Reddick Spoils in Record-Breaking Texas Race

Photo by Richard Childress Racing via Twitter

NASCAR

Tyler Reddick Takes Third Win of Year After 500 Mile Texas Thriller

FORT WORTH, Texas – Through four Playoff races now, the NASCAR Cup Series has seen four non-contenders upset. That streak extended in Texas, with Tyler Reddick taking his third career win and first on an oval. Reddick was far from the favorite all day though, as many drivers ran into tire failures. Even with old tires over the final run, Reddick’s win was far from certain until the checkers waved. Record temperatures and a new track-high caution count extended this 500 mile slugfest to nearly four-and-a-half hours, almost as long as the Coke 600. Heading into two wildcard races now at Talladega and the Roval, none of the 12 championship teams are safe.

Stage 1 would go to 2021 Texas winner Kyle Larson, but another Hendrick driver led for most of this run. William Byron was the standout driver in this first stint. A scary moment off of turn two though set the 24 back, giving the eventual top spot to the 5. Stage 1 would also see single-car incidents for Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman. All of these drivers suffered a flat tire.

Early in Stage 2, Bell would lose another tire, ending his day very early. Bell was the fourth Toyota driver to face adversity, and the first one out of the race.

Not long after, a scary moment happened after another tire failure, this time for Cody Ware. The No. 51 blew a tire in turn three, pounding the outside barrier hard and then sliding down into pit wall. Ware initially needed medical assistance and an ambulance, but was eventually released from the care center.

The second Stage appeared to be well in hand for another Hendrick driver, Chase Elliott. Unfortunately for the 9 team though, Elliott would also blow a tire while leading. This sent the top seed out of the race after not even 200 laps.

With Elliott’s misfortunes, this gave the lead to Ryan Blaney. The Texas All-Star Race winner from May, the 12 would hang on to win Stage 2. This Stage break would be extended by almost an hour though due to rain in the area, but racing did resume.

Early in Stage 3 saw Tyler Reddick take the lead for the first time, after he passed Michael McDowell. However the 8 would not remain here, losing ground on pit road under caution.

Reddick would eventually find himself in the lead again though, after two separate incidents where the frontrunner lost a tire and crashed. Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. were the victims here, ending promising runs with major hits in turn four.

The 8 would take the top spot back with 54 to go, being unsure the entire time about his own tires. On the final restart, Reddick beat Joey Logano and quickly amounted a one second lead. That gap would be just enough for Reddick to cruise to the win with little pressure aside from tire uncertainty. This marks Reddick’s third career triumph, all coming since July, and his first oval win. Reddick did lead a race-high 70 laps in his first Texas triumph.

“I was extremely worried, I’m not going to lie,” Reddick said of the last run. “Unfortunately, just about every time we’ve had fast cars, we’ve had some tire problems. That last run, the right sides were vibrating really, really hard there.

I was just trying to maximize and use the gap that I built over Joey (Logano) just in case. I mean, every time we’ve had a strong car, we’ve been bit by something, man.

Just really proud to be able to get this Lenovo Chevy to Victory Lane. They were at Auto Club earlier this year. They deserve to go to get to Victory Lane. We got them there.”

Behind Reddick and Logano at the finish were Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, and Denny Hamlin.

With no Playoff driver finding Texas victory lane, the points are tight entering race two of the Round of 12 from Talladega. The YellaWood 500 will go green at 2:00 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. The Alabama superspeedway holds the potential for another upset winner, or one driver to take a big leap ahead in the championship fight.

Written by Peter Stratta

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Photo Credit to Richard Childress Racing via Twitter