Five races ago, Tyler Reddick owned a 122-point lead over second-place Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR Cup driver standings, and many said the 23XI Racing driver couldn’t be caught for the regular season championship.
After all, Reddick opened the season with a record three consecutive victories, he didn’t have a single DNF, he owned five victories, had only three finishes outside the top 10 and four outside the top five in the first 13 races.
However, following the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the tide began turning in Hamlin’s favor. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver picked up three consecutive victories and closed the gap as Reddick produced only one top five and two top 10s in the five races since the Charlotte event.
Hamlin entered Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 eight points behind Reddick. He exited the event one point ahead of the 23XI Racing driver to become the first competitor other than Reddick to lead the driver standings this year. Hamlin finished 26th in the season’s final road course, while Reddick placed last in the 36-car field, four laps down, due to a power steering issue on his Toyota. The power steering issue occurred just 25 laps into the 110-lap race and left Reddick six laps down.
“It was just a very odd issue,” Reddick said. “Coming into the pit stall everything seemed fine. When we left the pit stall that first green-flag cycle, just a lot of issues in the steering. The power steering was going in-and-out like it was getting bound up. I didn’t know if we had a wheel issue or what it was at first. All the wheels were good, but it was really, really hard to make lap time with it.
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Tyler Reddick.
“It’s so hard to say in hindsight if we made the right decision or not to work on it. I definitely don’t think I would have been within seconds of the pace. Either way, we had a difficult road ahead. All things considered, for the issues that we had, we were very fortunate to really only lose eight points on the day to Denny.”
Hamlin now leads Reddick by one point. Hamlin, who admits road racing is his Achilles Heel, out-performed Reddick this year on the season’s last two road/street course events. Hamlin finished 14th at San Diego and 26th at Sonoma, while Reddick placed 25th and 36thh, respectively.
“I had a top five car on speed,” Hamlin said about the Sonoma race. “I didn’t have great restarts. I gave up a couple in the first, about one after that, and then got spun there. Once we got spun, somebody hit the nose and knocked the splitter off. It lost all downforce and we struggled to where we were at.”
Prior to the lap 64 incident in the 110-lap race won by Shane van Gisbergen, there had been a 30-point swing in the standings between the two, but that changed after Hamlin’s spin that involved Carson Hocevar, who finished 11th. Hocevar said he didn’t know what happened to cause the incident.
“I saw them starting to hit each other and I thought if I don’t get right and protect and just kind of play the bumper cars, I’m probably getting spun,” Hocevar said. “I got right and then I got hit. I was watching in my mirror the whole time. I wasn’t seeing that I was hitting Denny because I was avoiding trying to knock my front end off when he was spinning. I wasn’t trying to spin him.”
Hocevar gained one position in the standings, taking eighth from Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez, who finished 31st at Sonoma.
Broken Wrist Fails to Deter Bell
Halfway through his recovery period for a broken left wrist, Christopher Bell drove the entire Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway and pulled off a fifth-place finish on the 1.99-mile road course, his sixth top five this season.
“We’ve had a lot of adversity this year, and we keep battling back,” said Bell, who’s still wearing a cast on his left wrist that he broke in a vicious crash at Michigan.
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Christopher Bell.
Bell finished second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs in the Sonoma race’s first two Stages. However, he started to leave his pit before the left-front lug had been tightened during the Stage 2 break and a crew member banged on the car’s windshield to keep him from leaving. The stop took 17 and a half seconds and left him restarting the final Stage outside the top 10. However, by finishing second in the first two Stages, he had already acquired 18 points.
With 10 laps remaining, Bell had worked his way into fifth where he eventually finished. That top five allowed him to jump two positions to 10th in the standings with eight races remaining in the regular season. The top 16 advance into the post-season known as The Chase.
Zilisch Secures 1st Cup Top 10
Connor Zilisch knew his first season in NASCAR’s Cup Series would be tough, but he didn’t expect it would take 18 races for him to acquire his first top 10.
After qualifying 17th and then stalling his car leaving his pit on his final stop with 28 laps remaining, Zilisch produced a seventh-place finish despite losing his cool suit in the closing laps.
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Connor Zilisch.
“It was on the stall, and I just couldn’t reach out for the button with my glove on,” Zilisch said. “It was a hot last 30 laps.
“It’s been rough lately. I felt like that last run we really struggled, but up until then, I felt like we were in contention, at least close enough. I’ll have to go back and study what happened on that last run. We tanked really hard and it was a handful at the end. Although, I feel like we could have been better than that. A day like this is one we’ll take.”
Another Top 5 for Larson
Kyle Larson recorded his fourth consecutive top five-finish this season in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, an accomplishment that the Cup Series defending champion doesn’t remember the last time he achieved.
“It’s definitely the best we’ve been all year,” Larson said after finishing fourth and noting he’s been inconsistent throughout his Cup career. “We’re way closer than we were to start the year and I feel like we’re just gaining little bits at a time.
“The Toyotas are still the best. Even with SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) winning today, they were on his butt.”
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs finished second and third, respectively. Gibbs also won the first two Stages with JGR teammate Christopher Bell placing second.
Heat Overcomes Blaney
Ryan Blaney’s cool shirt stopped working before halfway in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, but the Team Penske driver fought through the heat to pull out a sixth-place finish.
Throughout the race, Blaney’s crew handed him ice packs each time he pitted. Immediately after climbing from his Ford, Blaney sat down on the ground.
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Ryan Blaney.
“You could see him very fatigued, almost slumped over,” said TNT pit reporter Shannon Spake. “The medical crew came out. He was able to walk under his own power all the way to the medical center. The team telling me that he was cramping in his left leg and his left foot.”
Team Penske said on social media that Blaney was treated in the infield care center and then released.
In-Season Challenge Upsets
In the first round of this year’s In-Season Challenge, Alex Bowman walked off with the biggest upset, advancing into the second round while eliminating Tyler Reddick, who led the driver standings through the season’s first 17 races.
Reddick was the No. 1 seed, while Bowman was the 32nd seed, but the 23XI Racing driver’s power steering issues in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 left him last in the 36-car field while Bowman recorded a 10th-place finish.
Power steering issues developed in Ty Dillon’s Kaulig Racing Chevrolet late in the race and that allowed Denny Hamlin to pass him. Hamlin, who lost his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota’s splitter in a spin, managed to pass Dillon to finish 26th. Dillon placed 35th. Hamlin advancing to the second round reversed last year’s first-round result with Dillon.
Another surprise was the elimination of Daniel Suarez, a former Sonoma winner. Todd Gilliland, who was seeded against Suarez, finished 29th while Suarez placed 31st. Gilliland now advances to the second round.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.