Fortunes flipping for Reddick, Hamlin in NASCAR's Cup Series

Tyler Reddick is officially in points-chasing mode.

A week after losing the NASCAR Cup Series championship point lead for the first time this season, Reddick fell further behind on Sunday night at Chicagoland Speedway due to a busted radiator. A piece of debris went through the front of his 23XI Racing Toyota Camry in the second stage, immediately causing it to spew fluid that covered the car and Reddick in the cockpit.

The incident sent the team into the garage to make a replacement. Reddick did finish the race; however, he was credited with 36th place.

“I hate it for everyone at 23XI; back-to-back weeks of uncertain things just coming our way,” Reddick said. “It sounds like we ran over a splitter stay or something like that, but it just absolutely destroyed the radiator and the oil cooler. It’s a real bummer; I felt like we were just finally starting to get the handling turned around on our Toyota Camry and were starting to inch away at it. It felt like it was shaping up to be a good night, even with the damage and everything it did."

Reddick was running 20th at the time of the incident, but only because it was during a green-flag pit cycle. He had qualified 13th and run inside the top 10 before his night took a turn.

The result was the third consecutive week that Reddick finished 25th or worse. A power steering issue a week ago at Sonoma Raceway ended his reign atop the points standings as Denny Hamlin, who had been on a hot streak of three wins in five races, surpassed him by one point.

It’s now a 44-point deficit.

It stinks – 36th two weeks in a row, with kind of unforeseen things having caused it,” said Reddick. “I guess the year is balancing itself back out, but we’ve got all the right things that we need to succeed; we’ve just got to survive some of these races, I guess.”

Reddick won five of the season’s first nine races.

Hamlin, meanwhile, won the pole at Chicagoland (his fourth straight on traditional racetracks), led 30 laps, and finished third. His average finish over the last seven races is seventh (to Reddick’s 20.6).

“I thought I was in control early on, even though I wasn't leading,” Hamlin said. “I felt in control and probably got a little lazy on some restarts and things like that - just taking for granted that I'll just go up there and get it. [Chase] Briscoe and [Christopher] Bell, they got their cars really good there the second half of the race, and [William] Byron as well.

“We just lost the balance there in Stage 3. I got loose, lost ground, lost a couple of seconds. Then we went long and came out nine seconds back, and I thought it was going to be really close to get there, but I just pushed it too far into the wall there with a few laps to go and had to settle for third.”

There are seven races left in the regular season.