Tyler Reddick Races to Overtime Win in Kansas

Tyler Reddick added yet another win to his NASCAR Cup Series season, overtaking Kyle Larson on an overtime restart to win the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

It was a roller-coaster conclusion to what had otherwise been a calm afternoon of racing at Kansas. Denny Hamlin led 131 laps in the contest, but faced pressure from Reddick in the battle to the finish.

Reddick passed Hamlin for the lead with 10 laps to go, but relinquished the lead while nearly running out of fuel. Reddick was chasing Hamlin back down when the caution flew for Cody Ware spinning with two laps to go.

This caution, the first of the race outside of the two stage breaks, sent the race to overtime and brought the field to pit road, with most taking two fresh tires. Kyle Larson jumped to the lead on the restart, while Reddick, Hamlin and Christopher Bell all made contact battling for second. Despite this, Reddick rallied and chased down Larson, passing him for the win on the final lap.

Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas

"Just really blessed with that late caution," said Reddick. "How about that? Was that nuts or what? I couldn't believe it. First off, I feel like I have to say, I never like being on the other side of it. I really hate that for Christopher Bell. It's good, hard racing. The 11 came up and I just took off tight. Not thrilled that I got Christopher there. I hate that for him, because he was having a good, solid day.

"These late-race restarts, it gets really, really crazy there. Obviously, had a run on the 5 and I was just shocked I was able to get to his inside there. Just an incredible SupplyHouse Toyota Camry all day long. I was really thankful for that late-race caution."

23XI Racing has enjoyed plenty of success at Kansas, with Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch all winning races for the team at the 1.5-mile facility. While Reddick was not dominant on Sunday, he knew he had the car to compete for the win.

"We were really solid here last fall and the car was a lot like that again here this weekend," Reddick said. "We didn't lead a lot of laps, unfortunately. I let Denny get away there in stage one and we were just behind him most of the time there. To be able to make the right call there, great call by Billy [Scott, crew chief] to put two tires on. We didn't have the cleanest restart. I tried to cover the 20, he got outside and we were three-wide and all ran out of room."

23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan was once again in attendance, ready to celebrate the team's fifth win of the year - even if it came at the expense of his fellow team co-owner in Hamlin.

"I'm racing against Denny, so I really wanted to beat him because I know he's going to talk a lot of trash a little bit later," said Jordan. "It was a good race. When we started running out of fuel, I didn't know what was happening. 23XI, all the guys drove well today. We finished, I think, all four cars in the top 15. 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 an unbelievable last couple of laps, and I'm proud of him and the whole team."

Hamlin expressed frustration with the late-race caution, as well as his own decision-making behind the wheel in the closing laps.

"Cody Ware, six laps down, wrecking. I don't know," said Hamlin." I fell for the same move that the 5 got me with a couple of years ago, when I was on the inside. I've got to learn from these mistakes that I'm making and not executing those last few laps.

"I had a big run off turn two. The 19, I think, was probably on four tires there. There wasn't a whole lot of room, but I wasn't going to lift. Just got it wrong, but it didn't really affect the finishing position."

While Hamlin faced the disappointment of finishing fourth after a strong showing, Larson was pleased with a runner-up finish even after leading at the white flag.

"When it all worked out like that, I was like, oh, great, clean air," said Larson. "I went through three and four, and I was plowing. I was nervous, and then I could tell he had a huge run on me behind and thought, you know, maybe if I could get to the banking it would load and cut, but it didn't.

"He was really good right there. I was just hoping to be better. I was happy to get to the lead. The restart worked out great. Anyways, we got lucky with the caution, too, so yeah, good day. I think second in the first stage, first in the second stage. We're getting closer, really close there. We'll keep trying."

With the win, Reddick becomes the first driver to win five of the first nine races in a Cup Series season since Dale Earnhardt in 1987. Reddick's lead in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings expands to 105 points over Hamlin.

Next week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the Jack Link's 500. The green flag waves at 3 p.m. ET, with coverage on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images