Tyler Reddick wins at Phoenix as Kyle Larson hits the wall: How do the NASCAR Chase standings look after the Freeway Insurance 500?

After a brief dry spell on the tracks, Tyler Reddick returned to win on Sunday, October 18. Reddick got a late boost and went on to win his sixth race of the season at the Phoenix Raceway. The win is expected to make way for Reddick for a shot at the championship. According to Reuters, this was Reddick’s first win at the 1-mile track and the 14th of his career.

Reddick led 18 laps after passing Chase Briscoe and pulled away to leave runner-up Ryan Blaney behind by just 0.801 seconds. The Toyota driver won five of the first nine races in the 2026-27 season starting high, including the first three. He had faced a win drought ever since. Reddick suffered a winless streak of 23 races after last winning the race on April 19 at Kansas.

Reddick used a smart two-tire call to win the Cup Series Chase race. He made a two-tire stop on the final pit stop and then went on to complete a four-wide move on a restart leading to his win. Upon his win, Reddick said, “We wanted to be a lot better when we came back here, and I think we checked that box.”


He added, “This group never lost its motivation or its drive. We kept searching and trying to find ways to make ourselves and all around better team”. Reddick further said that he had a good feeling today. About the final restart, Reddick said, “I didn’t have a good launch, but there was a hole and I was able to get through it.”

Point leader Kyle Larson hit the wall

Reddick’s win came with a 34th-place finish for Kyle Larson. Larson started at 22nd and fell to his finishing position after a flat tire led him to hitting the wall. The incident occurred with 30 laps remaining. Larson scored no stage points for the race.

“Not a good one,” Larson said following the race. He added that he had been trying to salvage anything and that a top-20 finish would have been great. “I just blew a right front, A lot of people were.” Larson added. Larson has had a dominating six-race post season run. He has won two with two second-place finishes and had an average finish of 2.83.

Denny Hamlin was also not able to take advantage of Larson’s finish. Hamlin suffered a flat tire and a penalty to place 28th. He was penalized for speeding on the pit road after struggling to gain control of the car. Logano went on to win both the first stage with 60 laps and the second stage with 125 laps, gaining 20 points. He has won in Phoenix four times but finished sixth on Sunday. Reddick, Blaney, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell and Corey Heim made the top five.

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How did the NASCAR standings shake up after the race?

Larson started the race 49 points ahead of Denny Hamlin and 51 ahead of Chistopher Bell. Larson, who has 2,370 points, is now only 5 points ahead of Bell and 24 points ahead of Chase Briscoe. He also leads Hamlin by 31 points and Blaney by 40.

The top five in on the NASCAR standings are, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, and finally Ryan Blaney with 2,330 points. Phoenix winner Tyler Reddick is at 7th with 2,314 points, with Kyle Larson being 56 points ahead of him.

To round up the top ten Joey Logano is at 6th with 2,326 points. Austin Cindric is at 8th, while Ty Gibbs and Chase Elliott follow him at 9th and 10th respectively. The drivers next get to compete at the Talladega Superspeedway on October 25.