NASCAR Kansas takeaways: Tyler Reddick's dominance continues for Michael Jordan's 23XI

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Sean Gardner / Getty Images Share article1KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Tyler Reddick and Michael Jordan seemingly just can’t lose in 2026. Reddick won for an astounding fifth time in the opening nine races of the NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, taking advantage of an overtime restart to steal what seemed like a sure victory from Denny Hamlin — the 23XI Racing co-owner, who fields Reddick’s car along with Jordan while also driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. While Hamlin was furious with how the end of the race unfolded, Jordan saw it as an opportunity for smack talk, later walking down pit road to playfully rub Hamlin’s head after waving the checkered flag on the frontstretch. “Look, I’m racing against Denny. I really wanted to beat him because I know we’re going to talk a lot of trash a little bit later,” Jordan said. “… (Reddick) is on fire. I don’t know if I can cool him down. He is unbelievable. Unbelievable last couple laps. I’m proud of the whole team.” Hamlin led a race-high 131 laps but finished a frustrating fourth in overtime, which was triggered when Cody Ware’s 37th-place car suddenly spun out just before the race ended. That allowed second-place Reddick and the rest of the field to get another crack at him, and the race turned on its head. On the ensuing overtime restart, Kyle Larson got control of the race when he made it three-wide and put Hamlin in the middle, then cleared everyone. But Larson’s car got tight heading into Turn 3, and Reddick made a spirited push, ultimately passing Larson before the checkered flag waved. “Just really blessed with the late caution. Was that nuts or what? I couldn’t believe it,” Reddick said. “… Man, these late race restarts get crazy. I obviously had a run on the 5. I was shocked I was able to get to his inside there.” Larson finished second, with Chase Briscoe third after he restarted 11th with fresh tires. Reddick became the first driver to win at least five of the first nine races since Dale Earnhardt in 1987. He now has a 105-point lead in the standings over second-place Hamlin. These 1.5-mile tracks like Kansas represent four of this fall’s Chase races (Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Homestead) plus Darlington as another intermediate in the same category. That means such circuits are crucial tests to see who is closest to championship form, and it has seemed like an advantage for the two biggest organizations — Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. But 23XI’s continued strength on a variety of circuits, like the speed it showed at Kansas on Sunday, is an indicator that Reddick and teammate Bubba Wallace (eighth in the standings) could be disruptors. The team fielded four cars on Sunday (also including Riley Herbst and Corey Heim), with all of them finishing inside the top 15. “23XI, all the guys drove well today,” Jordan said. “All four cars in the top 15. That says a lot about the program.” Kyle Busch’s early-season performance, or lack thereof, was a talking point throughout the week, and Sunday did little to change the narrative surrounding the current state of Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team. After battling multiple tire issues and falling a lap down in Stage 1, things continued to snowball from there. Busch began experiencing what he thought was a brake-related issue toward the end of Stage 2, yet despite making multiple pit stops in an attempt to diagnose and fix the problem, the team could not identify what was hindering its driver. The problem was something else, much deeper. And when the race resumed, things further unraveled. “Something’s broke,” Busch radioed his team, “this thing ain’t even close to what it was.” Busch finished 35th, the ninth time in nine races this season where he’s failed to finish inside the top 10, a career-worst start to a season. And what has to be concerning is that RCR is in a performance tailspin that has the team reeling. At a track where Ross Chastain won in the Next Gen car less than two years ago, in the fall of 2024, Trackhouse continued to show signs of major struggles this season. Chastain was 26th, Connor Zilisch finished 29th and Shane van Gisbergen was 36th as the Chevrolet team had another startlingly slow performance. In 10 Kansas races since his full-time Cup career began, Chastain had never finished outside of the top 20. But he was never in the ballpark after qualifying 26th and still has just one top-15 finish in the first nine races of this season. In a media session on Saturday, Chastain said his cars just have no grip and he’s sliding around the track at intermediates. They’re trying to “move the grip needle out of the red,” he said. “If the grip is there, all three of us will go fast,” Chastain said. “We’re all three fully capable of pushing the gas pedal.” By the halfway point of the race, all three Trackhouse cars had been lapped twice. Chastain is 20th in points and van Gisbergen, who had been on the Chase cutoff line, fell two spots to 18th. “We see what we have,” Chastain said Saturday. “The Band-Aid is off. We’re trying.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms