What Happened Between Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick at Phoenix?

Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin had a tricky time at Phoenix on Sunday. Though they led 68 laps each and dominated the grid for most of the race, they could only finish in 10th and 11th place respectively. Coming off the track in the culmination of the 312 laps, both the drivers understandably had a lot of regrets, but they had made for a truly interesting battle of Toyotas.

Reddick proved to be one of the fastest drivers on the grid right off the beginning and won Stage 1. He continued the extraordinary display into Stage 2 and finished it in 2nd place with pole-winner Hamlin right at his heels in 3rd. Both the drivers shot each other back and forth for the lead when Hamlin lost control of his car in Stage 3.

With Reddick driving in a very aggressive nature to keep his lead, Hamlin had to follow suit. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t handle his car in its line at such a pace and ended up spinning himself between turns 1 and 2. “Just drove in too deep,” he told Fronstretch after the race. “I tried not to wreck him, so had to wreck ourselves.”

Hamlin goes for the lead, but the No. 11 spins! pic.twitter.com/FOLRx2bKKe

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 10, 2024

Starting the race at the pole, Hamlin had the advantage of the first pit box on the lane. After finishing each stage in 3rd place, he restarted the next as the leader but couldn’t make it up past Reddick. He changed all four tires on his #11 Camry XSE after the spin and re-entered the field to salvage his day.

Denny Hamlin acknowledges being beaten by Tyler Reddick and owns up mistake

Detailing the events that went down during his spin to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass, Hamlin admitted that Reddick had him beat on certain restarts. He said, “The 45 was right there and then kinda us. Unfortunately, just the restart I spun out and that was it had to go to the back with 100 to go and that was all we had.”

“Yeah I got beat on a few restarts by the 45 on the high side so I decided to try to keep pushing the entry as much as I could and just couldn’t hold my line there.” Hamlin left the field with 42 points as per Jayski to his name and 8th in the driver standings. 23XI Racing driver Reddick, on the other hand, accumulated 46 points and stands 5th in the standings.

While neither was satisfied with the way their days ended, they will get to battle each other once again in the upcoming race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.