Tyler Reddick capped a few tough emotional days with a strong performance in a Monday makeup.
Reddick roared away from William Byron in the second overtime and broke Ford’s stranglehold on Michigan International Raceway, winning the NASCAR Cup Series’ postponed FireKeepers Casino 400 in Brooklyn, Mich.
After Martin Truex Jr. brought out the sixth caution with six laps left, leader Reddick and the rest of the top 10 stayed out for the first of the two-lap dashes.
Restarting on the top lane, Reddick and Byron were side-by-side when Ross Chastain, running 11th, spun on the backstretch to set up a second shootout. However, Byron led Reddick in the final scoring loop.
That made Reddick start the second OT below Byron. Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota got a great launch, pulled away from Byron and held off the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet by 0.168 seconds for his seventh career win.
The victory, Reddick’s second this season, broke Ford’s nine-race MIS winning streak, which dated to Kyle Larson’s victory in a Chevrolet in 2017.
It was Toyota’s first win at MIS since Matt Kenseth was victorious in 2015.
“Great teammate, fantastic push by Ty Gibbs — the Toyota family tries to take care of each other,” said Reddick of his manufacturer mate after leading 16 laps in his first career Michigan win. “But I can’t help but sit here in Victory Lane and think of Scott Bloomquist, man. Huge mentor to me and an incredible role model and legend of dirt racing and motorsports.”
A dirt racing superstar, Bloomquist, 60, was killed Friday when his vintage airplane crashed near his home in Mooresburg, Tennessee.
“The last couple of days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him and his family and friends and all that meant a lot to him,” Reddick said.
Byron said the final restart would stick with him.
“I’ll relive that restart and what lane to choose,” said Byron after his eighth top-five finish. “Always as the leader you want to take the top, but I’ve (been) beat twice by the bottom. But he had a better car than us.”
Gibbs, Kyle Busch and Michigan native Brad Keselowski completed the top five.
Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 at Lap 45 on a drizzling Sunday afternoon. After a second rain delay, NASCAR could not get the 200-lap race restarted in the state’s scenic Irish Hills and postponed the 24th event on the Cup schedule until Monday morning. The start of Sunday’s race was delayed by more than two hours.
With 12 laps to go in Stage 2 following a round of pit stops on Monday, caution flew for three separate incidents on the track involving Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger and Todd Gilliland.
Bigger trouble struck with four laps to go on the restart as a wreck ensued when Larson got loose by himself off Turn 4 and started an eight-car melee that involved playoff pursuers Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher. Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet came to rest with a buckled hood on the frontstretch infield.
Under caution, Busch claimed Stage 2 for his first segment win and first for Richard Childress Racing so far.
On the race’s fifth caution, Corey LaJoie tapped Noah Gragson’s No. 10 Ford, resulting in a spectacular crash down the backstretch for LaJoie. His No. 7 Chevrolet slid sideways, became airborne, skidded on its roof for a good distance and violently tumbled on the grass below Turn 3.
–Field Level Media
