Tyler Reddick produced a brilliant comeback at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course on Sunday afternoon, recovering from a damaged car to fly through the field and make it into the next round of the playoffs.
Reddick's place in the last eight looked in desperate trouble when he collided with team owner Denny Hamlin early in Stage 2, leaving him with a flat tyre and a damaged toe link which had to be repaired painstakingly in the pits over the course of multiple stops.
The work of the #45 car's crew paid off, leaving him able to pick up 15 places in the last 30 laps of the race to finish 11th, putting him through to the round of eight by just four points at the expense of Joey Logano. UPDATE: Logano has since progressed after Alex Bowman's #48 car was disqualified from Sunday's race for being below weight.
The race was won by Kyle Larson, who led for 62 of the 109 laps in an utterly dominant performance to put him in great position for the rest of the playoffs.
Tyler Reddick had a CRAZY DAY, passing 15 cars after the final restart to advance to the Round of 8.
Speaking after the race, Reddick said: "...Me and my boss get together. Feels like I’m going to do a front flip. I mean, this thing was absolutely destroyed. Hats off to everybody who sponsored the Camry. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was. We just kept working on it and we made it a lot better for Stage 3."
Larson's fellow last eight qualifier Christopher Bell came home in second place, with William Byron third as playoff drivers dominated in North Carolina.
Among the other playoff drivers, Chase Elliot finished fifth, with Joey Logano eighth and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top ten. Denny Hamlin was the lowest finisher of the eight cars still in the hunt for the NASCAR Cup Series title, finishing 14th.