Tyler Reddick sees Coronado win vanish, points lead shrink

Not only did Tyler Reddick lose Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Naval Base Coronado, but he saw his lead in the series standings shrink even more as well. 

Corey Heim passed Reddick for the race lead with three laps to go, and while Reddick was unable to get it back, a runner-up finish was still going to be a great points day for Reddick and the No. 45 team. 

Reddick was set to finally grow his lead over Denny Hamlin, which had shrunk down to only 19 points after Hamlin won three straight races. Hamlin had a respectable but quiet race on Sunday, finishing 14th. 

Tyler Reddick faces setback at Coronado

However, Reddick cut a tire with two laps to go, which saw him fall back to a 25th-place finish and lose 11 more points to Hamlin in the standings. Reddick's lead, which he has held since the outset of the season and was consistently over 100 points for the first 1/3 of the Cup Series season, is now only eight points with nine races left in the regular season. 

"We were involved in so much today," Reddick told Prime Video. "To even have a shot at it at the end was really nice. Thought I was going to be able to hold him off there. Got beat by our own [23XI] stuff."

"First and foremost, congratulations to Corey. Tried to battle back but I overdid it, ran him into the wall. I wasn't going to pass him for the win like that. Really needed a good points day, had another bad one."

The 25th-place result is only the second finish outside of the top-15 for Reddick all season but his second in the last three weeks.