NASCAR News: Tyler Reddick fends off Byron in second overtime

Tyler Reddick powered to his second victory of the NASCAR Cup Series season, netting a rain-delayed Monday win after two overtimes at Michigan International Speedway.

Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota led 15 of the 200 laps in the FireKeepers Casino 400, and he was 0.168 seconds ahead of runner-up William Byron at the checkered flag. His first victory at the 2-mile Michigan track was the seventh of his Cup Series career, and it snapped Ford’s Michigan streak at nine consecutive wins.

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Byron led 20 laps in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and was ahead until Reddick took control for the final two-lap dash to the end. Ty Gibbs drove home third with Kyle Busch fourth and home-state favorite Brad Keselowski completing the top five.

The race resumed Monday morning after Sunday rain delayed the start and ultimately forced a postponement with 51 laps complete.

Kyle Larson led three times for 41 laps, but lost control of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the fourth turn on Lap 116, snaring several other cars in its wake. Among them were Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland, Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace. Logano, Larson, Bell and Gilliland were all sidelined.

“Yeah, I just messed up. You try to get all you can on restarts. I was just trying to funnel myself up the racetrack. I didn’t want to get stuck on the bottom three-wide. Just got myself in an awkward aero spot and lost it. It’s unfortunate. I made a mistake and cost ourselves a lot of points today.”

Corey LaJoie went for a wild ride 20 laps later when his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet went aloft on the backstretch after contact with Noah Gragson’s No. 10 Ford. LaJoie’s car slid on its roof for a great distance before tumbling to a stop in the infield grass.

Pole-starter Denny Hamlin rallied to finish ninth after a solo spin in Sunday’s Stage 1 damaged his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He recovered from a Lap 38 excursion off Turn 4 into the infield grass but with damage to the car’s underside.

Quotes

Tyler Reddick, you didn’t want the bottom on that final restart. How did you make it work?

TYLER REDDICK: Just great teammate, fantastic push by Ty Gibbs. That’s what it’s all about. The Toyota family tries to take care of each other.

The roll this team is on. Have you ever been, despite the disappointment with the second-place finishes, on a roll like this in your career?

TYLER REDDICK: It’s been a minute. It’s been really cool. I can’t help sit here in Victory Lane and think of Scott Bloomquist. Huge mentor to me, incredible role model, legend of dirt racing and motorsports.

The last couple days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him, his family, his friends. All that meant a lot for him.

One of the more emotional weeks for you then?

TYLER REDDICK: It’s tough. It’s always tough when someone you care about passes away. But my thoughts are with him and his family.

The boss man, Michael Jordan, was here. Couldn’t convince him to stay?

TYLER REDDICK: Maybe I should have. We had a bad restart going into the night. I didn’t know how that was going to shake out for us in our McDonald’s Camry. We did a really, really good job today and rebounded from that. I think we were one of the last cars on the lead lap at the start of stage three. Great effort for us.

William Byron, a couple things going on. You chose the outside. You had nine-lap older tires. How much of that was a factor?

WILLIAM BYRON: I’ll relive that restart, what lane to choose overnight, for sure. It seems like always as the leader you want to take the top. I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom. I had the lead on the bottom barely over him, but he had a better car than us. He was a little bit faster.

Second sucks. Really proud of the effort. I feel like we’ve been trying to put weeks together like this. This is a really good step. Everyone did a great job on the team. Strategy was awesome. Car was awesome all day.

Really proud of the team. Just thanks to all of our partners, Raptor, Chevrolet. Wanted to get a win for Chevy here in their backyard. Try next year.

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