AVONDALE, Ariz. — After a phenomenal start to the 2026 season, followed by an agonizing dry spell, Tyler Reddick returned to Victory Lane on Sunday — and simultaneously did NASCAR Cup Series leader Kyle Larson a significant favor.
Snookering the top contenders in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after a restart on Lap 294, Reddick surged past Chase Briscoe and into the lead a lap later, pulling away to beat runner-up Ryan Blaney by 0.801 seconds in the Freeway Insurance 500 as Briscoe faded to eighth on older tires.
Reddick‘s sixth win of the season and first at Phoenix Raceway, combined with Larson‘s catastrophic 34th-place result, brought seven drivers into the mix for the series championship with three races left.
The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota won five of the first nine races this season, including the first three, but since then had endured a winless streak of 23 races.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Phoenix
“That’s way too long,” a relieved Reddick said after performing a massive celebratory burnout in front of the main grandstand. “Man, the way we worked there, I mean, thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better when we came back here (after the March race). I think we checked that box.
“For us, this group never lost motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and keep trying to find ways to make ourselves better, just be an all-around better team … Just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. Yeah, we’re back to Victory Lane.”
Before Sunday‘s race at the 1-mile speedway, Larson led second-place Denny Hamlin by 49 points with four races left in the postseason. After Reddick won for the 14th time in his career, there are now six drivers within 56 points of The Chase leader.
Fourth-place finisher Christopher Bell climbed one spot in the standings and trails Larson by five points, having trimmed 46 points from his previous deficit to the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
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“We’re right there in it,” said Bell, who led a race-high 85 laps and finished third in each of the first two stages. “Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages.
“I felt like our performance probably tapered off a little bit as the day went on. We had the strategy to put tires there at the end, had good restarts to get some track position. We’re in the hunt.”
Briscoe is 24 points back in third place, followed by Hamlin, who fell from second to fourth but gained 18 points to 31 back, despite a blown tire that relegated him to 28th at the finish.
“The beginning was not great, and once we got back in traffic, I thought the second half of the race we were really strong,” said Hamlin, who was trapped a lap down after pitting with a shredded tire on Lap 221 and incurring a speeding penalty.
“Could contend for the win. Just right there with the 19 (Briscoe) when the tire blew (while battling) for third.”
Blaney, the pole winner, is 40 points in arrears, followed by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who swept the first two stages of Sunday‘s race and is 44 points behind Larson after a sixth-place run.
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“It was good and bad, I guess,” said Logano, who led 84 laps but lost track position on pit road. “The good part is that we were fast and led a bunch of laps and won two stages.
“The bad part is we gave away a win. That part hurts a little bit, but I guess we made up close to 50 points to the leader, so you can‘t be too mad about it. I wish we had it back.”
After qualifying 22nd, Larson struggled from the outset in a car that lacked speed. Despite a two-tire call that vaulted him temporarily to fifth, Larson remained 22nd at the end of Stage 1. From that point, his race went from bad to worse.
On Lap 283, Larson blew a tire in Turn 1, slammed the outside wall and retired from the event, scoring just three points for his efforts, compared with Reddick, who notched 61.
MORE: What happened to Larson | What happened to Hamlin
“We never found the improvements we needed, so that was a bummer,” Larson said. “I didn‘t expect to be good, but I didn‘t expect to be that bad either. It wasn‘t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day.
“We‘ll go to Talladega and try to forget about today and get back after it. We‘ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”
The only saving grace for Larson was that Reddick‘s win kept him in the series lead. Either Bell, Briscoe or Hamlin could have taken the top spot in The Chase with a victory.
Larson‘s teammate, Chase Elliott, finished third but remains 149 points out of The Chase lead. Reddick‘s teammate, Bubba Wallace, led 52 laps and had control of the race in the final stage before a pit road speeding penalty under caution for Larson‘s accident knocked him back to 17th at the finish.
Corey Heim came home fifth, followed by Logano, Daniel Suárez, Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs.
All told, there were six cautions for 43 laps and 21 lead changes among 10 drivers. Reddick led only the final 18 laps after a lane opened up for him soon after the final restart.
“Yeah, just got really fortunate,” Reddick said. “I didn’t have a good launch. There was a hole. I was able to get through it. I thought the 19 (Briscoe) was going to be able to cover the move into (Turn) 3.
“I got him loose. We checked out.”
The NASCAR Cup Chase continues next Sunday with the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Stage 2 recap: Logano sweeps the first two segments
Joey Logano swept the stages in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Phoenix Raceway, earning max points in the first two frames. The race is the seventh of 10 postseason events in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Chase Briscoe finished second, followed by Christopher Bell, Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace. Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Todd Gilliland and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10 and points earners.
RELATED: At-track photos: Phoenix
Logano held serve after pit stops during the Stage 1 break, restarting from the top spot after taking right-side tires.
But that advantage didn’t last long as Bell snuck past the three-time champion in Turn 2 to take his first lead of the afternoon on Lap 69.
Bell jolted ahead to a multi-second advantage, but as the stint progressed and tires began to wear out, Logano reeled the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell darted for pit road on Lap 123, taking four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel and handing the lead to Logano.
Hamlin pitted moments later from just outside the top 10, executing a clean four-tire stop after a hang-up on the left-rear last time down.
MORE: Full Stage 2 results | Watch Logano sweep the stages
Midway through service, Brad Keselowski spun entering pit road, nudging the rear of Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The race stayed green.
Blaney pitted on Lap 127, along with Larson — who continued plummeting through the field. Logano surrendered the lead for service a lap later, and Bell cycled back to the lead with the No. 22 Team Penske Ford seven seconds behind him — but with a tire advantage.
Larson, who entered Sunday’s race with the series lead, cycled to 27th, a lap down and multiple spots behind the free-pass position.
On Lap 157, Austin Dillon suffered a flat tire entering Turn 3, bringing out the second caution for incident of the afternoon.
The leaders came down pit road for service, with most drivers electing to take four tires. Logano eked past Bell as the first car off, setting him up for the lead on the restart.
Because all lead-lap cars pitted, that allowed for Larson to take the wave around and return to the lead lap — a key development for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet near the race’s midpoint.
Logano held serve on the restart as Briscoe jumped into second, the highest the No. 19 driver has run in his quest for three straight wins.
With 15 laps left in the stage, John Hunter Nemechek suffered a tire issue, but nursed his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota to pit road, and the race stayed green the rest of the frame.
Stage 1 recap: Logano wins opening frame
Joey Logano won Stage 1 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Phoenix Raceway, leading the final nine laps of the opening frame in the desert.
Denny Hamlin finished second by a hair over Christopher Bell, followed by Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Josh Berry rounded out the top 10 and points earners.
MORE: Full Stage 1 results | Watch Logano win Stage 1
Blaney, the polesitter, jumped out to the lead on the initial start and paced the first 44 laps until the first caution of the afternoon. Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst crashed in Turn 4 while battling for 20th, Herbst contacting the No. 71 Chevrolet from behind after close-quarters racing down the backstretch.
That resulted in the first batch of pit stops. Hamlin, Byron and Elliott each took two tires and were the first three drivers off pit road. Larson, who started 22nd and gained only a minuscule position during the first stint, also took two and lined up fifth. Blaney had a slow four-tire stop and dropped to eighth in the running order.
But it was Logano, who elected for four tires, who passed Hamlin on Lap 51 to win the stage. Larson struggled on two tires and plummeted back to 22nd, where he started the 312-lap event and did not earn points.
Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Reddick as the Phoenix winner.
Contributing: Staff report