KANSAS CITY, Kan. — There were flashbacks all around in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series showdown at Kansas Speedway, the prevailing feeling that we’ve all lived through this before.
There was the familiar setup of a Toyota-on-Toyota battle, one that nearly went awry like it did here last fall at the worst possible moment. There was the scent of another captivating finish at one of the circuit’s raciest tracks, a turbulent climax made possible by a surprising shift to overtime on an otherwise calm day. Finally, there was a scene that’s been replayed oh-so-many times already in a season that’s only a quarter of the way through, that of NBA legend Michael Jordan — one of the most competitive athletes in history — relishing another defining victory in the second act of his sports career.
The connective tissue binding all three of those déjà vu moments together again was Tyler Reddick, who has savored the historic spotlight as stock-car racing’s man of the hour. That light was a little brighter Sunday after Reddick handed Jordan, his team owner, the checkered flag in a one-for-the-thumb gesture of team harmony.
“He is on a heater, for sure,” Jordan said from pit road, “and all you can do is just let him go. Get out of his way.”
Like an iPod with his favorite track stuck on repeat, Reddick converted another brilliant drive in a stirring overtime session for his fifth victory just nine races into the season. The 23XI Racing driver’s current tear has him winning at a clip not seen since Dale Earnhardt went 5-for-9 out of the gates nearly 40 years ago. “I mean, that’s a guy on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers,” Reddick said with incredulity, later adding, “1987 was the last time that happened? I mean, that was generations ago.”
Reddick hasn’t carved his racing story into long-lasting granite, but the manner in which he’s authored the most recent chapter of his career has been a generational and compelling charge. One year removed from a maddeningly winless campaign, Reddick has powered his victory total into the double digits; Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 made it lucky No. 13.
“He’s kind of unstoppable right now, gets adversity thrown at him and just keeps coming back,” 23XI team president Steve Lauletta told NASCAR.com, all as he tried to stay dry in a beer-and-champagne-soaked Victory Lane. “The whole team, I mean — everybody’s just been poised, not getting rattled for any reason, and just knowing that a fast car is under them and they’re executing.”
The way he converted is worth its own admiration. Fellow front-runners Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson took turns dominating at the 1.5-mile speedway, but Reddick kept close and methodically tracked down Hamlin during the final green-flag run. His No. 45 Toyota sailed clear into the lead with 10 laps left in regulation, but a fuel stumble and wall scrape just eight laps later re-opened the door for Hamlin.
Cody Ware’s spin in the back of the pack on the next-to-last lap shifted the script, extending the 400-mile race into extra innings with a two-lap dash to settle it. The reset was reminiscent of the most recent Kansas race here in last September’s playoffs, when Toyota teammates had a lock on the upper reaches of the leaderboard for overtime, but contact between Hamlin and 23XI’s Bubba Wallace allowed Chase Elliott to squeak through for an uplifting Chevrolet win and a demoralizing Toyota defeat.
When Hamlin chose the bottom lane to Reddick’s inside, Wallace’s thoughts from Row 3 turned to that crucial moment last fall.
“Oh yeah, I’m like, ‘the 11, run the 45 up. Let me sneak through and do that,’ ” Wallace said with a smile. “I definitely did, and then I thought we were going to be able to capitalize, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Reddick’s thoughts gravitated that way, too, especially after Toyotas swept the top five in practice and grabbed four of the first five starting spots in Saturday’s preliminaries. “It would have been a real shame if a Toyota didn’t win today,” Reddick said. “I’m glad we were able to get that done.”
This time around, Larson was poised to play spoiler for Chevy as the only non-Toyota among the top five for OT. Reddick was determined not to let that happen, even when Larson’s No. 5 Camaro forced a three-wide move to the low side of Hamlin and Reddick that set some of the late-race bedlam in motion. Reddick nudged Toyota’s Christopher Bell on the next-to-last lap. Bell caromed into Hamlin. With a deficit of several car-lengths and the white-flag lap to go, Reddick went to the low lane and dispatched Larson by making his No. 45 stick on two fresh tires better than the rest.
MORE: Kansas win slips away for Hamlin | Cup Series standings
“Tyler just does a great job with the roller coaster of emotions, getting in the wall and kind of losing your shot to win under green there and just being able to rally back from that, just really mentally tough,” No. 45 spotter Nick Payne told NASCAR.com, lauding the total-team preparation needed to perform at this level, but also the composure of his driver with so much riding on the outcome — for his team, his manufacturer and for himself.
“It’s tough,” Payne added, cradling an empty champagne bottle under his arm. “That’s one of the first things Tyler said to me when I came down here. He said, ‘I really hate how things ended up with the 20 (Bell). We didn’t intend to really get into them there, but it’s a dog-eat-dog world on these restarts. It’s brutal. Even at one point during the race, we were racing the 23 (Wallace) as hard as we could, and it’s not personal. It’s just the product of the Next Gen car, and track position is so important here. I think we were definitely a top-three car. I don’t think we were the best car, but just … you’ve got to execute. It doesn’t matter who it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 11 (Hamlin), your team owner, or anybody else around you. So you do have your flashbacks, but I thought more back to 2023 when we won here. Just really with his back against the wall, he does a great job, executes really well. I think, back against the wall, like I said, he’s probably the guy you want in the seat.”
These days, who wouldn’t want Reddick as their guiding force. Track type hasn’t seemed to matter much, with Reddick wrangling victories in the season-opening Daytona 500 together with repeat performances at Atlanta, the Circuit of The Americas road course, rugged Darlington and now here in the heartland.
Reddick acknowledged the surreal nature of this year’s streak post-race, but was quick to note that it was no fluke. As his spotter mentioned, the preparation that’s gone on behind 23XI’s doors has been a beacon, with what Reddick called a “night and day” improvement in the organization’s cars this season. Those gains, combined with an elite level of resilience when the going turns tough, is part of why Reddick holds the top spot in the series standings by a staggering 105 points just a third of the way through the regular season.
Reddick might be excused for basking in the moment, but he says laurel-resting isn’t a flashback he’s willing to take. Now and in the races ahead, Reddick shows no signs of letting up.
“I’m loving that we’re seeing the fruits of that hard work paying off right now,” Reddick said. “If anything, I think a couple weeks ago or couple wins ago, the question was, ‘Now you’ve won two or three, do you settle in, get in a good rhythm and go?’ No. It’s let’s take advantage of how well we’re working together right now, see if we can continue to get the points, get the wins, while everyone is trying to figure it out and get it.”
Like Jordan said, get out of his way.