Tyler Reddick Wins Chase-Scrambling Phoenix Race

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, his sixth victory of the 2026 season and first since Kansas Speedway in April. With three races left until a champion is crowned, the Chase picture now looks drastically different than it did at the drop of the green flag.

“We wanted to be a lot better when we came back here and I think we checked that box,” Reddick said. “This group never lost the motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and trying to find ways to make ourselves better.”

Ryan Blaney placed second in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, overcoming pit road issues to trail Reddick in the closing laps. Still, Blaney likely needed a victory to return his team to the foremost championship battle. Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, and Corey Heim rounded out the top-five.

Joey Logano won Stage 1 after getting past teammate Ryan Blaney. Kyle Larson’s two-tire gamble proved costly, plummeting him to 24th by the end of the stage. Logano inherited the lead from Christopher Bell on pit road in Stage 2 to complete a stage sweep, this time with Chase Briscoe finishing second. A vibration in the final stage pried Logano from the lead en route to a sixth-place finish.

Wrecks in the Opening Stages

On Lap 44 Riley Herbst and Michael McDowell collided to bring out the first caution of the day. Herbst appeared to send McDowell into the wall with possible intent, potentially in retribution for a previous run-in at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In that incident, Herbst was hit by Connor Zilisch after being spun my McDowell in a wreck that caused him to miss a week with a concussion.

Another caution flew on Lap 157 when Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet spun and slammed the outside wall. After initial attempts to repair the car, Dillon’s day officially ended at Lap 175. Around this time, Michael McDowell re-entered the race 110 laps down.

Hamlin and Larson Implode

Disaster struck for Denny Hamlin on Lap 219 when a tire went down under green, forcing him to bring the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road. Just four laps later Cody Ware had his own tire go down sending his car into the wall, giving Hamlin the timely caution he needed to receive the free pass. Unfortunately, Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road entry and the nod went to Erik Jones instead.

Just when it appeared Hamlin would lose even more ground to points leader Kyle Larson, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had its own tire go down on lap 283. With Hamlin still in 29th, Larson slammed the wall and was forced into the garage with heavy damage. On that very round of pit stops, race leader Bubba Wallace sustained a costly speeding penalty too far into the running to recover all his lost track position.

Chase Outlook

A 34th-place finish proved extremely costly for Kyle Larson. Just last week, his 49-point lead was discussed as potentially bulletproof for the final four races of the year. Now, he sits just five points ahead of second-place Christopher Bell. Chase Briscoe is 24 points back in third.

The top Chase seed and one-time championship favorite, Denny Hamlin’s cascade of bad luck dropped him from second in points to fourth. Still, against all odds, his margin from the points lead actually decreased from 49 to 31. Hamlin’s employee, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, moved from 114 points back to 56 points away from the championship lead.

Despite having two of the fastest cars of the afternoon, neither Joey Logano nor Ryan Blaney were able to capitalize for a much-needed win. They remained fifth and sixth in the standings, with Blaney 40 points back and Logano 44 points out respectively.

Just last week, Christopher Bell remarked that he felt he needed to win at Charlotte Motor Speedway to remain in the championship hunt. He walked away 51 points behind Kyle Larson, seemingly dependent on an unlikely sequence of luck to claw his way back in. Just one week later, with Bell only five points, his second-place finish at Charlotte proved not to be fatal.

Race Results