Tyler Reddick Bemoans Losing Championship Lead to Denny Hamlin After “Finishing Dead Last” at Sonoma

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick lost the 2026 championship lead on Sunday to Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin, after being the at P1 from the season opener Daytona 500. The five consecutive disappointing weekend the No:45 TRD driver had cost him the massive points lead he earned with the five impressive win he secured so far this season.

Reddick didn’t have a good start to the race, as compared to his Toyota teammates he had a weak car with significant mechanical issues that ruined his day. He finished the race dead last, with only positive being the fastest lap win. He currently has 718 points, just one behind his 23XI Racing boss Hamlin.

It’s so hard to say, in hindsight, if we made the right decision or not to work on it. Either way, we had a difficult road ahead, so I don’t know. I do feel good that it was nice we did decide to pit there, work on it, so we were able to get the Xfinity Fastest Lap out of the day, at least.

Tyler Reddick said after the race.

One reason the point gap is just one is the No:11 driver finishing the race P26. Denny Hamlin was involved in a late race spin, in an incident that caused by Brad Keselowski and Carson Hocevar. If the JGR veteran wasn’t spun out, the point difference would’ve significant enough to put more pressure on Tyler Reddick.

We got pretty fortunate today [Hamlin] was running really, really good. Something happened, don’t really know what it was, but something coming out of the dirt right in front of me there. So, all things considered, for the issues we had, we were very fortunate to really only lose nine points on the day to Denny, finishing dead last.

Tyler Reddick added via nascar.com.

Tyler Reddick’s crew chief is disappointed over Sonoma result

The No:45 team crew chief Billy Scott also shared his thoughts on the poor day they had on the track after the race. He admitted that it was overall disappointing weekend as they missed out on a solid top-10 finish, and pointed out their failure to fix the car that was clearly weak on the day.

It’s disappointing. We don’t really know what the issue was. It sounds like we were able to help it some, but not fully. I think we missed an opportunity to have a solid top-10 day, had decent speed and got the fastest lap and did what we could. Certainly, disappointed to not get many points on the day.

Billy Scott said.

Further talking about the point, the five times 2026 race winning crew chief pointed out that the loss of championship P1 is a reality check the team needed regarding the points reset that will come when chase starts of race week 27. So, they are determined to get back to winning ways and find ways earn their advantage back.

The reality is there is a reset coming in eight weeks or whatever it is, so this is good practice for that. We’re going to keep focusing on what we can do, and we think that’s going out to win more races before we get to The Chase.

Billy Scott added.

The comments from the team leader shows the team is taking a positive approach towards the recent slump in performance. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming race days, with Hamlin now the championship frontrunner.

Also Read: “I Thought We’re a Lost Cause!” Shane van Gisbergen Over the Moon After Sonoma Win Battling Chase Briscoe