Denny Hamlin Bets on Tyler Reddick to Win $1,000,000 Mid-Season Tournament

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend was wreck fest with two big ones caused by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. They not only killed the big names chances at winning races but also earned them an elimination from round-1 of the $1 million rewarding in-season challenge.

Alongside the duo Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch were the front runners that got eliminated on the first round. On Monday’s episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on how the round two of the challenge is going to playout and who are going to win the big prize.

He is expecting the likes of Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher alongside his 23XI Racing driver duo of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick to make it into the round four at Dover. Hamlin then predicted that Reddick vs Elliott battle will be final at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and expects his drivers to beat the 2020 Cup champion.

We’re looking at a (Tyler) Reddick – (Chase) Elliott (final at) Indy and Reddick ends up winning. I know y’all are going to say I’m such a homer, but I’m using my brain… that’s my pick. Reddick beats Elliott with the final four being Bubba (Wallace), Elliott, (Chris) Buescher and Reddick.

Denny Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental Podcast.

But for this prediction to come true, these drivers have to survive the next round at Chicago Street. Tyler Reddick is matched up against Spire Motorsports’ young driver Carson Hocevar. The Toyota driver will most probably get into the next round. For Chase Elliott, the driver to beat is John Hunter Nemechek, which is going to be easy considering the car advantage.

For RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher, the rival to beat is Zane Smith, which is most probably will be a onside battle considering the former has the better car as well as racing skill advantage. Bubba Wallace though has the toughest battle, as he will be facing Alex Bowman in the superior Hendrick Motorsports car and the latter is pretty strong in road courses.

Tyler Reddick is disappointed despite top 5 finish at Atlanta

Though the boss man has high hopes for his driver, things are not that easy for the driver as he is in a disappointing mindset despite securing a top-5 finish at Atlanta. If not for the wrong move he made, and racer smarter, the race win would have been him over Chase Elliott considering how fast the No:45 Toyota was.

We were really solid. Just made the wrong move at the wrong time. Most of the night if I sat and waited, I’d get shuffled back. Just needed to be a little bit smarter with my move on (Brad Keselowski). It got us shuffled too far back to fight for the win/.

Tyler Reddick said.

Talking about it he admitted that it is disappointing miss out on the win, but is happy that he at least got some playoff points in his bag. But his major concern is the fact that there has been a new winner added to the list and he is still winless, threatening his chances of making it into the playoffs.

Disappointing for sure, but it was nice to get a playoff point. Score some points at a speedway. More and more new winners, so we’ve got to find a way to victory lane.

Tyler Reddick added.

The comments from the star driver and his boss shows the improvement the 23XI Racing team has made with the car, increasing their chances of winning more races as well as the championship. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming races of the season with ending his winless streak as well as the mid-season challenge.

Also Read: Bubba Wallace Speaks out on ‘Amigo’ Daniel Suarez’s Trackhouse Exit Announcement