Reddick's last-lap move, his fifth win, and a pace not seen since Earnhardt in '87

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — None of the past four NASCAR Cup Series champions managed to win more than four races in their entire season. Puts into perspective the kind of roll Tyler Reddick is on right now. The driver for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan picked up his fifth win of the season on Sunday, when he made a last-lap pass of reigning series champ and defending race winner Kyle Larson to win at Kansas Speedway. It wasn't just Reddick's fifth win of the season. It was his fifth through nine races, a pace matched only four times in NASCAR's top series, and not since Dale Earnhardt started off the 1987 season that way. Earnhardt went on to win six more times while claiming the third of his seven championships, and there's little to make it seem that Reddick can't do the same thing. "I mean, it's early," Reddick said after joining Jordan in a post-race celebration. "Certainly over these next 17 races (before the playoffs), the ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start hitting. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we get through this year. We've done a really good job of making the most of our days." Scoring a lot of points, too. The revamped postseason structure means that whomever is leading before the Chase begins gets a huge advantage, and Reddick already has a big lead over Hamlin and the rest of the field in that regard. "We'll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible," he said. "If we can maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts us in position to try and steal some more wins if it's split-strategy calls middle of the race or late in the race." It's not just Reddick that is running on all cylinders, though. His entire team is on a roll. Bubba Wallace ran near the front most of Sunday and finished fifth. Riley Herbst was 14th, one spot ahead of Corey Heim, who made a spot start in the No. 67 car for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500 yet was every bit as quick. That's pretty strong stuff for a race team that is in just its sixth season. "I think the missing part has been really executing across the board," 23XI president Steve Lauletta said. "Our pit crews have taken a big step forward. Everybody worked really hard in the offseason to refine our processes and our communication. "We're only what, nine races into our sixth season? Still a lot of work to do be done." Yet the work is clearly paying off. After winning three times in 2024, Reddick was shut out entirely last year. Wallace won the team's only race at the Brickyard 400, and an organization that seemed to be ascending suddenly appeared to have leveled off a bit. Now, 23XI is on an entirely different level. One that nobody else seems to be matching. "I mean, again, super gratifying," Lauletta said. "It wasn't just (Reddick) not winning, right? Just as an organization, we only won one race. It was the Brickyard, which was great. There was no heads being hung. It was just more the attitude of, 'We've got to get to work,' and that was across the board. ... A lot of really good things are happening overall that started with the work that we needed to do in the offseason to kind of make sure we would be where we wanted to be as an organization this year." Where they wanted to be was up front. Reddick is putting them there every week. It's not just the five wins, either. He was in contention to win a couple of weeks ago at Bristol before finishing fourth, had another top-10 run at Phoenix, and has finished in the top 15 and on the lead lap in each of the first nine races this season. Next up is Talladega, too, where Reddick won just a couple of years ago. "When you win," Jordan said Sunday, "it's always fun. Right now it's fun for everybody at 23XI. Me being here (in Kansas) and being able to see all the wins, I'm so happy for the team. I just think we need to continually build on this, without a doubt." ___ AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing