With group pit strategies, track position and the inevitable "Big One," sustaining superspeedway success is extraordinarily difficult. But Reddick is a rare outlier, at least in the Next Gen era. In five drafting-track races this season, Reddick averages a 5.4 finish, including victories in the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway the following week. If Reddick maintains that pace through Talladega, he could finish with the best season-long average at drafting tracks in the Next Gen era. He has earned a whopping 233 points at this track type, 64 more than Carson Hocevar, the next highest. Despite the boatload of points, he's surprisingly led just 69 laps, a testament to how he and the No. 45 23XI Racing team manage races in the draft. He led just one lap in the "Great American Race," and his winning move at EchoPark came with just two laps to go, outfoxing teammate Bubba Wallace in the waning moments. But that is a common trend in these races: the final lead change in each of the last 11 superspeedway-style races happened with one or two laps to go. Reddick is not the only driver with late-race victories. Blaney has made winning passes on the final lap twice since August 2025 -- at Daytona last summer and EchoPark in July. He has tallied the third-most points in the five drafting track events this year (163), and his 66 stage points top the league. Specific to Talladega, he's won three of the last 14 and led laps in 13 of the last 16. Meanwhile, Logano has banked six career drafting wins across all three venues. The organization has paced 256 circuits across the five races this year, and its 1,649 laps led on drafting tracks since the start of 2022 are nearly double the next closest team (Hendrick Motorsports, 844). Logano is responsible for a majority of those, leading 710 laps with Blaney hot on his heels (512) and Austin Cindric (427) rounding out the Penske podium. The numbers seem Penske-perfect. The finishes aren't. [caption id="attachment_529743" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]
Analysis: Blaney, Logano and Reddick lurk – can they flip Chase script at ‘Dega?
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Phoenix Raceway set a high bar for the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1.
And with Talladega Superspeedway on deck (Sun., 2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), this postseason could be completely turned on its head.
RELATED: Cup Series standings | Talladega weekend schedule
For the first time in seven races, points leader Kyle Larson dropped the ball, qualifying 22nd, failing to earn stage points, ultimately crashing with 30 laps to go and finishing 34th. He earned just three points, allowing the likes of Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and even Denny Hamlin -- who didn't have a clean trip to the desert himself -- to take a chunk out of their points deficits.
Equally important, it opened the door for three more drivers, creating a sudden seven-headed monster atop the series heading to one of NASCAR's most daunting tracks.
Tyler Reddick led the final 18 laps at Phoenix, earning his series-best sixth victory of 2026 and his first in 23 races. He gained a whopping 58 points on Larson, going from minus 114 to just minus 56. Team Penske mates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano treated Phoenix as a must-win, and while it only produced second- and sixth-place finishes, respectively, they each chopped their deficits in more than half.
And while an intimidation factor certainly comes into play at the 2.66-mile Talladega, those three are among the best in the draft – positioning themselves for a last-chance shot at the Bill France Cup.
Courtesy of Racing Insights, let's dive into the numbers ahead of the antipenultimate race of the 2026 season.
With group pit strategies, track position and the inevitable "Big One," sustaining superspeedway success is extraordinarily difficult. But Reddick is a rare outlier, at least in the Next Gen era. In five drafting-track races this season, Reddick averages a 5.4 finish, including victories in the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway the following week. If Reddick maintains that pace through Talladega, he could finish with the best season-long average at drafting tracks in the Next Gen era. He has earned a whopping 233 points at this track type, 64 more than Carson Hocevar, the next highest. Despite the boatload of points, he's surprisingly led just 69 laps, a testament to how he and the No. 45 23XI Racing team manage races in the draft. He led just one lap in the "Great American Race," and his winning move at EchoPark came with just two laps to go, outfoxing teammate Bubba Wallace in the waning moments. But that is a common trend in these races: the final lead change in each of the last 11 superspeedway-style races happened with one or two laps to go. Reddick is not the only driver with late-race victories. Blaney has made winning passes on the final lap twice since August 2025 -- at Daytona last summer and EchoPark in July. He has tallied the third-most points in the five drafting track events this year (163), and his 66 stage points top the league. Specific to Talladega, he's won three of the last 14 and led laps in 13 of the last 16. Meanwhile, Logano has banked six career drafting wins across all three venues. The organization has paced 256 circuits across the five races this year, and its 1,649 laps led on drafting tracks since the start of 2022 are nearly double the next closest team (Hendrick Motorsports, 844). Logano is responsible for a majority of those, leading 710 laps with Blaney hot on his heels (512) and Austin Cindric (427) rounding out the Penske podium. The numbers seem Penske-perfect. The finishes aren't. [caption id="attachment_529743" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]
With group pit strategies, track position and the inevitable "Big One," sustaining superspeedway success is extraordinarily difficult. But Reddick is a rare outlier, at least in the Next Gen era. In five drafting-track races this season, Reddick averages a 5.4 finish, including victories in the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway the following week. If Reddick maintains that pace through Talladega, he could finish with the best season-long average at drafting tracks in the Next Gen era. He has earned a whopping 233 points at this track type, 64 more than Carson Hocevar, the next highest. Despite the boatload of points, he's surprisingly led just 69 laps, a testament to how he and the No. 45 23XI Racing team manage races in the draft. He led just one lap in the "Great American Race," and his winning move at EchoPark came with just two laps to go, outfoxing teammate Bubba Wallace in the waning moments. But that is a common trend in these races: the final lead change in each of the last 11 superspeedway-style races happened with one or two laps to go. Reddick is not the only driver with late-race victories. Blaney has made winning passes on the final lap twice since August 2025 -- at Daytona last summer and EchoPark in July. He has tallied the third-most points in the five drafting track events this year (163), and his 66 stage points top the league. Specific to Talladega, he's won three of the last 14 and led laps in 13 of the last 16. Meanwhile, Logano has banked six career drafting wins across all three venues. The organization has paced 256 circuits across the five races this year, and its 1,649 laps led on drafting tracks since the start of 2022 are nearly double the next closest team (Hendrick Motorsports, 844). Logano is responsible for a majority of those, leading 710 laps with Blaney hot on his heels (512) and Austin Cindric (427) rounding out the Penske podium. The numbers seem Penske-perfect. The finishes aren't. [caption id="attachment_529743" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]