By Matthew Thomerson/TheFourthTurn.com

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Tyler Reddick picked the right time to nail a late-race restart in the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway, grabbing a series-extending sixth win of the season to remain in the title fight.

The 23XI Racing driver capitalized on a series of cautions at the end of the race to pit and take four tires when many others either stayed out or took two. After heading into the final restart fourth, Reddick made a daring four-wide move in Turn 2 to grab the second spot. From there, he chased down leader Chase Briscoe, who was at a tire deficit, taking the lead with 17 laps to go and never looking back.

“Man, the way we worked there, I mean, thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better when we came back here,” Reddick said. “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. I don’t know, something about today. It didn’t really start right. Just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. Yeah, we’re back to Victory Lane. First victory for Rockstar Energy, too.”

Despite the scorching start to the season, where Reddick had won five of the first nine races, he had yet to visit Victory Lane despite many contending runs. Phoenix was also a track that plagued him in the past, but now sees a real shot at the championship, being 56 points out of first place with three races remaining.

Finishing second close behind, was two-time defending Phoenix winner Ryan Blaney, who got to second and gained on Reddick in the final laps but ran out of time. It could’ve been a much worse day for the 2023 Cup Champion, being outside the top-10 at one point but still managed a 48-point day along with the fastest lap.

“We worked on our car really hard through the day to get better,” Blaney said. “That was great. I thought before the last pit stop we drove up to fourth or fifth. So proud of the effort everyone sticking with it all day, fighting it out, giving us a shot to win at the end. Didn’t quite have enough to chase down the 45.”

Chase Elliott finished third in what was a modest clean day for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet team. After clawing to get inside the top-five at the end, Elliott and Crew Chief Alan Gustafson elected to stay out and try to manage the final 19 laps and were able to cap off a much-needed good day. Elliott is still over 100 points out of title contention, but this is another solid run to try and finish off 2026.

“Really proud of our Kelly Blue Book team for just putting together a solid day,” Elliott said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had one, so that was nice and made some legitimate improvements. I thought, which was encouraging and then certainly, 45 got me there kind of through one and 2 on the restart, but, to settle in and be able to hold the rest of those guys off, I thought was, you know, it was solid.”  

Christopher Bell led the most laps on the day and finished fourth, and part-time phenom Corey Heim rounded out the top five. Stage 1 & 2 winner Joey Logano finished sixth after leading 84 laps. Daniel Suarez finished seventh, followed by Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs.

There were 21 lead changes among 10 different leaders, with four different drivers leading over 50 laps. 

The race featured six cautions for 43 laps, including a late-race yellow for championship leader Kyle Larson, who suffered a tire issue after running outside the top-10. The off day by the No. 5 Chevrolet team has closed the gap to single digits.

“This No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet wasn’t going to quit today,” Larson said. “We never found the improvements we needed, so that was a bummer. 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 (Superspeedway) and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedway’s, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”

Chase competitor Denny Hamlin had a rough day in the desert. He blew a tire in Stage 3 and could never recover. Hamlin finished a very disappointing 28th after running inside the top-10 for much of the race.

“The beginning was not great, and once we got back in traffic, I thought the second half of the race we were really strong,” Hamlin said. “Could contend for the win. Just right there with the 19 when the tire blew for third. Definitely not ideal. But, yeah, what can you do?”

Larson now only leads by five points over Bell in The Chase. Briscoe is 24 points back, followed by Hamlin (-31), Blaney (-40), Logano (-44) and Reddick (-56). All other Chase drivers are more than a race back.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Oct. 25. Coverage begins at 2:00 PM ET on NBC. 

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images