Tyler Reddick claimed his sixth career win in the NASCAR Cup Series Sunday evening (April 21).
Reddick led the outside line against a Michael McDowell-led inside line for the final twenty laps. Following an aggressive block from McDowell on Brad Keselowski, Reddick drove through developing chaos to take the checkered flag as the field was engulfed in the Big One.
“Man, it’s incredible,” Reddick told FOX Sports. “Gotta give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr., you know, just, just us Toyotas left. They pushed me with everything they had.”
23XI Racing co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin commented on Reddick’s win from Victory Lane, as well.
Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman made up the top five, and Anthony Alfredo, William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton rounded out the top 10.
Stage one ran caution free with nearly nonstop three-wide racing from the front of the pack to the back. Coming to the start/finish line, Austin Cindric was able to get around Kyle Larson to beat Chase Elliott to the line by mere inches to claim the stage one win. Larson was attempting to reclaim his place on the lead lap by leading the pack, but lost speed coming to the line.
Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Busch made up the top five, with Burton, Christopher Bell, Keselowski, Bowman, and Gragson rounding out the bottom half of the top 10 for stage one.
Stage two ran caution free as well, with most of the field running up to six seconds off the pace in order to save fuel. Toward the end of the stage, the intensity ramped up, with Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Cindric throwing aggressive blocks. Chris Buescher would split the two Penske teammates, nearly spinning off the front of Cindric’s No. 2 Ford.
Logano maintained the lead to win stage two. Cindric, Larson, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain claimed top five positions, while Reddick, Buescher, Elliott, Ryan Preece, and Gibbs collected points from sixth through tenth.
The first caution for cause came in the final leg of the race. On lap 133, the outside line stacked up, leading some drivers to move into a third, higher, lane. In the outside line, Elliott attempted to jump up to the higher line, but made contact with Justin Haley, who then made contact with Bell. Bell hit the outside wall, ending his day.
With 37 laps to go, six Toyotas hit pit road to take advantage of an opening to control the pace. The strategy call was proving to be a great call until John Hunter Nemechek’s bumps to the rear of Bubba Wallace caused Erik Jones to lose control off the front of Wallace, sending the three cars up and into the wall. Truex and Gibbs were able to avoid the wreck, however, Hamlin was not as fortunate.
2024 NASCAR Cup Series Talladega Spring Results
Next Sunday (April 28), the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Northeast for the Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. E.T. on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM.
About the author
Ty joined the Frontstretch team in February of 2024 as a Contributor covering Sunday news. He has two books available on Amazon: A Perfect Sundae and Chartreuse: Crime & Horror Short Stories.
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Look at the top ten finishers and you have the proof of the crap shoot endings. How often have some of them EVER finished there?
I’ll bet the demo derby finish is already in the latest and greatest NA$CAR ad! Just what Brian had in mind!
Just in case you didn’t know Michael Jordan was there. Nascar brass was wetting their pants in his presence. We were just lucky a certain driver didn’t win.
Reddick is a wheelman, I didn’t mind him winning at all. I keep wondering if the other ones car has ever been taken back to Nascar after a race.
When are the drivers going to ask NA$CAR: “When will we get a real race car to drive?”