In a race that had just about everything, Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing came up just short of his second win in 2024, finishing third in Nashville on Sunday. Reddick was in contention for the lead throughout the first two stages, but as cautions began to pile up towards the end of the race, he had to bring his No. 45 Camry XSE to pitlane for tires and fuel.
On the final green-white-checkered restart, starting fifth, Reddick passed multiple cars and nearly overtook the race winner, Joey Logano. Reddick finished side-by-side with Zane Smith to come home third. It’s Reddick’s seventh top-five of the season and his 12th top-10, the most in the Cup Series so far this season.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin seemed to be in the catbird seat to claim his fourth win of 2024, until those cautions began to fly, forcing the No. 11 team to also pit late for fuel. Hamlin was able to salvage a 12th-place finish. His teammate, Christopher Bell, was the dominant car, winning both stages and leading the most laps. Electing to pit under a Stage 3 caution, Bell was put back in the mid-pack and spun out on a restart, ending his day early for a 36th-place finish. The stage points earned by Bell today now gives him the most in Playoff points standings with 24.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the streets of Chicago next Sunday, with coverage live on NBC at 4:30 p.m. EST.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Nashville Superspeedway
Race 19 of 36 – 399 miles, 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Joey Logano*
2nd, Zane Smith*
3rd, TYLER REDDICK
4th, Kyle Larson*
5th, Chris Buescher*
7th, BUBBA WALLACE
12th, DENNY HAMLIN
23rd, TY GIBBS
24th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
29th, COREY HEIM
31st, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
34th, ERIK JONES
36th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
You had one heck of a restart at the end. How were you able to pull that off for a third-place finish?
“I don’t know, the last set of tires didn’t give our Monster Energy Camry the balance it had all day long that allowed it to contend for the lead with Christopher Bell there. We just (pause) had a bad restart, I fell back and I could tell there in the closing laps we were wounded bad. The tires were chorded. When the caution came out, we were in a really bad spot. We were going to lose all our track position, but we had to put tires on as I don’t think we were going to be able to hold on during a restart, but it became the very thing that gave us an opportunity to win the race. It was a great call, a gutsy call by the crew chief, Billy Scott. I was upset about the position we were in, but just kept being aggressive on the restarts and I mean we got ourselves all the way there. It’s tough. Had just about everything go right into the last lap, I just didn’t get the job done.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
Was there any thought of staying out further and risking running out of fuel?
“Well, we did. We ran out under caution. He (Chris Gabehart, crew chief) was monitoring fuel pressure. I let him know what the fuel pressure was. We were fine, just running out of gas and we did under caution. It was the right call. I was going down pitlane there out of gas. I’m surprised we lasted that many green-white-checkers honestly. Certainly, stinks being 15 seconds from a win at the end and then 10 seconds from a win, and then to finish 12th. It’s just part of it.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Concrete Solutions Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 36th
What happened there in your accident?
“I just put myself in a pretty bad spot going into turn one. I got bottled up there and just lost my cool to make something happen and I put myself in a bad spot and spun out.”
How do you assess the day with such a good car but with this result?
“I mean it’s disappointing, but there’s a lot to be positive about. We won two stages, so we got more Playoff points which is really good. Yeah, and the performance of our team is doing really well, so hopefully we can keep the ball rolling and I think we can win a lot more races.”
Golin for Toyota Racing PR
