Daytona, Atlanta, COTA, Darlington, and now Kansas: Tyler Reddick is now 5/9 for NASCAR Cup wins in 2026, and 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan has been one of the first people to congratulate him after every single one.
The NBA legend has been at the track constantly early in the season, and he has been watching from pit road as Reddick earned each of his five victories thus far.
But Kansas was a surprise, even after starting from pole position. Reddick had to battle his boss and MJ's business partner Denny Hamlin in the closing laps, and as he hit the wall while running on fumes, Jordan could only put his hands on his head as the race unraveled for the No. 45.
But just then, a fortunate caution allowed Reddick to regroup and pushed the race into overtime. After a messy restart that saw Reddick almost fall back to fifth, he surged forward, and was running second to Kyle Larson at the white flag. He dove underneath the reigning series champion, and passed him in the final corner of the race.
"I'm racing against Denny, so I really wanted to beat him because I know we are going to talk a lot of trash a little bit later," Jordan told NASCAR on FOX with a smile. "It was a good race. When we started to run out of fuel, I didn't know what was happening, but all the 23XI guys drove well today. We finished -- I think -- all four cars in the top 15, so that says a lot about the program.
This kid is on fire. I don't even know what to say. I don't know if I can cool him down. He's unbelievable. That was unbelievable the last couple of laps, and I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the whole team."
Reddick then handed Jordan the checkered flag as they celebrated their latest victory together.
"When you win, it's always fun," added Jordan, as Reddick now leads the championship standings by over 100 points.
Reddick has 13 career wins, and ten of those have come while driving for 23XI Racing.
Denny Hamlin was half a lap away from taking the white flag in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas, one that seemed largely decided between himself and Tyler Reddick, but then Cody Ware cut a tire and spun out.
Shake the snow globe!
Hamlin retained the lead off pit road, with most of the frontrunners taking just right sides, but lost it on the restart when he didn’t get the best launch. This allowed Kyle Larson to take him and Tyler Reddick three-wide. Reddick then fenced Christopher Bell before overcoming a nearly one second deficit to win the race.
But again, Hamlin had the race won, even retaking the lead from Reddick, who sputtered due to a fuel pump issue before the Ware spin that flipped everything on its figurative
“I need Cody Ware running dead ass last not to wreck.” MRN
“It’s Cody Ware, six laps down, wrecking, I don’t know, just add it all up.” FOX
However, the race was lost on the restart and Hamlin conceded that too.
“I know in my mind the restarting on the top was the place to be but the (data) said bottom,” Hamlin told reporters on pit road after the race. “In these green-white-checkered scenarios, you can throw the numbers out because everything is so different.”
Hamlin says he knew deep down that Larson was going to take them three-wide because that’s within his very successful aggressive playbook.
“I have to recognize that I know (Larson) is going to do that move, and I have to make sure that if it happens, I do everything I can to let (Reddick) win,” Hamlin said. “I got beat by that a few years ago and knew in my mind that the top was the place to be, but the numbers say the bottom. In these green-white-checkered scenarios, you can throw the numbers out. I will certainly learn a lesson there.
“It’s a double-edged sword. I need the push, but I know that the first opportunity, [Larson is] going to go bottom, so I need to do everything I can. If that happens, then the 45 wins, which he did.”
Meanwhile, Larson had the race won and then lost it in equal parts too but didn't come across as disappointed as Hamlin. He said he recognizes he only had a chance because of the late restart so he’ll take what he was given on Sunday.
“The restart worked out perfect for me,” Larson said. “Denny was stretching away and (Brad Keselowski) gave me a tap and let me rebuild my momentum and was able to do a later move getting to the inside of Denny into 1. (Reddick) had to protect his outside, so it made him go the long distance. I got clear of the lead and was happy — really happy.
“But then I went down into [Turn] 3 and I couldn’t carry the throttle and speed; I was super tight and didn’t get through there like I needed to. Tyler had a big run behind me and knew I was going to be in trouble either lane I went.”
And that’s how Reddick closed the gap so quickly, even after squeezing Bell into the wall.
“I mean, for me, in my line, I was trying to run as close to Christopher,” Reddick said of the contact. “It's tricky. I think halfway through the corner, I thought maybe we'd be side by side. It got pretty obvious with Denny on my inside, I was getting tight. I knew Christopher was going to, like, probably clear me.
I don't know, inside of Denny. He was closer to me than I thought he was going to be. I can't even remember if there was contact or not. It kind of felt like it. But these cars do take off really bad tight.
“Where I was in relation to the 11, we were close together. My car kind of took off off of two. As a driver, I wish you could say you could prevent those things from happening. These cars take off so tight, so fast, I was kind of helpless. Couldn't do anything to keep the contact from occurring.”
He was cognizant, in real time, that he did Bell wrong.
“So that one in the moment stings, and you just have to put it behind you really fast and go and win the race,” Reddick said. “I was glad we were able to get back to the 5. I was really surprised we had that kind of grip on those right sides, but I took advantage of it and was able to make the move.”
Stat: For the first time since 1987, a driver has won five of the first nine races, and the last driver to do it was Dale Earnhardt.
This time, it’s Tyler Reddick and the 23XI Racing No. 45.
“Yeah, that's a guy on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers,” Reddick said after winning the AdventHealth 400. “To 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.”
Humble and understated
Listen, no one in good faith is going to suggest Reddick is The Intimidator but there was an element of Ironhead to how this race was won on Sunday afternoon. There was a refuse to lose from the entire 45 team.
Specifically, this race was lost twice and yet they won. Reddick passed team owner but rival driver Denny Hamlin over the course of the final long green flag run but then a fuel pickup issue led to contact with the wall and giving the lead right back up.
Then, on a restart against Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, Reddick was aggressive. He objectively walled Bell and lost a second to Larson but drove back around him over the next lap and a half anyway.
It was a little messy, but that’s kind of what Cup overtimes at Kansas have been in the NextGen era, and Reddick showed crew chief Billy Scott something along the way.
“I just told him to refocus, take a deep breath and start over,” Scott said. “We're still on the front row, a great place to be. We kind of anticipated what might happen with (Larson). Historically gone three-wide on the bottom with a good restart. I knew (Bell) was one of the best at getting to the outside to our right rear. Both of those things happened.
“Four of the best in the series up there battling. Any one of them could have come out on top. It worked out perfectly. Again, he put himself in the exact right spot to make it happen.”
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing
And he’s doing it a lot right now, winning 56 percent of all Cup Series races through nine starts, unheard of in the spec car era that was supposed to signal an impossibility for a driver to reach 10 wins in a single season again.
“Nice,” Reddick said.
The win also gives Reddick a 100-point championship lead again, which isn’t insurmountable for the regular season, but certainly gives him a tremendous likelihood of a top-four seed once the Chase for the Championship begins with the Southern 500.
“Very nice,” Reddick said.
Remember, 69 percent of simulated championship runs were won from a top-four starting position over the winter, and Reddick has placed himself in position to reach that precipice come November.
“Thanks for putting it that way,” Reddick said with a laugh.
“Yeah, I mean, it's early,” Reddick said. “I mean, we saw today the 11 is strong. I know the 20 is strong, as well. The 5, he finds ways to get more speed out of his cars when it seems like handling is lacking a bit. There's a lot of really good teams, a lot of good pit crews, a lot of good minds in this garage.
“Certainly over these next 17 races, the ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start hitting it. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we get through this year. We've done a really good job of making the most of our days and scoring a lot of points.”
And once the Chase begins, the most Reddick could start with is a 25-point lead, or a 25 point deficit, or a 30 point deficit, but those seem to be the most likely options and that’s not a bad place regardless.
“Yeah, we'll see when we get to the Chase, right,” he said. “It's going to get reset and everyone's going to get the points that they've earned. We'll go from there.
“We'll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible. If we can maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts us in position to try and steal some more wins if it's split strategy calls middle of the race or late in the race.”
Regardless of what happens in the fall, it’s not often that Reddick can put his name next to Dale Earnhardt in some tangible way, and that will be the lasting memory of the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing
“It's really unreal,” he said.
“It's definitely going to seem like night and day. Our cars are, you would think, night and day, just night and day that our cars are so much better. I mean, I think we have done a good job of improving our cars at the places we're already strong, making them better at the places we're weak.
“More than anything, our mindset, approach, what we're doing consistently on the preparation side. It's on a really good place. Weeks like this where I'm not at my best as a driver, whatever it might be, we're still able to power through the stuff and use that teamwork that we work hard on, whether it was in the off-season or how we go about preparing for each race.
I'm loving that we're seeing the fruits of that hard work paying off right now.”
Can anything stop Tyler Reddick at this point? The 23XI Racing driver now has five wins in the first nine races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup season, and he now has a 105-point lead in the championship.
His boss, Denny Hamlin, has jumped up into second in the overall standings, and the two drivers did battle in the closing laps at Kansas on Sunday.
Around the Chase cutline, things have changed as well. Shane van Gisbergen has fallen out of the provisional Chase field, and Daniel Suarez is now on the bubble, just 13 points ahead of Austin Cindric.
Todd Gilliland is the biggest mover in the standings, moving three positions from 26th to 23rd, while Kyle Busch is the biggest loser, dropping from 24th to 27th in the standings.
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