Truex blew a tire in the opening laps of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas and finished 36th of 36 cars, after placing a middling 18th last week at Darlington. He now sits in position for a stunning first round exit, and he’ll need a strong run at Bristol next weekend — a track that has historically been a struggle for him — in order to avoid that.
As one Toyota driver has seen his season take a wrong turn, though, another has risen to the occasion. Tyler Reddick backed up his runner-up result at Darlington with a win at Kansas, and is now locked into the Round of 12.
Reddick won on a late restart that was set up by a caution for Chris Buescher blowing a tire and hitting the wall, after passing Erik Jones and Joey Logano with a three-wide move at the white flag.
Denny Hamlin had been leading the race before the caution, but due to some teams gambling on pit strategy, he restarted on the third row behind Daniel Suarez (who stayed out) as well as Jones, Logano and Kyle Busch, who all took two tires. Reddick got a better restart to steal the win, leading only the final two laps.
Kyle Larson had the dominant car of the race, leading the most laps with 99. However, he got shuffled back on a restart near the end of stage two and spent the rest of the race playing catch-up, finishing fourth.
His teammate Chase Elliott also had one of his best runs of what’s been a trying season, leading 47 circuits and finishing sixth.
Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace also had one of the strongest cars, but much like Truex, his day was ruined by a tire issue while running near the front. He will also be on the outside looking in next week, 19 points behind the cutoff line.
On the plus side of the bubble, Buescher (+13), Christopher Bell (+13), Joey Logano (+12) and Kevin Harvick (+7) will look to maintain their slim margins. And if there’s anything to be learned from the past two weeks, it’s that nobody is safe.