KANSAS CITY, Kan. – In a wild turn of events in the closing laps of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, Tyler Reddick prevailed in NASCAR Overtime to win his fifth race of the season at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick soared past Denny Hamlin with 10 laps to go and appeared that he was going to cruise to victory; however, Hamlin fought back in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota. As the two drivers navigated lapped traffic, Reddick’s car stumbled due to low fuel, and he slapped the wall in between Turns 3 and 4.

“The stumble, seemed like a fuel pump issue,” Reddick said. “Thankfully I was able to catch it. Instinctually as a driver, when that happens, you’re out of fuel typically. I was trying to figure out if it was a fuel thing, just all that going on, me going down the back, talk on the radio, hear what Billy (Scott, crew chief) said, everything kind of all at once.

“I lost focus unfortunately and drove the right into the fence. Oddly enough, we drove to Denny really well, got clear of him. It was the longest green flag run of the day. We were getting lap cars better than we were used to. I made bad choices to set myself up to get by Austin Dillon. One time looked like he was going to fade low, give me the top. He took the top. Lost some momentum there. All on my own drove into the fence.”

Hamlin retook the lead with two laps to go, and just as the two Toyota Racing drivers were about to take the white flag, Cody Ware spun in front of them, and the first caution of the day for an accident came out.

“We didn’t lead a lot of laps,” Reddick said. “I let Denny get away there and save one. We were behind running him in most of the time.”

Hamlin, Reddick and the leaders hit pit road for final adjustments, and on the NASCAR Overtime restart, near disaster struck as they jockeyed for position. Reddick led the field into Turn 1, with Kyle Larson, Hamlin and Christopher Bell three-wide behind him battling for second. Coming out of Turn 2, Reddick fell back as Larson went to the lead. In the middle three-wide, Reddick had contact with Hamlin, which sent him up the track and into Bell who bounced off the wall.

“Just really blessed with the late caution,” Reddick said. “Was that nuts or what? I couldn’t believe it. I mean, first off, I feel like I have to say obviously just for how I feel. I never like being on the inside of it. Really hate that for Christopher Bell. Good, hard racing. The 11 came up, I mean, I took off tight. Not thrilled I got Christopher there. I hate that for him because he was having a good, solid day.

“Man, these late race restarts get crazy. I obviously had a run on the 5. I was shocked I was able to get to his inside there. An incredible SupplyHouse Toyota Camry all day long. Yeah, it was really painful to get that late caution.”

On the final lap, Reddick edged ahead of Larson on the backstretch and cleared him coming out of Turn 4 to secure his 13^th-career victory and his second at Kansas. With the performance, Reddick became the first driver to win five of the first nine races of the season since Dale Earnhardt Sr. did so in 1987.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s a guy on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers,” Reddick said.T”o be able to accomplish things that someone like him did is truly incredible.

“But none of it’s possible without the good men and women at 23XI. The ones that travel, the one back at Airspeed”

Larson held on to finish second in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. Reddick and Hamlin were so far ahead in the closing laps that a late caution was Larson’s best chance of competing for the win. The run is Larson second consecutive top-five finish this season.

When it all worked out like that, I was like, oh, great, clean air. I went through three and four and I was plowing. Yeah, I was nervous. Then I could tell he had a huge run on me behind. Thought maybe if I could get to the banking, it would like load and cut, but it didn’t.

“Yeah, he was really good right there. I was just hoping to be better. I was happy to get to the lead, the restart worked out great. Anyways, we got lucky with the caution, too.”

Chase Briscoe went from seventh on the last restart to finishing third, earning his second consecutive top-five finish.

As for Hamlin, he finished fourth after absolutely dominating the day. Following the race, he was a little loss for words.

“It’s Cody Ware, six laps down wrecking,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know. It just added up. I feel for the same move that the 5 got me a couple years ago when I was on the inside. I got to learn from those mistakes that I make, not executing those last few laps.”

Bubba Wallace rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher.

Hamlin won Stage 1 and Larson won Stage 2.

There were 17 lead changes among seven drivers. Hamlin led a race high of 131 laps.

Reddick continues to lead the standings by a large margin. He now leads Hamlin by 105 points.

The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Talladega Superspeedway for the Jack Link’s 500 on Sunday, April 26. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: David Jensen/Getty Images