Tyler Reddick Survives Triple Overtime For COTA Cup Win

Even through three overtime restarts, there was no containing Tyler Reddick on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas.

In a race scheduled to go 68 laps, Reddick had to go an extra seven laps around the 3.41-mile, 20-turn road course in Austin, Texas to score his first NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.

That despite driving with a malfunctioning cool shirt designed to keep drivers from getting too warm during the hot race day.

“It feels good,” Reddick said. “Unfortunately, we had some problems with the cool shirt – it didn’t work from lap one, and I felt that today.”

It gives Reddick his first win with 23XI Racing after moving to the team at the end of the 2022 season, along with his fourth career series win and his third on a road course.

“It means the world,” Reddick said of the win. “This whole 23XI team has been working so hard all winter long to make the road course program better. Was extremely motivated to come in here and prove that performance, too. Just so proud of this Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD. Toyota, everybody, all the resources they’ve been putting into this to help turn around the road course program means a lot.”

Reddick had the fastest car on the weekend, leading 41 of the 75 laps on the day. His only real competition came from pole sitter William Byron. The two were working to save fuel late in the going until a late caution for the stopped car of Brad Keselowski sent most of the leaders to pit road for fuel and tires.

Reddick stormed back to the lead in one corner on the restart. After another caution for an incident in turn1 between Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon and A.J. Allmendinger, Reddick made one of the few mistakes on the day from his No. 45 Toyota.

On the restart with nine laps to go, Reddick missed the corner in turn one, letting Byron get past. Reddick stalked the leader, looking for an opening to slip past. With five laps to go, Reddick got the run he needed to reclaim the point.

One lap later, the caution flew again for debris, sending the race into overtime for the first time. Over the next three restarts, Reddick came under fire Kyle Busch and Byron, but held the measure each time. While cars made contact behind him on the final restart, Reddick moved away, and went on to cross the finish line 1.411-seconds ahead of Busch.

“I really had to dial it up there at the end to get an advantage,” Reddick said. “I was making mistakes on every single restart. I was able to make it a little better there in the end.”

For Busch, it marks his best finish since scoring a victory last month at Fontana, California. He said despite his positioning at the end, he wasn’t sure he had anything for the dominant Reddick.

“Even if we were on equal tires, when we tested here, they were lights out,” Busch said. “Had us beat on the frontside of the runs. We needed longer runs. Even today we didn’t have great long-run speed. We had great middle-run speed.”

Alex Bowman finished in third on the strength of a late charge in overtime, despite driving with a malfunctioning cool shirt.

“It probably wouldn’t have been that bad if my interior stuff worked,” said Bowman. “When this Coolshirt doesn’t work, it just heat soaks, kind of cooks you. I’m hot. It stopped working pretty early.”

Chastain, the defending race winner, rebounded from a late spin to finish in fourth.

“I thought we were a top-five car all day,” said Chastain. “Thought the 45 (Reddick) had us covered. There was a line of Chevys second through sixth. It was about positioning each other while we were saving fuel, then racing each other, whoever was in front was going to be pretty good.”

After leading 28 laps, the second most on the day, Byron had a bad restart in overtime, and had to settle for a fifth place finish.

“It was alright. I probably could have done better on those restarts,” said Byron. “I gotta look. I just kept getting pushed wide, and it seemed like the last one didn’t happen for some reason. I just gave up too much track position… it was really my only option. Good to get a top-five.”

Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.

Of particular interest on the day was the fate of the so-called “road course ringers.” Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, finished the best of the group, turning in a 15th place finish in his first career NASCAR start. IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship ace Ricky Taylor, substituting for the injured Chase Elliott, ran in the top 10 early, but finished his day in 24th in his first series start.

Former Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen, in his second career NCS start, was among the top five late in the going, but got caught up in a late race melee. He soldiered home to a 29th place result. NTT IndyCar Series competitor Conor Daly suffered a transmission failure 16 laps into the race, and was credited with a 36th place finish.

Despite the slew of overtime periods, due mostly to debris from contact racing into turn 1, the first half of the race ran mostly incident free. The most costly moment came on lap one, when a spin by Brad Keselowski led to contact between several other cars as they tried to avoid the incident, including Jimmie Johnson, Ty Dillon, and Buescher. Johnson and Dillon were both sidelined with damage before completing a lap.

NASCAR Cup Series
Circuit of The Americas – Austin, TX
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – March 26, 2023

1. (2) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 75.
2. (9) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 75.
3. (6) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 75.
4. (12) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 75.
5. (1) William Byron, Chevrolet, 75.
6. (3) Austin Cindric, Ford, 75.
7. (18) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 75.
8. (32) Chris Buescher, Ford, 75.
9. (17) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 75.
10. (36) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 75.
11. (27) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 75.
12. (20) Michael McDowell, Ford, 75.
13. (29) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 75.
14. (13) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 75.
15. (19) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 75.
16. (21) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 75.
17. (25) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 75.
18. (24) Jenson Button, Ford, 75.
19. (23) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 75.
20. (10) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 75.
21. (38) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 75.
22. (16) Harrison Burton, Ford, 75.
23. (8) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 75.
24. (4) Jordan Taylor, Chevrolet, 75.
25. (37) Cody Ware, Ford, 75.
26. (33) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 75.
27. (5) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 75.
28. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 75.
29. (22) Kimi Raikkonen, Chevrolet, 75.
30. (39) Aric Almirola, Ford, 74.
31. (14) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 73.
32. (26) Ryan Preece, Ford, Accident, 68.
33. (28) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 62.
34. (7) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 60.
35. (30) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Driveshaft, 56.
36. (35) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, Transmission, 16.
37. (11) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 10.
38. (31) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, DVP, 0.
39. (34) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 0.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 72.886 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 30 Mins, 32 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.411 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 17 laps.

Lead Changes: 16 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: W. Byron 1-5;A. Cindric 6-7;T. Reddick 8-12;W. Byron 13-23;T. Reddick 24-31;C. Buescher 32;W. Byron 33-38;T. Reddick 39-41;W. Byron 42;J. Logano 43;W. Byron 44-46;T. Reddick 47-57;D. Suarez 58;C. Bell 59;T. Reddick 60-61;W. Byron 62-63;T. Reddick 64-75.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Tyler Reddick 6 times for 41 laps; William Byron 6 times for 28 laps; Austin Cindric 1 time for 2 laps; Christopher Bell 1 time for 1 lap; Joey Logano 1 time for 1 lap; Chris Buescher 1 time for 1 lap; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,2,16,48,1,99,8,9,20,41

Stage #2 Top Ten: 45,3,34,4,17,47,5,43,14,42

Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 97 (2 Wins); 2. Kyle Busch – 192 (1 Win); 3. Joey Logano – 186 (1 Win); 4. Tyler Reddick – 161 (1 Win); 5. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 159 (1 Win); 6. Ross Chastain – 211; 7. Kevin Harvick – 186; 8. Christopher Bell – 184; 9. Ryan Blaney – 177; 10. Austin Cindric – 166; 11. Martin Truex, Jr. – 165; 12. Brad Keselowski – 162; 13. Denny Hamlin – 161; 14. Chris Buescher – 157; 15. Daniel Suarez – 144; 16. Corey LaJoie – 139.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series