Tyler Reddick Survives To Win In Wild Texas Cup Race

Tyler Reddick won a war of attrition in the Lone Star State on Sunday night.

With other competitors stricken with tire woes, Reddick took the lead with 54 laps left to go in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Reddick then held the point through a series of restarts, and went on to score the victory over Joey Logano.

It’s the third series win of Reddick’s career, and his third of the season. And it continues the lockout of Playoff drivers from victory lane so far after the end of the regular season.

“I was extremely worried, I’m not going to lie,” Reddick said. “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.”

It also marks the first win for Reddick since announcing he will be leaving Richard Childress Racing in 2024. It also comes one week after being eliminated from the Playoffs by two points.

“Well, it was tough. I mean, two points,” said Reddick. “Every spot matters in this deal. We just had two tough races. We brought a really fast car at Darlington. We were leading at Kansas when we broke and fell out early. It’s tough.

“This will make that, the pain of not making it through, a little bit easier. Even though, yes, it would have locked us into the Round of 8. We’re winning races. That’s what we’ll keep trying to do.”

Reddick bounced back from an unscheduled pit stop on lap 117 when he felt a vibration. He came back after losing a lap to move back into contention.

“It was a hot one. Thank you fans who came out. I really appreciate it. This is a tough race, 500 miles here. Not an easy feat. I know it wasn’t easy on you guys, as well.

“So great to be able to win here in a Cup car. Been close a few times.”

Logano finished in second, all the while nursing his car after seeing so many others have tire issues.

“Yeah, the tires, if they aren’t blowing out then they are square,” said Logano, who leaves Texas as the leader in the Playoff standings over 13th place finisher Ross Chastain. “They were shaking like crazy. That is what happened there the last run. The last couple of runs really, just shaking the car. We got tight a couple runs and last time I got one that was off in the rear and we got loose. I think Reddick was fighting the same thing from what I heard there. You get that close to the win and you just know that if you just had that it might have been good enough to win the race. At the same time we should be happy that we scored a bunch of points today. It is bittersweet I guess.”

Justin Haley, competing in his first full season in the Cup series, came home with a third place finish.

“This was a long, challenging race,” Haley said. “We finished third at Darlington earlier in the season and started pretty much last there as well, so it’s pretty cool to have another really great run for this Kaulig Racing team.”

Playoff drivers Ryan Blaney finished in fourth, with Chase Briscoe in fifth.

While Reddick moved away for the win, it was a battle behind him that caught a lot of attention, as Playoff drivers William Byron and Denny Hamlin had their own fight.

The two were battling for second position off turn two when Byron made contact with the wall. Byron moved down to block Hamlin, allowing Austin Dillon to move past both of them.

When the caution flew seven laps later, Byron made contact with Hamlin as the two slowed, sending Hamlin’s car spinning through the front stretch grass.

Hamlin showed his displeasure under caution, and his team questioned why NASCAR did not penalize Byron for the contact.

In the end, Byron finished in seventh, with Hamlin in 10th.

“Yeah, he ran me out of room and bent the toe link,” Byron said. “We are lucky we finished. It was really hard contact…it wasn’t like a light contact or something like that. I obviously didn’t mean to spin him out over there, but I am obviously mad and just not going to get raced like that. We have always raced so well together and I don’t know what it was all about. The 19 (Martin Truex, Jr.) took it their way and he ran out of racetrack, so he chose to run me out of racetrack completely. And again, look, it was not like it was light contact and I thought we were going to be done.”

When asked if he ran into Hamlin on purpose off turn four, Byron said: “I don’t know. I mean obviously yeah. I went to go show my displeasure and I didn’t mean to spin him out. There are a ton of guys that do this and go do something like that…see it all the time. But yeah, I am just not going to get run like that and there is really no reason. I mean we are running second and third I think and had a shot to win, and it killed our car for sure. That was a bummer.”

Hamlin had his own take on the incident.

“I guess we can just wreck each other under caution,” said Hamlin. “I tried to wreck him back. Yeah, I don’t think we touched. I got to look. I don’t think we touched. Obviously, he sent us into the infield under caution.”

“I’ll just add it to the list of guys when I get a chance.” Hamlin added. “They’re going to get it.”

Scott Miller, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, addressed the situation after the race.

“I have to be honest with you. When we were in the tower, we were paying more attention to the actual cause of the caution up there and dispatching our equipment. The William Byron-Denny Hamlin thing we had no eyes on. We saw Denny go through the grass. By the time we got to a replay that showed the incident well enough to do anything to it, we had gone back to green.

“I’m not sure that issue is completely resolved as of yet. We’ll be looking at that when we get back to work.”

Meanwhile, it was a rough night for several other Playoff contenders.

Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott was leading the race on lap 185 when a cut tire sent him hard into the wall off of turn four. With his car on fire, Elliott wheeled to a stop on the infield grass and quickly exited the car. He was credited with a 32nd place finish.

“Yeah, something came apart,” Elliott said. “I could hear it flapping in the right rear fender well. I don’t know, but if it wasn’t down, it was certainly coming apart. One of the two.”

Christopher Bell experienced a pair of tire failures, with the second incident on lap 137 leaving his No. 20 Toyota with enough damage to end his night with a 33rd place finish.

Alex Bowman saw his race go south when a cut tire sent him into the wall in turn four just before the end of the first segment of the race. He would solider home to a 29th place finish.

After coming into the race as the leader in the Playoff standings, Elliott leaves tied for seventh with Daniel Suarez just above the cutoff line. Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Bell, and Bowman are all on the outside going to next weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

For other drivers, the lead just was not the place to be on Sunday.

Kevin Harvick was on the point when a cut tire sent his car hard into the wall around lap 250. That handed the lead to Martin Truex, Jr., who held the top spot until lap 269 when another tire issue sent him crashing into the turn four wall, ending his night.

“I blew a tire. Simple as that,” said Truex, Jr. “I guess the same thing as everybody else has been having. Man, I’m ready for this year to be over.”

The scariest moment of the race came on lap 169 when a cut tire sent Cody Ware’s car spinning in turn three. The car hooked right, and made hard contact head on with the turn four wall. The car then travelled down pit road, making hard contact with the pit wall before grinding to a halt.

Ware climbed out of the car under his own power, but quickly sat on the ground. He was transported via ambulance to the infield care center, where he was treated and released.

“He has been treated and released,” said Robby Benton of Rick Ware Racing. “We are thankful to the track crew here. We had a bit of a delay going through the normal protocol of x-rays and reviews and making sure there were no fractures. All of that came back clear. He will be on the team plane with us to return to Charlotte tonight and we are happy he is okay.”

Benton added that Ware was experiencing “A little bit of discomfort in his ankle” but did not suffer a concussion.

Miller also addressed the tire situation after the race.
“We’re working through that. Goodyear is working through that with the teams, working through what the setups were, what the air pressures were, to try to get to the bottom of it.

“There was a lot of teams that reported no problems to us post-race, and they did admit to being a little bit on the conservative side air pressure and being closer to the suggested minimums that Goodyear recommended.”

In all, there were 16 cautions on the day, with 14 of those coming for on-track incidents. The race was also halted for just under an hour for a weather delay on lap 220, as there was lightning in the area around the speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, TX
AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 – September 25, 2022

1. (4) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 334.
2. (2) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 334.
3. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 334.
4. (14) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 334.
5. (30) Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 334.
6. (27) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 334.
7. (3) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 334.
8. (1) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 334.
9. (9) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 334.
10. (8) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 334.
11. (5) Michael McDowell, Ford, 334.
12. (10) Daniel Suarez (P), Chevrolet, 334.
13. (12) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 334.
14. (29) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 334.
15. (11) Austin Cindric # (P), Ford, 334.
16. (32) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 334.
17. (7) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 334.
18. (20) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 334.
19. (23) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 334.
20. (16) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 334.
21. (26) Noah Gragson(i), Chevrolet, 334.
22. (35) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 334.
23. (33) Garrett Smithley(i), Ford, 334.
24. (25) Aric Almirola, Ford, 334.
25. (19) Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 334.
26. (34) B.J. McLeod(i), Ford, 333.
27. (21) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 333.
28. (28) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 333.
29. (17) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 329.
30. (13) Chris Buescher, Ford, Accident, 270.
31. (15) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, Accident, 267.
32. (6) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 184.
33. (36) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 166.
34. (22) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, DVP, 136.
35. (24) Cole Custer, Ford, Accident, 77.
36. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Accident, 48.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 114.784 mph.

Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 21 Mins, 53 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.190 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 16 for 91 laps.

Lead Changes: 36 among 19 drivers.

Lap Leaders: B. Keselowski 0;J. Logano (P) 1;B. Keselowski 2-32;J. Logano (P) 33-41;W. Byron (P) 42-43;J. Logano (P) 44-45;W. Byron (P) 46-53;J. Logano (P) 54;W. Byron (P) 55-59;J. Logano (P) 60;W. Byron (P) 61-86;D. Hamlin (P) 87-88;K. Larson (P) 89-107;R. Stenhouse Jr. 108-122;H. Burton # 123-137;C. Elliott (P) 138;B. McLeod(i) 139;C. Elliott (P) 140;R. Chastain (P) 141;C. Elliott (P) 142-183;R. Blaney (P) 184-190;D. Suarez (P) 191;R. Blaney (P) 192-213;M. McDowell 214-223;E. Jones 224;M. McDowell 225-226;T. Reddick 227-243;K. Harvick 244-252;M. Truex Jr. 253-267;A. Dillon 268-270;W. Byron (P) 271;R. Stenhouse Jr. 272-276;T. Gilliland # 277;R. Stenhouse Jr. 278-280;T. Reddick 281-309;J. Logano (P) 310;T. Reddick 311-334.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Tyler Reddick 3 times for 70 laps; Chase Elliott (P) 3 times for 44 laps; William Byron (P) 5 times for 42 laps; Brad Keselowski 1 time for 31 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 2 times for 29 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 3 times for 23 laps; Kyle Larson (P) 1 time for 19 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 15 laps; Harrison Burton # 1 time for 15 laps; Joey Logano (P) 6 times for 15 laps; Michael McDowell 2 times for 12 laps; Kevin Harvick 1 time for 9 laps; Austin Dillon 1 time for 3 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 2 laps; Ross Chastain (P) 1 time for 1 lap; Erik Jones 1 time for 1 lap; Todd Gilliland # 1 time for 1 lap; BJ McLeod(i) 1 time for 1 lap; Daniel Suarez (P) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,11,22,99,1,24,47,6,2,34

Stage #2 Top Ten: 12,1,24,6,99,3,2,22,19,34

Playoff Standings: 1. Joey Logano – 3071 (2 Wins); 2. Ross Chastain – 3059 (2 Wins); 3. William Byron – 3058 (2 Wins); 4. Kyle Larson – 3057 (2 Wins); 5. Ryan Blaney – 3056; 6. Denny Hamlin – 3049 (2 Wins); 7. Daniel Suarez – 3045 (1 Win); 8. Chase Elliott – 3045 (4 Wins); 9. Chase Briscoe – 3041 (1 Win); 10. Austin Cindric – 3034 (1 Win); 11. Christopher Bell – 3016 (1 Win); 12. Alex Bowman – 3015 (1 Win).

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (P) Playoff driver