CUP: One week after dominating San Diego, 23XI struggles in Sonoma, where Tyler Reddick scores rare last-place finish
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
Reddick’s car after the race. (ALL PHOTOS: Brock Beard)
Tyler Reddick picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at the Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point) when his #45 Pala Casino Toyota finished under power, completing 106 of the race’s 110 laps.
The finish, which came in Reddick’s 235th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since April 24, 2022, when he lost the engine due to a snapped timing belt at Talladega, 152 races ago. Among the Cup Series last-place rankings, it was the 25th for the #45, the 48th while finishing under power, and the 205th for Toyota. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 50th for the #45, the 65th while running, and the 440th for Toyota.
The gap between these two last-place finishes captures the meteoric rise of Reddick’s career. When he was last featured here four years ago, he was driving the #8 for Richard Childress Racing, and was still striving for his first Cup win. The finish also occurred before Kurt Busch suffered his career-ending accident at Pocono, opening an opportunity for Reddick to take Busch’s place in 23XI Racing’s second entry, the #45, for 2023. Reddick ended up scoring three wins during his lame duck season at RCR, then another two at 23XI the following year, and in 2024 made the Championship Four with another three-win season. He then endured a winless 2025 as his team – along with Front Row Motorsports – navigated their lawsuit against NASCAR.
The settlement of that case seemed to reinvigorate the #45 team. Reddick swept this season’ first three wins of 2026, including his first Daytona 500, then won again in both Darlington and Kansas, keeping him in the point lead since this season’s opening lap. Consistent showings by teammate Bubba Wallace in the #23, steady improvement from a struggling Riley Herbst in the #35, and the signing of an underemployed Corey Heim to their part-time #67 culminated just last week in a banner day for the team at San Diego. There, Reddick nearly won again, battling Heim in the final laps. When Reddick shoved Heim out of the way, he let Heim back past, then charged back, only for Reddick to blow a tire and Heim to take his first win. Combined with 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin’s own rally, scoring three consecutive wins in what has already been a four-win season, Reddick arrived in Sonoma just eight points ahead of Hamlin in the standings. The race would also mark the kickoff of TNT’s “In-Season Challenge,” where the No. 1 ranked Reddick would be matched against 32nd-ranked Alex Bowman.
After 39 cars arrived for last week’s festivities in San Diego, only the 36 Chartered teams made the trip north to the Sonoma Raceway. In opening practice, Reddick ranked a strong 3rd with a best lap of 75.938 seconds (94.340mph), and due to the weight of his San Diego finish, drew 20th in the qualifying order, barely keeping him in Group 2. There, Reddick wasn’t as competitive, ranking just 10th in Qualifying Round 1B despite a faster lap of 75.100 seconds (95.393mph), placing him 11th on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Bubba Wallace drives into the garage after his wreck in qualifying.
Repairs nearing completion on Saturday afternoon.
Wallace’s repaired #23 on the grid Sunday morning.
Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Cody Ware, who would round out the field for a second-straight Cup road course race, this time in the white-and-pink #51 Super.com Chevrolet. He’d be joined by three drivers who each incurred tail-end penalties. The first of these was 26th-place Bubba Wallace, who spun his #23 Robinhood Toyota and smacked the outside wall, causing significant nose damage. Wallace’s crew bolted on another nose from what appeared to be Tyler Reddick’s #45 and didn’t add any new decals, giving his yellow Toyota a black nose with white accents. The other penalized drivers were 32nd-place Erik Jones, who slid off-course in his #43 Dollar Tree Toyota, and defending Sonoma last-place finisher Noah Gragson who lined up 34th in the #4 Hard Rock Casino Tejon Ford.
Ware (No. 51) and Stenhouse (No. 47) battle for 35th in the early laps.
When the green flag dropped, Gragson and Ware were in the final row, but by the end of Lap 1, Gragson had dropped to 35th the #47 Brazier Lumber Company Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Ware followed Stenhouse’s tire tracks, remaining within a couple car lengths of the #47 for the next few laps. By Lap 5, Ware and Stenhouse were among a six-car line of traffic that had started to break away from the pack. This included a battle for 33rd as Jones’ #43 tried to get past another car ahead of him. By Lap 7, Riley Herbst’s #35 Monster Energy Toyota was noticeably covered in dirt, but remained in the mid-pack. And by Lap 9, Gragson had again fallen to 35th behind Stenhouse. By Lap 11, Gragson and Ware were now losing touch with the cars ahead of them. Jones had climbed to around the 30th spot by Lap 13, but the cars behind him started to stack up, allowing the final two cars to start to catch up.
Gragson (No. 4) leads Ware off Turn 11.
The next last change occurred on Lap 14, when Daniel Suarez pitted by himself. It was an unscheduled stop for the #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet as he had a left-rear tire going down. Back on track, Suarez was running about 25 seconds behind the now 34th and 35th-place cars of Gragson and Ware, and about ten seconds ahead of the leaders. On Lap 16, Gragson struggled to get off Turn 11, running wide, and nearly letting Ware move past. Gragson opened up a slight advantage by Lap 18, then on Lap 19, both moved past Ty Dillon, who took over 35th in the #10 Patriot Mobile Chevrolet. Dillon remained ahead of the still last-place Suarez, who continued to hold fast to the lead lap with his fresher tires. On Lap 20, Ware finally passed Gragson for what was now 33rd place, putting Gragson in 34th ahead of the trailing Dillon in 35th and Suarez in 36th.
With the end of Stage 1 approaching, a few of the leaders pitted on Lap 21, followed by many more on Laps 22 and 23. This included a lengthy stop for A.J. Allmendinger, making his 500th career Cup start, whose #16 EchoPark Automotive Chevrolet had a possible bent toe link. Also making a long stop was Austin Dillon, who took over the last spot in his #3 Bass Pro Shops / Winchester Supreme Chevrolet, followed by Cole Custer, whose #41 Autodesk / Haas Chevrolet was in 36th when Stage 1 ended on Lap 27. Custer only held the spot briefly as Dillon retook it with another stop of his own, but both would soon move up another spot.
Reddick’s crew tries to address the No. 45’s power steering issue.
Near the end of Stage 1, Reddick reported he was losing the power steering. He pulled into his pit – Stall 43, the nearest to pit entrance at Turn 11, next to the Mobility Pit Box, where the crew lifted the hood and went to work. They sent him back out to stay on the lead lap, joining both Stenhouse and Austin Dillon, who also came in for lengthy stops, but returned to the track before the #45. By Lap 28, Reddick pitted again, and the crew once more lifted the hood. This time, the repairs took even longer, and it became clear he would not only lose a lap, but miss the restart. The team discussed making a repair that would take less time than going to the garage, estimating that if they ran slightly off the pace, they wouldn’t lose as much time. But the repairs still took five full laps. And when Reddick returned to the track on Lap 33, he promptly lost a sixth lap to the leaders. “No change,” Reddick reported soon after he left his stall. His last completed lap was shown as 574.034 seconds, or just under 10 minutes. “I don’t know if I can call it better – it’s just different,” said the river.
With Stage 2 underway, Reddick made a bid at earning the “Fastest Lap” bonus, taking advantage of fresh tires and open race track ahead of him as he ran by himself. By Lap 39, he earned the fastest lap of the race at 76.826, and over the next few minutes would beat that lap twice more, setting a mark of 76.444. This second stage of the race was the team’s opportunity to evaluate their repairs, and to hopefully outlast some of their competition. But by Lap 57, when the caution fell to end Stage 2, no one else had fallen out of the race, though Reddick did earn one of his laps back, putting him five down. By then, the team seemed to reconsider going to the garage, and instead focused on surviving. He then earned a second lap back on Lap 62, when debris off the left-front fender of Austin Cindric’s #2 Discount Tire Ford fell on the track following a tangle with a spinning #21 eero Ford of Josh Berry and the #4 of Gragson. And by Lap 80, Reddick had again improved his fastest lap time to 75.761 seconds – a speed no one else would beat.
Reddick’s crew watching their car back on track.
But the garage area remained a ghost town for the entire race. Not one car pulled behind the wall, and for much of the day, Reddick’s was the only lapped car – holding at four laps down. No more cautions fell, either, resulting in a grueling 47-lap green-flag run to the checkered flag. The 35th-place car never lost a lap until Lap 83, when Ware took the “Lucky Dog” spot from Reddick, but he got his lap back during the final sequence of pit stops and only lost it again with two laps to go, when leaders Shane Van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe caught him between Turns 3 and 4. By then, Ty Dillon’s solid mid-pack run had gone sour with power steering issues of his own, dropping him off the lead lap in 35th. And Austin Hill was running in the Top 10 before a late stop of his own in the #33 zone x ampm Chevrolet, which fell to 34th. Gragson rounded out the Bottom Five as the last car on the lead lap.
Reddick finished the race under power, still four laps down, and secured the last-place spot in the final circuits. And despite earning the fastest lap bonus, combine with a 26th-place finish by Hamlin, Hamlin took the point lead from Reddick for the first time all year – by a single point. Reddick was also eliminated from the “In-Season Challenge” as 32nd seed Alex Bowman took home 10th. It was just as much of a struggle for Reddick’s two full-time teammates at 23XI Racing. Bubba Wallace’s repaired #23 was involved in multiple incidents, and at one point steered down an access road in The Esses, finishing 22nd. Riley Herbst in the #35 ran off-course and finished 30th with his car covered in dust.
Zilisch and Bell rebound from San Diego disappointment
Zilisch (in white) and his car on Sunday’s grid.
On a day of exceedingly low attrition, Connor Zilisch finally earned his first career Top Ten in his 21st career Cup start, battling as high as 3rd, taking 8th in Stage 2, and finishing a solid 7th. He did so in the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet – the same paint scheme with which he scored his third consecutive last-place finish at Michigan, where he wrecked twice in the opening laps. Zilisch’s previous best Cup finish was his 11th-place showing at Atlanta last summer.
Also impressive was Christopher Bell, whose #20 Toyota finished last just last Sunday in San Diego, where relief driver Brent Crews took over before the team experienced a gearbox failure. Crews was still on hand on Sunday, but by the final stage was standing by wearing street clothes. Bell indicated he would run the full race and did, coming home 5th after runner-up finishes in both stages for an excellent points day. Bell has ow finished 5th in his last two Cup races at Sonoma after finishing 9th in the two before that.
Christopher Bell during media availability on Saturday with the cast on his left wrist.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first time all the starters of a Cup race at Sonoma finished the race under power. The 106 laps completed by Reddick bests the previous most laps completed record for the event set by Noah Gragson just last year, when he turned 99 laps before he crashed battling for the 11th spot.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #45 in a Cup Series race since October 16, 2022, when Bubba Wallace had his infamous crash with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell at Las Vegas. The number had never before finished last in a Cup race at Sonoma.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #45-Tyler Reddick / 106 laps / running
35) #10-Ty Dillon / 109 laps / running
34) #33-Austin Hill / 109 laps / running
33) #51-Cody Ware / 109 laps / running
32) #4-Noah Gragson / 110 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Joe Gibbs Racing, Trackhouse Racing (4)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports (2)
3rd) 23XI Racing, Garage 66, Kaulig Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, RFK Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Ford, Toyota (4)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
