Tyler Reddick Takes Regular Season Point Lead with Double-Overtime Win at Michigan
Numbers can be deceiving. Tyler Reddick came into this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series action at Michigan International Speedway with just one victory on the season, a far cry from Kyle Larson's series-leading total of four. But Reddick's win total is only half of the story as Reddick had been in a position to win five of his last six races, but just came up short for a variety of reasons.
In Monday's FireKeepers Casino 400, Reddick ended his frustrating quest for a second victory as he was able to out-duel Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron for the race win by a victory margin of 0.168 sec. in a double-overtime finish. After climbing from his car on the frontstretch, Reddick gave thanks to fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs for giving him the race-winning push on the final restart.
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"Just great teammate, fantastic push by Ty Gibbs. That's what it's all about," Reddick stated. "The Toyota family tries to take care of each other."
Reddick will now have the chance to experience the spoils of victory lane for the first time since a win at Talladega Superspeedway back in April. However, Reddick is experiencing a full range of emotions in taking the seventh win of his NASCAR Cup Series career as it comes on a week when Reddick lost one of his biggest mentors, dirt racing legend Scott Bloomquist, who passed away in a plane crash on Friday.
"It's been a minute," Reddick said of his winless drought. "It's been really cool. I can't help sit here in Victory Lane and think of Scott Bloomquist. Huge mentor to me, incredible role model, legend of dirt racing and motorsports.
Reddick continued, "The last couple days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him, his family, his friends. All that meant a lot for him."
With the win, Reddick took over the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season point lead with just two races remaining until the Playoffs begin. Reddick will carry a 10-point lead over Chase Elliott into next weekend's event at Daytona International Speedway.
If there were any doubts heading into Michigan as to whether Reddick is a bonafide NASCAR Cup Series championship contender, the driver squelched those whispers. There's been nobody more consistent over the last 11 races than the 28-year-old driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE. Monday's win was the 10th top-10 finish for Reddick over his last 11 starts.
Reddick also leads the series in top five finishes (11) and top-10s (17) through the opening 24 races of the season.
While it was a mixture of happiness and sadness in the No. 45 team's victory celebration, Byron was left wondering what could have been. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro took the lead away from Reddick on the first overtime restart attempt, but as Ross Chastain spun down the backstretch with two laps to go, it sent the race into double-overtime.
By virtue of being the race leader, Byron was able to select which lane he wanted to restart from. He chose the top lane and he was paired with Brad Keselowski behind him. Unfortunately, on the restart, Keselowski's engine briefly shut off, which stalled out the push that he was able to give Byron, and it handed the lead, and win to Reddick, who received a great push from Gibbs.
"I'll relive that restart, what lane to choose overnight, for sure," Byron said. "It seems like always as the leader you want to take the top. I've gotten beat twice here by the bottom. I had the lead on the bottom barely over him, but he had a better car than us. He was a little bit faster."
While he was bummed at missing out on his fourth win of the season, Byron took solace in the fact that his No. 24 team was strong all race long, and will hopefully be able to build momentum off of the run.
"Second sucks. Really proud of the effort. I feel like we've been trying to put weeks together like this. This is a really good step," Byron optimistically said. "Everyone did a great job on the team. Strategy was awesome. Car was awesome all day."
Gibbs, who pushed Reddick to the win and is still attempting to secure his berth into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, bolstered his post-season hopes with a solid third-place finish.
Kyle Busch finished fourth in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet a week after his teammate Austin Dillon won at Richmond Raceway, but was then stripped of the automatic Playoff berth that came with the win by NASCAR. For Busch, the fourth-place effort was potentially his best run of the entire season, and it was his first top-five finish since a fourth-place run at Dover Motor Speedway in April.
Could Busch and his No. 8 team perhaps be finding some speed? If so, they have two races left to score a win if they want to make it into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But even if Busch misses the Playoffs, the 39-year-old has a lot at stake over the final stretch of the season. Busch has won at least one NASCAR Cup Series race in each of the last 19 seasons. If he can find victory lane, he'll extend his all-time record to 20 years with a win.
Keselowski, who faltered on the final restart, was able to cross the finish line in the fifth position ahead of his RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher, who took home a much needed sixth-place run.
Zane Smith, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
As far as big-highlight moments in the race, there were a couple of sizable crashes on Monday afternoon.
On Lap 116, Kyle Larson lost control of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Turn 4, which sent him spinning in front of a slew of other drivers. The end result was an eight-car melee, which ended the day for Larson, Christopher Bell, Todd Gilliland, and Joey Logano.
THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 19, 2024
Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and MORE INVOLVED. #NASCAR
📺 : USA Network pic.twitter.com/MUop6Dx8pt
Also involved was Bubba Wallace, who had been one of the better cars throughout the race. However, after the damage sustained in the crash, he was never in contention for the remainder of the race, and came home a disappointing 26th. Wallace exits Michigan one point outside of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff cutline.
The other truly wild moment from the race occurred on Lap 136 when Corey LaJoie, who was in a multi-lap hard-fought battle with Noah Gragson for the 16th position, received a tap from Gragson on the backstretch. That tap sent LaJoie spinning, and as he spun to the inside of the track, his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 lifted off of the ground and flipped onto its lid.
After a hard barrel roll in the Turn 3 grass, LaJoie's car came to a stop, and he was able to climb from the car unscathed.
This is so, so bizarre. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/85lMak7r0q
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) August 19, 2024
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, which will serve as the penultimate race of the regular-season. That race is scheduled for Saturday, August 24. NBC and the NBC Sports App will provide televised coverage of the event beginning at 7:30 PM ET. The radio broadcast of the race can be heard on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TOBY CHRISTIE