Tyler Reddick miraculously legged it out in a finish where the Toyota driver was on older tires to secure a spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix in two weeks.
Reddick had a strong car all day long, leading a majority of the first stage of the race but pit stops would shuffle him around the Top 10.
The California native was able to stay well within the front end of the field and led laps late into the final stage but a late pit stop took Reddick out of the lead.
That is until Kyle Larson got loose and spun out at Turn 3 to allow for caution, resulting in Reddick making a final lap pass on Blaney for the win.
Outside of Reddick’s performance, Ryan Blaney was able to have a strong day running up inside the Top 5, trading places for the lead multiple times during the race.
For 23XI, it is their first Championship 4 berth in the team’s history and it is only the second non-Gibbs, Hendrick or Penske driver in the Next Gen era.
Larson Blues
Kyle Larson had quite an afternoon in the penultimate Round of 8 race.
Between an early flat tire, late race contact with Blaney and car problems on pit road, it was a wild afternoon for the driver of the #5.
Larson had the pace this weekend to be a contender, qualifying on the front row on Saturday. But in the race, Larson was plagued with bad luck.
“We got a flat right rear,” said Larson post-race. “I could tell something was up because after the green flag stop, I was just clobbering the ground and bouncing a lot. I wasn’t going to be surprised that I blew a tire and then I did. Thankfully I didn’t the wall too hard. But your just driving all the way back to pit road just grinding the bottom of the car off. So, I knew I was going to be bad after that and we were. I had no downforce and I just limped it to the end of the stage and just decided to grip the wall to keep any grip in my car. I’m just proud of myself for driving my butt off to get up there and have a shot because we shouldn’t have. Then racing for the lead there, I just couldn’t get close enough to Ryan (Blaney) and finally got my chance to get close. I didn’t know what to do. I was hoping Austin (Dillon) would leave me the lane against the wall but he ran his lane and there was still a little bit of hole, and I was going to try and shot the gap and get clear in front, but I got loose and spun.”
Larson did everything he could to survive in a race that didn’t go his way.
The Elk Grove, California native had the speed to keep up with front pack but the bad luck moments costed him his chance to be within striking distance for a chance to lead.
While Larson had a chance late, it may have been a costly move. There wasn’t a ton of space between Dillon and Blaney, and it may be looked at as aggressive but with a Championship spot on the line, the #5 driver had to take a chance at track that catered to him.
Pit Palooza
Pit strategy created for a very complicated weekend at Homestead-Miami, and the Cup race was the same story.
Timing was truly everything in this race and when to take tires/fuel played a big part in how the race played out, most notably in the final laps.
In the case of Reddick, the late stop helped in terms of when the Larson caution came out in the final laps of the race but even on the late pit, it still created a bit of a wild ending given the two-lap wear that his tires had.
Reddick stated that he felt like the car had was able to run the wall well in 3 & 4. However, in 1 & 2 he had to move around a lot but he was able to still keep up pace in the race which he stated help him win the race.
But overall, when to go for tires played important.
Billy Scott stated that when the team pitted wouldn’t have changed even with the caution but you would have to imagine that definitely played a factor.
Reddick had a sizeable enough lead to wait for the stop but as the race went later on it did seem that maybe him and the team were waiting on a potential caution.
While it came after the stop, Reddick still was able to make it work out on his end.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this race had the makings of a championship finish.
The battles up front all day created for a historic afternoon and the aggressiveness showed as the race progressed
Reddick played his cards perfectly and had the speed all weekend to stay up front for the race win. It seemed like compared to other drivers, Reddick was able find a boost within the turns which he mentioned in his press conference.
Now for the #45 team, they can begin focusing on their championship quest in two weeks at Phoenix