23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick has been atop the NASCAR Cup Series point standings all season, beginning with his season-opening Daytona 500 victory at Daytona International Speedway.
With wins at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) and Circuit of the Americas (COTA), he became the first driver in the 78-year history of the Cup Series to win each of a season's first three races, and he has since added victories at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway.
Reddick entered Sunday's Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, where he won in April 2024, with a 105-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, who also co-owns his 23XI Racing team with Michael Jordan.
Reddick was one of more than two dozen drivers involved in the "Big One" and also hit the wall later in the race with a tire issue, yet he still did enough to extend his points lead over Hamlin, who spent much of the race off the lead lap due to a pit road speeding penalty.
Tyler Reddick extends points lead despite wrecking twice
After a 14th place finish in Sunday afternoon's 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval, Reddick finds himself 110 points ahead of Hamlin, who salvaged a 15th place finish after leading laps early on. Reddick also scored four stage points with a seventh place finish in stage one.
Behind Hamlin in the standings is Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, who fell 20 points further behind Reddick himself after being taken out in the "Big One". He is now 140 points back, even though he remains in third place.
Although Reddick's 14th place finish wasn't his worst of the 2026 season, it did mark the first time that he failed to win a race he led this year. The starting lineup was set by the qualifying metric on Saturday after qualifying was rained out, and the driver of the No. 45 Toyota led two laps from pole position.
Despite a dominant season, Reddick is surprisingly only fifth this year in total laps led.
With just 75 points available in each race, aside from the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway where there are 85 due to its status as a four-stage race, Reddick is guaranteed to remain the points leader after this coming Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.
That race, the Wurth 400, is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 3. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the season's second race in the Lone Star State!
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