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AVONDALE, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 18: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, crosses the finish line to win the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Tyler Reddick<\/a> had Ryan Blaney breathing down his neck in the closing laps at Phoenix Raceway. The 23XI Racing driver wasn\u2019t about to let him steal the win.<\/p>\n Reddick held off Blaney<\/a> by 0.801 seconds to win Sunday\u2019s Freeway Insurance 500, delivering a hard-fought NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> victory after a chaotic afternoon in the desert.<\/p>\n Chase Elliott finished third, Christopher Bell took fourth and Corey Heim rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n Reddick led just 18 of the 312 laps, but he was out front when it counted. His victory came after a race featuring six cautions, 21 lead changes and a disastrous ending for Kyle Larson<\/a>, whose afternoon ended in the garage.<\/p>\n Tyler Reddick Holds Off Ryan Blaney for Phoenix Victory<\/p>\n Blaney started on the pole and led the first 44 laps before the afternoon\u2019s opening caution shook up the running order.<\/p>\n Riley Herbst and Michael McDowell collided<\/a> in Turn 4 while battling for 20th, bringing out the yellow flag and sending teams down pit road.<\/p>\n That opened the door for Logano.<\/p>\n While several contenders elected to take two tires, Logano took four and worked his way forward, passing Denny Hamlin on Lap 51 to win the opening stage.<\/p>\n The three-time Cup Series champion wasn\u2019t finished. Logano also won Stage 2, collecting the maximum stage points available Sunday.<\/p>\n Christopher Bell emerged as another serious contender, leading a race-high 85 laps. Logano led 84, while Blaney paced the field for 51.<\/p>\n But the closing laps belonged to Reddick.<\/p>\n Blaney recovered from handling problems that had threatened to derail his afternoon and mounted a late challenge. Reddick, however, maintained his advantage and crossed the finish line less than a second ahead of the No. 12 Ford.<\/p>\n Elliott completed the podium, while Heim secured a top-five result.<\/p>\n Kyle Larson\u2019s Championship Chase Takes a Hit at Phoenix<\/p>\n Sunday was far less enjoyable for Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n Larson entered the race as the Cup Series points leader but struggled with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet almost immediately.<\/p>\n He started 22nd and made little progress during the opening stage. A two-tire strategy failed to improve his position, and his handling problems only grew worse.<\/p>\n \u201cNo grip. No turn. Definitely no rear,\u201d Larson complained over the radio.<\/p>\n A flat right-front tire eventually sent Larson into the wall, bringing out a caution and forcing him to the garage.<\/p>\n His team initially attempted to assess the damage, but the repairs couldn\u2019t be completed. Larson was officially out of the race, finishing 34th, 31 laps behind the winner.<\/p>\n The early exit was especially costly because Larson also failed to score stage points.<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin endured a difficult finish of his own, coming home 28th after falling a lap down.<\/p>\n Full NASCAR Cup Series Results From Phoenix Raceway<\/p>\n Here is the complete finishing order from Sunday\u2019s Freeway Insurance 500.<\/p>\n Tyler Reddick Reddick\u2019s victory came in the seventh race of NASCAR\u2019s 10-race Cup Series Chase<\/a>, leaving three races remaining in the championship battle.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMaggie MacKenzie<\/a> Maggie MacKenzie covers NASCAR for Heavy.com. She previously worked for NASCAR.com, where she reported, wrote, and edited race-weekend coverage and traveled to key events throughout the season. She has more than ten years of experience in sports media and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. More about Maggie MacKenzie<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty AVONDALE, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 18: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, crosses the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-938204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRyan Blaney
\nChase Elliott
\nChristopher Bell
\nCorey Heim
\nJoey Logano
\nDaniel Su\u00e1rez
\nChase Briscoe
\nRoss Chastain
\nTy Gibbs
\nJosh Berry
\nCarson Hocevar
\nNoah Gragson
\nTodd Gilliland
\nZane Smith
\nBrad Keselowski
\nBubba Wallace
\nRyan Preece
\nAustin Cindric
\nConnor Zilisch
\nWilliam Byron
\nChris Buescher
\nAJ Allmendinger
\nAustin Hill<\/a>
\nErik Jones
\nShane van Gisbergen
\nCole Custer
\nDenny Hamlin
\nAlex Bowman
\nRicky Stenhouse Jr.
\nTy Dillon
\nRiley Herbst
\nJohn Hunter Nemechek
\nKyle Larson
\nCody Ware
\nMichael McDowell
\nAustin Dillon<\/p>\n