04/20/26 08:47:00
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04/20 08:45 CDT Tyler Reddick's last-lap move, his fifth win, and a pace not
seen since Dale Earnhardt in 1987
Tyler Reddick's last-lap move, his fifth win, and a pace not seen since Dale
Earnhardt in 1987
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) --- None of the past four NASCAR Cup Series champions
managed to win more than four races in their entire season.
Puts into perspective the kind of roll Tyler Reddick is on right now.
The driver for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan
picked up his fifth win of the season on Sunday, when he made a last-lap pass
of reigning series champ and defending race winner Kyle Larson to win at Kansas
Speedway.
It wasn't just Reddick's fifth win of the season. It was his fifth through nine
races, a pace matched only four times in NASCAR's top series, and not since
Dale Earnhardt started off the 1987 season that way. Earnhardt went on to win
six more times while claiming the third of his seven championships, and there's
little to make it seem that Reddick can't do the same thing.
"I mean, it's early," Reddick said after joining Jordan in a post-race
celebration. "Certainly over these next 17 races (before the playoffs), the
ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start
hitting. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we
get through this year. We've done a really good job of making the most of our
days."
Scoring a lot of points, too. The revamped postseason structure means that
whomever is leading before the Chase begins gets a huge advantage, and Reddick
already has a big lead over Hamlin and the rest of the field in that regard.
"We'll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible," he said. "If we can
maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts
us in position to try and steal some more wins if it's split-strategy calls
middle of the race or late in the race."
It's not just Reddick that is running on all cylinders, though. His entire team
is on a roll.
Bubba Wallace ran near the front most of Sunday and finished fifth. Riley
Herbst was 14th, one spot ahead of Corey Heim, who made a spot start in the No.
67 car for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500 yet was every
bit as quick.
That's pretty strong stuff for a race team that is in just its sixth season.
"I think the missing part has been really executing across the board," 23XI
president Steve Lauletta said. "Our pit crews have taken a big step forward.
Everybody worked really hard in the offseason to refine our processes and our
communication.
"We're only what, nine races into our sixth season? Still a lot of work to do
be done."
Yet the work is clearly paying off.
After winning three times in 2024, Reddick was shut out entirely last year.
Wallace won the team's only race at the Brickyard 400, and an organization that
seemed to be ascending suddenly appeared to have leveled off a bit.
Now, 23XI is on an entirely different level. One that nobody else seems to be
matching.
"I mean, again, super gratifying," Lauletta said. "It wasn't just (Reddick) not
winning, right? Just as an organization, we only won one race. It was the
Brickyard, which was great. There was no heads being hung. It was just more the
attitude of, ?We've got to get to work,' and that was across the board. ... A
lot of really good things are happening overall that started with the work that
we needed to do in the offseason to kind of make sure we would be where we
wanted to be as an organization this year."
Where they wanted to be was up front. Reddick is putting them there every week.
It's not just the five wins, either. He was in contention to win a couple of
weeks ago at Bristol before finishing fourth, had another top-10 run at
Phoenix, and has finished in the top 15 and on the lead lap in each of the
first nine races this season.
Next up is Talladega, too, where Reddick won just a couple of years ago.
"When you win," Jordan said Sunday, "it's always fun. Right now it's fun for
everybody at 23XI. Me being here (in Kansas) and being able to see all the
wins, I'm so happy for the team. I just think we need to continually build on
this, without a doubt."
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
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