{"id":57429,"date":"2026-04-20T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=57429"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:39:32","slug":"tyler-reddick-enjoys-good-fortune-at-the-expense-of-his-car-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/tyler-reddick-enjoys-good-fortune-at-the-expense-of-his-car-owner\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Reddick enjoys good fortune at the expense of his car owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

KANSAS CITY, Kan. \u2014 We\u2019ve all heard the expression, \u201cI\u2019d rather be lucky than good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Supply House Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhy not both?\u201d Tyler Reddick could have asked on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

To be sure, it takes consummate skill and excellent equipment to win five of the first nine races in a NASCAR Cup Series season. After all, no other driver had accomplished that feat since NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt won six of the first nine events in 1987.<\/p>\n

It took an 11th-hour twist of fate, however, for Reddick to win the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n

Enter Cody Ware. In the closing laps, as Reddick was chasing Denny Hamlin, who co-owns the 23XI Racing cars Reddick drives, Ware was trying to nurse his No. 51 Chevrolet to the finish line on tires that were more than 60 laps old\u2014well beyond their useful life at Kansas.<\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Supply House Toyota, celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ware already had scraped the outside wall, but he soldiered on as Reddick caught and passed Hamlin for the lead on Lap 258 and held the top spot for seven laps.<\/p>\n

Inexplicably, Reddick\u2019s No. 45 Toyota sputtered, though crew chief Billy Scott asserted later that the car was not out of fuel. Confused by the momentary loss of fuel pickup, Reddick switched to a secondary pump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost focus, unfortunately, and drove it right into the fence,\u201d Reddick said.<\/p>\n

The burp in the fuel system and contact with the outside wall slowed Reddick and allowed Hamlin to regain the lead on Lap 265 of 267, but before Hamlin could take the white flag, Ware\u2019s Camaro spun in Turn 4 to cause the only caution of the race for an on-track incident.<\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Michael Jordan, NBA Hall of Famer and co-owner of 23XI Racing celebrates with the checkered flag after his driver, Tyler Reddick (not pictured)wins the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Deprived of the chance to win in regulation, Hamlin pitted for new right-side tires before overtime. Reddick did the same, and so did Kyle Larson, the two-time defending winner of the spring race at Kansas.<\/p>\n

Moments after Hamlin led the field to green for the two-lap overtime shootout, Larson steered to the bottom of the track, put Hamlin three-wide in the middle and took the lead in what looked like a done deal for the reigning series champion.<\/p>\n

But Reddick\u2019s car handled better than Larson\u2019s on two new tires, and after bouncing off the Toyota of Christopher Bell, Reddick pursued Larson and passed him through the final two turns for the win.<\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Supply House Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s back up for a moment. As Reddick was chasing Hamlin in the closing laps of regulation, as luck would have it, Hamlin approached the lapped car of Kyle Busch. Earlier in the week, Busch had taken umbrage at comments Hamlin had made on his podcast \u201cActions Detrimental.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day before the race, Busch had commented, \u201cHe can bash me all he wants, and I can make his life hell.\u201d As Hamlin approached Busch\u2019s Chevrolet on the 1.5-mile track, Busch tried to do just that, making his car as difficult to pass as possible. Hamlin lost a half-second to Reddick in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the 8 (Busch) was in front of him, I just had a feeling that was how it was going to go down,\u201d said Reddick, who had a front-row seat for the action. \u201cIt certainly helped us catch the 11 (Hamlin) faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Supply House Toyota, and crew celebrate with beer in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Nevertheless, when Reddick had his fuel issue and scraped the wall, Hamlin regained control and was headed for victory until Ware spun.<\/p>\n

Reddick\u2019s good fortune, however, has a converse, and Hamlin seemingly has been star-crossed since last November, when he dominated the Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix, only to be foiled by a caution with three laps left.<\/p>\n

At Martinsville on March 29, Hamlin led 292 of 400 laps in the fastest car but was snookered when Chase Elliott short-pitted to gain the lead. On Sunday at Kansas, the car Hamlin drives was beaten by a car he owns, thanks to the ill-timed caution.<\/p>\n

Hamlin\u2019s friend and 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan didn\u2019t lighten Hamlin\u2019s mood after the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – APRIL 19: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Supply House Toyota, and crew celebrate in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cLook, I’m racing against Denny,\u201d said the NBA Hall of Famer. \u201cI really wanted to beat him, because I know we’re going to talk a lot of trash a little bit later.\u201d<\/p>\n

On pit road, Jordan gave Hamlin a hug, ruffled his baseball cap and pretended to choke Hamlin\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n

The score so far this year? Reddick: five wins to one for Hamlin and two for Joe Gibbs Racing (Hamlin and Ty Gibbs).<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was because he was runner-up, perhaps because he had somewhere else to be, but Hamlin didn\u2019t appear for a post-race press conference as car owner after a Reddick victory for the first time this season. Team president Steve Lauletta did the honors.<\/p>\n

There is a place of solace for the bad luck that has followed Hamlin and the No. 11 team\u2014Victory Lane. For his sake, that\u2019s a visit that should come sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. \u2014 We\u2019ve all heard the expression, \u201cI\u2019d rather be lucky than good.\u201d \u201cWhy not both?\u201d Tyler Reddick could have asked on Sunday afternoon. To be sure, it takes consummate skill and excellent equipment to win five of the first nine races in a NASCAR Cup Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":57389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[213,16,496],"class_list":["post-57429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-kansas-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-tyler-reddick"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272108828-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-eWh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57432,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57429\/revisions\/57432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}