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CAMBRIDGE TWP. — It took two days and six extra laps, but Tyler Reddick emerged from the front of the pack to take the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Monday.
Reddick seemed to have the race locked up as his lead got up to two seconds with 10 laps to go, but the caution flag waved as Martin Truex Jr. spun on Turn 4 of Lap 194, which also took the race into overtime. On the restart, Ross Chastain spun to bring out a second yellow on Lap 199.
William Byron took the lead on the re-start on Lap 204, but Reddick re-took the lead on Lap 205 and held off Byron for the victory on Lap 206.
“It was a pretty chaotic race for us,” Reddick said. “We didn’t know where we stacked up, but we knew what we needed to do coming into the race. We got a really good push from Ty (Gibbs) on the restart.”
Reddick not only overtook Byron for the win on the restart, but he overtook Kyle Larson for the overall season points lead with his second victory of the season.
With two races to go in the regular season, Reddick leads Larson by 10 points.
“At the top, a lot us are running really good and you never know when a bad day is going to come your way,” Reddick said.
Following a caution brought on by tire issues for Todd Gilliland, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano, Larson got loose on Turn 3 of Lap 115 and caused a pile up around Turn 4. Larson finished in the infield along with Christopher Bell and Gilliland.
The caution gave way to Kyle Busch taking the Stage 2 win.
“It’s really tight in speed on the racetrack,” Reddick said. “It’s tight on points and that’s what this Next Gen era has really done is brought us all closer together. The little things, the little moments in your day can affect you so much.”
One little moment on Lap 135 turned into a scary one as Corey Lajoie slightly contacted Noah Gragson on the back stretch, which sent Lajoie into the air and flipped onto his tires. Lajoie walked away from the wreck seemingly unscathed, but not without taking the breath away from spectators.
“The cars are pretty safe in rollover situations,” said Denny Hamlin, who also co-owns Reddick’s No. 45 car with 23XI. “That’s kind of a strong point with the Next Gen car. (LaJoie) was right in the middle of the straightaway doing 185 (miles per hour) or so and he turned sideways and I don’t know if you’re going to slow us down enough inside of the car to not rollover in that situation.
“I haven’t rolled over, but as a driver I’d almost rather rollover than hit a wall at that kind of speed. We have a safe car and I feel comfortable with the speeds that we’re at.”
Reddick took the lead on Lap 176 and only relinquished it for a moment to Byron after the overtime caution, but quickly regained it thanks to help from fellow a fellow Toyota driver, Gibbs in the No. 54.
“We would’ve finished second, third or fourth,” Reddick said. “Knowing (Gibbs) and him knowing me and how I’m going to approach the restart, it just worked really, really well. I didn’t want (Byron) to get half of a car ahead, but it was just the perfect storm.”
With Reddick taking the win and the overall points lead, it marks the first time the young 23XI team holds the top spot in the standings this late in the season.
The team consisting of Reddick and Bubba Wallace in the No. 23 car, which had a strong start but finished 26th thanks to the Larson wreck, co-owned by fellow driver Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Jordan was on hand Sunday for the start of the race, but wasn’t around to see his No. 45 take the checkered flag on Monday.
“That’s just really big for our team,” Hamlin said. “It goes a long way and I’m certainly proud of all the work that team has done to get here.”
Rounding out the top-10 Byron and Gibbs in second and third, Kyle Busch, Rochester’s Brad Keselowski, 2023 winner Chris Buescher, Zane Smith, Daniel Suarez, Hamlin and Portage’s Carson Hocevar.
Hocevar took his fifth top-10 finish of his rookie season and while he’ll need a win to get into the playoff, he’s leading the race for NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year.
“We want to treat ourselves like a playoff car,” Hocevar said. “We want to hold ourselves to that standard to finish the year strong and then we have a whole year to become a playoff car.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tyler Reddick wins NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400
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