After powering past Brad Keselowski with 80 laps to go, Denny Hamlin appeared set to sweep victories in both Kansas races this season until Chris Buescher hit the wall with seven laps remaining and sent the race into a two-lap overtime.
That set up several different pit strategies as Daniel Suarez stayed out and inherited the lead and three drivers took on only two tyres, that grouping headed by Erik Jones. Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Toyota and Reddick, who had run second to Hamlin prior to the caution, both elected to pit for four new tyres.
Reddick got a big run on the restart and, with Jones on the outside and Joey Logano in the middle, Reddick dived to the inside exiting Turn 4 to grab the lead for the first time in the race.
Reddick then held off his 23XI Racing team owner, Hamlin, by 0.327 seconds to claim the victory which locks him into the second next round of the playoffs regardless of his finish in next week’s race at Bristol.
"Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team," said Reddick, whose victory was his second of 2023. "We had really good pace, but just couldn’t get ahead of Denny there.
"But chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tyres, and the bottom lane opened up. It was pretty crazy."
Hamlin felt he was held up at the restart by Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson "kind of sleeping on the restart, looking in the rear view instead of looking in the front" and was left to rue a caution that "certainly flipped the results".
"But that’s part of racing, right; our sport is different than others," he said. "It is a sport of chance at times, and luck does play a factor, and we were unlucky to get that caution.
Source: Autosport