Reddick Returns To Winners Circle As Title Race Chase Tightens

Photo: Tyler Reddick and his crew celebrate the win

Tyler Reddick rallied down the stretch to take the win at the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway Sunday afternoon. Reddick had been hanging around and took advantage of some other drivers’ pit stops and made his move in the final laps after a restart with 16 laps remaining.

The last race till yesterday that Reddick had won was at the Kansas Speedway on April 19. That was his fifth at that point, but following that day a drought ensued as he went 23 races before the win here in Phoenix.

Photo: Tyler Reddick with the checker flag at the finish line

Reddick said, “Bet you weren’t expecting me. Oh man, it has been a long time. To go six months without getting it done was tough on the 45, but it was really cool in the fashion that we did it. I had a good feeling about the day going in and despite the rough start. The restart was huge and I didn’t have a good launch, but there was a hole and I was able to get through it. Credit goes to my 23XI team for doing another great job.” 

Finishing second was the March race winner at Phoenix, Ryan Blaney, who led 44 laps and finished just eight tenths of a second behind Reddick. Chase Elliot, who did not lead the race at any time, finished third. 

Photo: Alex Bowman’s pit crew working hard to get him back on the track

Christopher Bell spent a good portion of his day in the top ten was fourth, Corey Heim had a very good day and was the highest finisher of those not in the Cup Chase finishing fifth. 

Photo: 22 Joey Logano won stages one and two

Joey Logano won both stages one and two but could not sweep the day even though he led for 84 laps. Logano last led on lap 185 and finished sixth, Daniel Suarez matched the number on his car with seventh. Chase Briscoe eighth, Ross Chastain ninth, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top 10.

Bubba Wallace was leading with 27 laps remaining when on lap 284 he pulled into pit row to get four new tires, but it was very costly as he got a pit row speeding penalty ending his hopes of winning the race and settled for 17th. Afterwards he said, “It’s all on me.”

Another issue came about with 15 laps to go on lap 297 when a multi-car chain reaction in turn three ended the chances for Zane Smith at a top 10 finish when Ross Chastain bumped into the rear of Carson Hocevar sending Hocevar sliding up the track into Josh Berry and then crashing into Smith.

Hocevar to his credit managed to salvage a 12th place finish but it dropped him into 15th in the Cup Chase Race standings. After the race on the slow down lap, Smith, still fuming about the collision, sought out Hocevar and rammed hard into the back of the car before Hocevar sped up to get to his pit. Smith, who was clearly disgusted by the whole thing regardless of whose fault it was managed to finish 15th.

Kyle Larson’s day ended badly as he was battling for 16th place at the time with Austin Cindric when a race ending crash on lap 281 happened when his front tire blew resulting in a 34th place finish. Even with the bad finish Larson was able to hold onto the top spot in the race standings.

Photo: Billy Ray Cyrus performed trackside before the start of the race

Prior to the start, Billy Ray Cyrus and his band performed a concert to the early arrivals. Fans were allowed down on the track to see the concert that lasted about 45 minutes. Cyrus closed out the set with his famous 1992 smash hit “Achy Breaky Heart”. 

The win by Reddick shook up the race point standings heading into the YellaWood 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday at 11am MST on NBC. Two more races after that at the Martinsville Speedway on November 1 at noon, and the finale at Homestead Miami Speedway on  November 8 starting at 1pm local time.

        2026  CUP  CHASE  RACE  STANDINGS

Rank    Driver       Race Points  Total Points    Season Wins 

1……Kyle Larson………3………..2370……………2

2……Christopher Bell…49……….2365……………1

3……Chase Briscoe…..44……….2346……………3

4……Denny Hamlin……21……….2339……………4

5……Ryan Blaney…….48………..2330……………3

6……Joey Logano…….51………..2326……………3

7……Tyler Reddick……61………..2314……………6

8……Austin Cindric…..18…………2328……………2

9……Ty Gibbs…………27………. 2238………..….2

10…..Chase Elliot……..39………..2221………..….2

11…..Carson Hocevar…25………..2212………..….1

12…..Bubba Wallace….26………..2208………..….0

13…..Daniel Suarez…..30………..2182……………1

14…..William Byron……21………..2180……………0

15…..Chris Buescher…15………..2166………..….0

16…..Ryan Preece……19………..2159………..….1