Chris Gayle pleasantly surprised that Denny Hamlin is NASCAR's points leader

Over the last two months, Denny Hamlin went from trailing Tyler Reddick by 129 points to leading him by 44 in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings. 

Fueled by three consecutive wins from Hamlin at Nashville, Michigan and Pocono and four sub-20th-place finishes in the last five races from Reddick, Hamlin is now in the catbird's seat for the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the Chase with seven races left in the regular season. 

Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick embroiled in battle for points lead

"I don't think any of us would've thought we'd have the lead we have currently," said Chris Gayle, the crew chief for Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team, speaking Thursday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Specifically, to go through the two road course races and come out with a one-point lead, and that could've been larger if we could've capitalized on a finish in Sonoma."

A flat tire in the closing laps at Naval Base Coronado and a power-steering failure at Sonoma enabled Hamlin to take a one-point lead over Reddick prior to the July 5 race at Chicagoland, where Hamlin finished third and Reddick had a piece of debris go through his radiator, leading to a 36th-place finish. 

That allowed Hamlin to extend his lead to the 44-point margin it's at going into Sunday's race at Atlanta, where Reddick won on Feb. 22. 

"We're paying attention to it," Gayle said of the battle, "But I don't know that we're doing anything different other than just trying to just accrue the most points every weekend and not necessarily paying attention to what they're doing. It's a cool battle to have, though."