Kyle Larson 'surprised' by Tyler Reddick closing the gap in regular season championship battle

Despite missing the Coca-Cola 600, essentially a 60-point penalty, Kyle Larson is still leading the regular season points standings. The NASCAR driver wants to earn the championship and the 15 playoff points that come with it, but there are others who could take it from him.

One driver that has surprised Kyle Larson with his recent performances, and current points standing, is Tyler Reddick. At the beginning of the season, it looked like it would be Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin that Larson had to worry about. Then that changed.

Lately, it has been Chase Elliott who is on the heels of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Of course, the Hamlin rivalry is always in the background, even in the points battle.

Kelly Crandall of RACER.com asked Larson if he keeps up with the points battle week to week. He said he “absolutely” does.

“I pay attention to it a lot.”

Kyle Larson also revealed why he was shocked by Tyler Reddick recently.

“[Reddick] has surprised me where he’s at currently because I feel like he’s just been quiet, which is odd for Tyler Reddick,” Larson said, via Crandall. “I was surprised [because] before Chicago, I looked and was like, ‘Man, he’s actually within range.’ I’ve just been so focused the last four or five weeks on the No. 9 [Chase Elliott] and the No. 11 [Denny Hamlin], and then it was like, ‘Wow, he could easily steal this thing.'”

Over the last three races, Tyler Reddick has picked up a lot of points. It has allowed him to get within 12 points of second-place Chase Elliott and only 23 points behind Kyle Larson.

Tyler Reddick is outpacing Kyle Larson lately

We can go back to the results of the last three Cup Series races, New Hampshire, Nashville, and Chicago. Reddick picked up finishes of P6, P3, and P2 in those races. He also had a bunch of points, 121 total in the three events.

Meanwhile, Kyle Larson has finishes of P4, P8, and P39 DNF in those same three races. He picked up only 88 points. Reddick closed the gap by 33 points in those three races, really picking up the most points at Chicago. Larson only had 7 points total for the race.

Then you have Denny Hamlin, Reddick passed him in points this last week. Hamlin has only picked up 76 points in the last three weeks. However, Chase Elliott has picked up the fewest. Despite holding onto P2 in the standings, Elliott has scored 69 points in the last three weeks, the fewest of the four drivers.

Kyle Larson was surprised by Tyler Reddick in the last month. Has he surprised you at all this season? Is there a chance he finally gets another win after coming so close in the last two weeks?