A two-tire gamble pays off in the desert
Tyler Reddick took the lead for the final 18 laps and held off Ryan Blaney by 0.801 seconds to win the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday. The No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota crew bet on two tires late, and it worked. It is Reddick’s sixth win of 2026, his first at Phoenix and the 14th of his Cup career.
He was not the class of the field for most of the afternoon. Christopher Bell led a race-high 85 laps and Joey Logano led 84, sweeping both stages. Bubba Wallace paced 52 laps before a speeding penalty under caution dropped him to 17th. Blaney, who started from the pole, led the first 44 laps. Reddick’s own verdict afterward was short: “That’s way too long.”
Chase Elliott, Bell and Corey Heim rounded out the top five behind Reddick and Blaney, with Logano sixth.
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Larson’s lead survives, barely
The bigger story sat further back. Points leader Kyle Larson started 22nd after a poor qualifying run, never scored a stage point, and spent the day fighting for track position in his No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet. A tire failed with 28 laps to go and he hit the outside wall entering Turn 1 on Lap 283, ending up 34th. “We never found the improvements we needed,” he said.
He still leads the standings, but only by 5 points over Bell. Chase Briscoe sits 24 back in third, Denny Hamlin is 31 back after a flat tire left him 28th, Blaney trails by 40 and Logano by 44. Six drivers are inside 56 points of the top spot with three races left, and Larson entered the weekend with a 49-point cushion over Hamlin.
Elliott, 149 points out, is the only top-five finisher who is effectively a spectator in the title fight.
Talladega is next
The YellaWood 500 at Talladega comes next, a track where a single wreck can reshuffle a points race that Phoenix just blew open. Reddick’s win does not help him much in the standings, but it gives 23XI a trophy and a template for how to attack a short run to the flag.
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