A certain victory from Denny Hamlin’s past came to mind, as he watched Tyler Reddick take the checkered flag at Talladega over the weekend.
During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin harkened back to his 2020 Daytona 500 victory, where he was able to beat Ryan Newman and Ryan Blaney to the line. While Newman’s frightening injury afterwards is what many remember that moment for, it was a great piece of driving from Hamlin.
The No. 11 kept his car steady, and was able to beat Blaney to the line, as the field began to wreck behind them. Alas, it was eerily similar to what transpired for Reddick’s No. 45 at Talladega over the weekend, and Hamlin explained what made the two finishes alike.
“Man, that worked out nicely. It did,” Hamlin said, regarding the finish for his 23XI Racing team’s car. “I watched it, and when I did watch it, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s just like the win that I had back in,’ I think it was 2020. Was it 2020 or 20- — Yeah, 2020, with Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman, when they hooked each other, and Newman came across to the right, and I came in through the middle and side-drafted the No. 12 and beat him to the line. It looked just like that.
“And Tyler just had, you know, the instincts to hold a steady wheel. You know, let them crash around. You don’t make any — you know, some of the most common mistakes made during superspeedway racing crashes and when they happen is people just swerving hard to the left, swerving hard to the right, and they end up crashing themselves. And so he just was like, ‘I’m gonna hold this line here and see what happens,’ and when the No. 34 and the No. 6 made contact, it just slowed the No. 6 down just enough, to where the No. 45 had all the momentum.”
As you can tell, Reddick impressed his team-owner with the way he was able to score the win for 23XI Racing when the chips were stacked against them. The No. 45 didn’t have a lot of help, as many of the Toyotas crashed late in the race, but he was still able to get the job done.
It was a landmark moment for 23XI Racing, as Michael Jordan was able to see it all. Denny Hamlin and company are certainly happy to have Tyler Reddick as their wheelman, that’s for sure.
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