Tyler Reddick Scores Big Win in Overtime Finish at Kansas Speedway

It took a re-rack of the field in an overtime restart, but Tyler Reddick emerged victorious in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 Race Results

The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry TRD only led two laps on the path to his fifth-career win, but they turned out to be the most important two laps of the day -- the final two.

Reddick would perform a wild burnout on the front stretch, where he nosed his car into the outside wall and actually began to climb from the window as the wheels were still producing smoke.

"Yeah, I knew I could get my hands out with my wheel, but I got my whole body out during that burnout," Reddick joked. "Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team. We had really good pace, but just couldn't get ahead of Denny, there. But chaos ensued, and people stayed out. Some took two tires. The bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy."

Reddick restarted from the inside lane from the fifth position on the final restart alongside his team owner Denny Hamlin. The two drivers had been battling for the lead prior to a caution on Lap 261 for Chris Buescher's cut right rear tire, which sent the race into overtime.

When the green flag flew, Reddick, who had four fresh tires, knifed to the inside of the track and made quick work of Daniel Suarez, who stayed out under the caution to gain the lead, as well as Erik Jones, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch, who all took two tires for track position under the caution.

After threading the needle to move to third in Turns 1 and 2, Reddick launched to the high side to gain momentum off of Turn 4, and as he came to the finish line, he ducked to the inside of Jones and Logano to take the lead. He wouldn't look back.

Reddick would win the race by 0.327 sec. over Hamlin, who eventually found his way through the minefield of cars as well.

Prior to the caution for Buescher's cut tire, Hamlin had the race in control as he had a lead of more than two seconds over Reddick, and it appeared he was heading toward his third win of the 2023 season.

Then, the caution came out. But once the caution came out, Hamlin still had a chance to get the win done, but admittedly, he made a mistake on the final restart of the race, which is what led to him finishing second on the day.

"[Kyle Larson] was laying back so much, I was trying to back up to him. I should have just focused forward probably," Hamlin explained. "I gave [Reddick] an opportunity to get up there in front of us. Just sleeping on the restart looking in the rearview instead of looking out front. Hats off to the Yahoo team, Camry TRD team. Another really, really fast car just didn't need that caution at the end."

It was another missed opportunity for Hamlin, who led 63 laps on the day, second only to Larson, who led a race-high 99 laps. Hamlin led the most laps a week ago at Darlington Raceway, but a loose wheel on a late-race pit stop ended his chances at victory there.

Still, Hamlin has to be encouraged by the speed in his No. 11 Toyota to start the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Erik Jones came home in third in the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB entry. That team came to life a week ago at Darlington Raceway, and they continued the momentum at Kansas Speedway this weekend.

Larson would finish the day in fourth, while Logano would parlay the late-race two-tire strategy from crew chief Paul Wolfe to finish fifth.

Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, and Alex Bowman would round out the top-10 finishers on the day.

Ross Chastain, one of the 16 Playoff contenders, was able to salvage a decent 13th-place finish after a pit road penalty late in the race.

Chastain was one of several Playoff contenders who found trouble on Sunday at the 1.5-mile speedway in Kansas City.

Martin Truex Jr. took the biggest points hit on the day, as he cut a right rear tire on his No. 19 Toyota on Lap 4 of the race. The cut tire sent Truex hard into the outside wall, and the crash ended his day. He would finish dead-last in the 36th position.

“Just really unfortunate. Very unlucky,” Truex said of the tire failure. “It took off really tight, I knew something was up, and then blew a right rear. So, not really sure what happened. Obviously, it blew in the worst place possible. I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome racecar, we were going to have a really good day.”

Truex, who started the Playoffs tied for the point lead with William Byron, now sits seven points outside of the Playoff cutline with one race remaining in the Round of 16.

Speaking of Byron, he found trouble of his own in this race.

On Lap 63, Byron went for a spin on the exit of Turn 2, while running near the front of the field. After the spin, Byron's car never really found the handle again, and he would struggle to finish 15th on the day.

Bubba Wallace was another championship hopeful who hit a snag on Sunday, as a cut right rear tire sent him into the wall, and broke a toe link on the No. 23 Toyota Camry. After several laps on pit road making repairs, Wallace would rejoin the race. However, the 23XI Racing driver would come home 32nd, four laps off the pace.

Buescher, as we mentioned earlier, brought out the final caution of the race with a cut right rear tire on Lap 261. Buescher, who has been one of the hottest drivers on the circuit as of late, finished 27th, one lap down. With the poor finish, Buescher dropped five positions in the championship standings to ninth.

Kevin Harvick, who finished just outside the top-10 on the day with an 11th-place effort, sits as the driver on the cutline, ahead of Truex, heading into next weekend's Round of 16 cutoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Photo Credit: Lesley Ann Miller, LAT Images, Courtesy of Toyota Racing