HAMPTON, Ga. — Two months ago – after claiming a spectacular five wins in the opening two months of the NASCAR Cup Series season; including a season-opening Daytona 500 trophy – it looked like 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick may well just run off with the top seed in The Chase.
And then, his team co-owner Denny Hamlin made his own run, methodically cutting into Reddick’s once-dominant 100-plus points lead.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and perennial championship favorite, Hamlin, has now hoisted four trophies himself and took over the driver standings lead from Reddick a few hot summer weeks ago changing the tenor of the title run to a legitimate two-man race.
And now, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney has boldly issued a “not so fast” effort to the two season frontrunners. Blaney’s win in the early Monday morning hours at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway has also placed him in a spot to make a legitimate run at the top seed in The Chase.
Reddick’s eighth-place finish at Atlanta and Hamlin’s 12th-place run, allowed Reddick to essentially cut Hamlin’s advantage in half – to only 24 points.
And Blaney’s absolutely dominant win from pole position – and stage sweep – pulls him now within 65 points of Hamlin after being more than 100 points off the title lead for the vast majority of the season.
Suddenly, what looked like a sure-bet for Reddick has now become an honest three-driver battle among Reddick, Hamlin and Blaney with six regular season races remaining to set the 16-driver field for the championship Chase.
Blaney was genuinely surprised when told Monday morning how much ground he had made up in the points standings.
“Just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” the 2024 series champion said with a smile. “We’ve done a great job of managing the summer here, trying to get better at the intermediate tracks, just making decent days out of them, where maybe we haven’t been able to contend for a top four or five. We grind it out and scrounge out a top 10 out of it, just get our car better through the night.
“I talked earlier what this group really does well, and that’s it. When we don’t have a car that maybe can contend for a win, maybe off a little bit, we continue to work on it and figure out how to get it better.”
“I don’t think it’s out of the question,” the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford said of making a run for the regular season top spot. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. That surprises me we’re that close. I think before San Diego I was like 160 out. It shows you how quick things can kind of ebb and flow. Got to keep doing what we’re doing. Never know when we can get there or not.”
Not only was Atlanta’s high-speed 1.5-mile drafting track impactful atop the standings, but Monday’s results impacted the other end of The Chase outlook as well.
Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones and Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen finished fifth and sixth, respectively, to solidify their positions above the transfer cutline. Austin Cindric, who finished 14th in the race moved up to that same position in the standings with Van Gisbergen in 15th and Jones holding steady in that all-important 16th place.
Another encouraging showing at Atlanta also impacts the standings significantly. Team Penske’s Joey Logano earned his sixth top-10 in an otherwise frustrating season for the three-time series champion – and it was good enough to move him into the 17th position, now only a slight, eight points behind Jones for that final spot.
“I’m glad to make it through clean and have a decent points day and stay in this hunt for the Chase,” said Jones, who drives the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota. “It’s still super tight, I wish it was not as close as it is, but we got room here to keep working at it and some more traditional tracks so we will see where it goes.”
