back through the field.
Trapped a lap down, Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet finally gave up the ghost, blew a tire, and rocketed into the Turn 1 wall, ending the Chase leader’s race in 34th place.
“Certainly, we got punched in the mouth today, but it’s OK,” said Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief. “We’ve got to be tough and keep moving.
“When our car was just that deficient on having a connected balance—having a good entry (into the corner), having a good middle, having a good exit—there obviously wasn’t a whole lot we were going to do with it.
“We tried. Every pit stop we were throwing a lot of changes at it, even one that we went under the hood and just did a lot of work. I was hopeful that, by the time we stacked all this together, we’d have some sign of life, and we just never really got there. Obviously, we missed the fundamental baseline that we had in the car.”
The only positive is that Larson still has the series lead.
For Reddick, who won the first three races of the season and five of the first nine, the positive is that he now has a shot.
If he can improve his position through Talladega and Martinsville, Reddick likely will be a factor in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he won back-to-back NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championships in 2018 and 2019.
If Reddick can finish the season the way he started it, he could well be an unexpected champion.
Now, at least, he’s back in the conversation.
