Points leader Tyler Reddick crashes out in wild restart pileup at Michigan

Reddick had not finished outside the top 15 until Michigan, which marked his first DNF of the 2026 NASCAR Cup season

Championship leader Tyler Reddick restarted second in the outside lane for a Lap 83 restart at Michigan, enjoying the most successful season of his NASCAR Cup career.

However, it was about all go wrong as Carson Hocevar got into the back of John Hunter Nemechek and turned him up the track in a stack-up. It triggered a chain-reaction crash, as Nemechek came up the track into Bubba Wallace, who got turned down the track into Ty Gibbs.

Wallace straightened the car back out, but those around him weren't nearly as fortunate. Gibbs spun up the track, clipping Tyler Reddick, who tried to maintain control before spinning out.

Reddick, Gibbs, and Nemechek all went spinning, as did pole-sitter Denny Hamlin. Reddick's car spun backwards into the inside wall, bouncing off of it and sliding back onto the track.

Austin Dillon was trying to weave through the melee, and got back on the throttle to avoid the spinning Hamlin. However, that put him on a path to directly impact Reddick, severely damaging both cars.

Reddick was unable to continue, recording his first DNF of the 2026 season. Reddick had finished inside the top 15 in each of the first 14 races of the year, but that impressive streak is now over. He will finish 35th at Michigan, and lose a chunk of his 97-point lead in the championship, which he has led all year.

A total of nine cars were involved in the accident, but despits the size of the wreck, Reddick and Dillon were the only two drivers who had to go to the garage. Gibbs carried on for some time, but the once competitive No. 54 car was now completely out of contention.

With Denny Hamlin going on to win the race, Reddick lost 46 points and there are now just 51 points between the two drivers.

"I got clipped," Reddick told Motorsport.com outside the infield care center. "Backed it into the wall, unfortunately. I was trying not to back it into the wall, but that happened, we kind of bounced off of it. Guys were trying to miss other cars, and unfortunately Austin had nowhere to go. That kind of finished the car off."

Reddick crash

Photo by: 23XI Racing

Dillon criticizes Hocevar

Dillon was quick to place the blame on Hocevar, saying, "I hope at some point he figures it out, but I'm not going to show anything to him for a long time."

In a media scrum that included Motorsport.com, Dillon added: "The 77 [Hocevar] and the 42 [Nemechek] got into it. I think he just hit him too hard, turned him up into everybody. I don't know, it's the same stuff every week with that 77. I don't know how else to put it. It just is what it is."

His frustration was also due to the fact that he had a decent No. 3 Chevrolet on Sunday.

"We had a great race car and the guys did a great job," said Dillon. "I'm proud of everybody at RCR and ECR Engines. Just hate that we lost our car. It's just unfortunate. We want to have good runs and get caught up in other people's messes. And it just sets you back every time. Just keeps setting you back. So, we'll focus on Pocono."