Hamlin confident he'll never see another three-win streak to start a season

Tyler Reddick did something on Sunday in Austin that his co-owner doesn’t believe he’ll ever see happen again in NASCAR.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Denny Hamlin as the 23XI Racing winning representative in the Circuit of the Americas media center. “I’m not going to see it again in my lifetime – someone go out there and win three races in a row to start the season. What a dream start for those guys.”

Reddick and the No. 45 team started the season with a win in the Daytona 500. He led only the last lap. But a week later, Reddick was the class of the field at EchoPark Speedway and led the most laps on his way to winning. Sunday, it was the same thing at Circuit of the Americas.

Although the first two came on drafting-style racetracks, Hamlin noted that each track requires a different driving style. Circuit of the Americas was the first road course race of the season, and in the end, regardless of how strong Reddick was, he had to hold off master Shane van Gisbergen in the final stint.

“That’s probably why I’m confident in it not happening again in my lifetime because of the randomness factor of those races,” Hamlin said. “So, defying odds, that’s for sure. I don’t know if you parlayed all your winnings from the first week, second week, third week, what you’d have, but I’m sure someone will figure that out. But it’d be a big number.”

The next stop is the one-mile Phoenix Raceway. Reddick has never won at the track and has two top-10 finishes in the last five races there.

In his career, Reddick has two top-five finishes at Phoenix. Those were third-place finishes in the spring of 2022 and the spring of 2023.

“The big test is going to be next week, when he goes to a track that he hasn’t had a ton of success at in Phoenix,” Hamlin said. “That’s where we’re going to know how big that momentum is, is when they go out there to Phoenix and see what they got. But they’re locked in right now. Tyler is locked in. Just so poised from qualifying day. You can’t get poles at this type of racetrack unless you are really disciplined.

“When I’m looking from where I restarted there, and he’s under attack those first few laps on restarts, he just stayed absolutely disciplined and didn’t make any mistakes. That’s what champions are made of, and he’s well on his way.”