NASCAR
Tyler Reddick Wins Talladega After Massive Last Lap Crash
TALLADEGA, Ala. – As cars slid every direction coming to the checkers, Tyler Reddick survived the carnage for a Talladega victory. Coming a week after his pit crew cost him at Texas, Reddick takes home his first superspeedway win. 23XI Racing is now Playoff-bound with their No. 45 Camry, following a hectic 500 miles.
Penske teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano split both Stages. Ford teamwork and horsepower was on display early, with Mustangs in command for much of the race’s first half. Both stages went caution-free, a first in Talladega history.
Toyota appeared to be at a significant disadvantage as laps wound down. Two separate wrecks early in Stage 3 took five of the eight Camrys out of contention. The remaining three however would find each other and be up front in the closing laps.
Polesitter Michael McDowell retook the top spot with 27 laps left. The No. 34 Ford had pushing help from fellow Mustang Brad Keselowski, and would lead a race-high 37 laps. As the checkers neared though, it was a constant back-and-forth battle with the Fords against the Toyota trio, led by Tyler Reddick. Reddick’s No. 45 edged just ahead as they took the white flag.
Coming to the finish, Keselowski pushed McDowell clear of Reddick and tried pulling out of line. A double block sent the 34 spinning into the outside wall from the lead though. Reddick just snaked by Keselowski between the trioval and the checkered flag for the win.
“Man it’s incredible,” Reddick said. “Everyone on this No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry worked really hard today. It didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy or what? It was chaos. That’s Talladega for ya.”
“Got to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. It was just us Toyotas left and they pushed me with everything they had. Huge credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes, we don’t win this race.”
Reddick was soon joined in victory lane by his larger-than-life team owner, Michael Jordan. Jordan was on hand to witness 23XI Racing take its sixth victory as a team, and Reddick’s first of the year.
Reddick took the checkers just ahead of Keselowski, with Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and Alex Bowman in the top-five. Anthony Alfredo, William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Hemric, and Harrison Burton were the top-10.
Seven winning drivers are now locked into the 2024 Playoffs. Reddick is 23XI Racing’s first driver to be postseason bound. Many drivers will try and be the eighth member of this club next week at Dover. The Würth 400 goes green Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
