Tyler Reddick takes points lead with breakthrough win
BROOKLYN, Mich. — After a summer stretch of success but no trips to victory lane, Tyler Reddick broke through with a big win at Michigan that vaulted him to the regular-season points lead.
Reddick led 15 laps and won the FireKeepers Casino 400 in double overtime at Michigan International Speedway. He passed William Byron back in the second overtime attempt after Byron passed him during the first attempt.
“William did a really good job of staying with me on the bottom with Brad (Keselowski) closing in when he did. I had to be more focused on him than side-drafting William. He got control of it there. I’m really thankful for Ty Gibbs. Great teammate. The Toyota Racing family took care of each other today, that’s for sure,” Reddick said.
Reddick and Byron bested Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Zane Smith, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin and Carson Hocevar, who rounded out the top-10 finishers.
Reddick won earlier this season at Talladega in April – but his last win could’ve easily come much sooner than that.
After a dominating performance went awry in the closing laps at Darlington in May, Reddick only finished outside of the top-10 once in the 10 races before Michigan. Reddick had a legitimate chance at winning half of those races – Sonoma, New Hampshire, Nashville, Chicago and Indianapolis – but still didn’t have that second win.
Michigan was the breakthrough for Reddick. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. With two regular-season races left, Reddick is the new points leader.
“We are going to go to Daytona, and hopefully don’t crash. Last time we were there, we won the Duels, so hoping to walk away from Daytona with the points lead. If we can do that, it will set us up really good to close it out in Darlington,” he said.
In second is Chase Elliott, who earned nine stage points at Michigan. Among the drivers within striking distance of the regular-season points lead, Elliott was the only one who earned stage points.
But it didn’t end as well for him.
Coming to the white flag, Elliott was in fourth with a one-point lead over Reddick. However, contact with Ryan Blaney in turn one dropped Elliott back to 15th and gave Reddick a 10-point lead at the finish.
Behind Elliott in points is Denny Hamlin who was on his way to a race-winning performance before a spin on lap 38. Hamlin kept going but finished 22nd in stage one, casting uncertainty over how he would do once the race resumed Monday.
“My car was bad. It was really, really bad. It was tore up. He [crew chief Chris Gabehart] sent me some pictures overnight that just did not look good. It’s unfortunate, man. I hate that I did that to the team. Certainly set us back,” Hamlin said. “I still was optimistic because Chris is going to make sure he doesn’t get me total Denny-downer information before the race starts. He was like, ‘We’re not going to get it back to where it was, but we can get it somewhat close.'”
Monday started slow for the No. 11 team. They ran outside of the top-20 for much of the second stage, finishing 20th in stage two.
“Obviously after we started there, we were not close. We then just had to make adjustments to the car handling-wise to pick up the second that we did in the second half of that race,” he said.
Hamlin hung on and finished ninth on the day. What would usually be an average day for the 19-year veteran was a major success, all things considered.
“I am going to run quickly out of here with my ninth,” stated Hamlin, who is now 28 points out of the regular-season points lead, only losing seven points.
The biggest loser of the day was Kyle Larson who held the points lead by five points over Reddick, six over Elliott and 21 over Hamlin coming into Michigan.
The race started well enough with Larson leading 34 laps in stage one. However, a caution with eight laps to go in the stage shuffled him out of contention to earn stage points.
Come Monday, Larson rebounded to lead again in stage two. In fact, he was in position to possibly pick up a stage win with under 10 laps to go.
Until another untimely caution fell near the end of the stage.
Again, Larson dropped out of contention to earn stage points. This time, it went horribly wrong as he wrecked in turn three on lap 116.
“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,” Larson said.
In all, Larson lost 37 points to Reddick, 28 to Elliott and 25 to Hamlin. He is now fourth in points – 32 points behind Reddick, 22 behind Elliott and four behind Hamlin.
Regular-season points battle before and after Michigan
Before
- Kyle Larson: 779 points
- Tyler Reddick: 774 (-5)
- Chase Elliott: 773 (-6)
- Denny Hamlin: 758 (-21)
After
- Tyler Reddick: 814 points
- Chase Elliott: 804 (-10)
- Denny Hamlin: 786 (-28)
- Kyle Larson: 782 (-32)
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com