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Tyler Reddick‘s first NASCAR Cup Series win finally came Sunday (July 3) in the form of a late-race pass of Chase Elliott at Road America. The victory gets Reddick over the hump after being oh-so-close a number of times during the 2022 season. The back-to-back Xfinity Series champion caught up to the reigning track winner, one of the sport’s best on road courses, during pit stops before hounding the No. 9 until Elliott finally gave way.
How huge is Reddick’s breakthrough for his career? And is NASCAR finally destined to reach 16 winners in 2022 after its 13th different victor on Sunday? Plus, despite the battle, it was a largely lackluster road course event with the Next Gen car. How can NASCAR fix the on-track product at these circuits?
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About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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Adam, you may be the only person in the NASCAR media world to address this? Wasnt the media frenzy in prior years about adding more road courses because of the tight racing and popularity? If we had an oval race where the winner of the first 2 segments was out front by 5-6 seconds, and the eventual winner by 3-4 seconds, the media would be pushing the snoozer theme and the need for more road courses. The NASCAR leadership team has oversaturated the schedule due to some questionable assumptions (tight racing, fan popularity – see COTA tv ratings?) and its hard to correct the course here. Honesty in reporting may shine some light on this topic.
Yesterdays race was a giant bore fest, worst NASCAR race in decades
I hate to say it because I love the place but RA isn’t the greatest place for Cup.
The only way to guarantee “game 7 moments” at every race of the season is to artificially create action by closing up the field with cautions…like stages do. I didn’t find this race to be horrible at all. The feeling at the track was anything but boring. But you’re in luck…odds are Ben Kennedy will get rid of this race because the long lap forces creativity in filling long caution periods so this race will disappear in favor of ‘The Shootout in Chicago’ next year.
Funny what happens when ‘The playing field is level’ and ‘every body has the same parts.’ They all go the same damn speed and nobody passes anybody. These cars need more HP to at least break the rear tires loose on short tracks and road courses.
Even before today’s tragedy, who thinks Chicago with it’s racist, socialist mayor and unprecedented violent crime levels to be a good place to race? Let’s put teams and fans in a city that is like a war zone! What could happen badly in this scenario? DUH! Is ben kennedy getting into uncle Bri Bri’s medicine chest?
I didn’t watch last years race. Was it as boring as yesterday’s? I wish I had spent the time outside doing anything.
No stages on road courses. Real strategy not simply flipping stages