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Thinkin’ Out Loud at Michigan: Tyler Reddick Is a Championship Lock

What Happened?

Tyler Reddick drove to the front and survived two overtimes to win his second race of the season on a Monday (Aug. 19) afternoon in Michigan International Speedway. 

Reddick finally turned his summer consistency into victory, beating William Byron and Ty Gibbs to the line in the second overtime. Kyle Busch and Michigan native Brad Keselowski finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

What Really Happened?

Maybe he hasn’t set the world on fire by winning a ton of races like Kevin Harvick in 2020 or Kyle Larson in 2021, but Reddick has been super consistent in the last two months of the summer stretch. For the seventh consecutive race, Reddick finished inside the top six. 

This includes five podiums, with three seconds and two thirds. While Reddick has voiced his frustration in past weeks about his seeming inability to convert these solid runs into victories, his consistency has carried the No. 45 to the regular season points lead.

See also
Kyle Busch Finally Back in Top 5 With 2-Tire Pit Call at Michigan

In seasons past, Reddick’s kryptonite is that he drives a little too hard when he has a good car. That No. 45 has been a weekly contender since Reddick joined the 23XI Racing ranks, but the driver — and team — took themselves out of contention for the win on multiple occasions in 2023 with on-track mistakes and pit road penalties.

Even this year, Reddick should have won at Chicago, but an over-aggressive exit of turn 5 damaged the car and kept the No. 45 in second.

While consistent Chase Elliott only has one finish worse than 20th, Reddick has a series-best 15 top-five finishes so far this season. 

This consistency stems from Reddick’s resolve to take what the car is giving him and nothing more. You can see this improvement by looking at the finishes from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway.

In both of those races, Reddick had the faster car and was chasing down the leader. While his decision-making process in the final laps of both races could have been better, I believe a younger version of Reddick would have spun out or hit the wall by overdriving one of the corners.

While other top teams have had a rocky summer, Reddick’s patience (and frustration) have vaulted his team to the top.

Like we’ve seen with Larson and Christopher Bell, the path to winning more and making the Championship 4 starts with finishing races. Like we saw with Martin Truex Jr. last year, a top seed can survive a lot of carnage and still make a deep playoff run.

A consistent Reddick is a Championship 4 lock.

See also
Double Top 10, Flip Encapsulate Spire's Up-and-Down Day

Who Stood Out?

Another overtime ending resulted in a little more carnage, but it benefitted a few teams and drivers greatly, starting with Spire Motorsports. Zane Smith drove to a seventh-place finish, and Michigander Carson Hocevar just squeaked into the top 10 as well.

Chris Buescher also impressed. The defending race winner was collected in the late stage two accident.

Even with damage, Buescher drove through the field and finished behind his teammate in sixth.

It’s not a top 10, but Ryan Preece finally finished a race, and he finished well. Preece led all Stewart-Haas Racing drivers, crossing the stripe in 11th and earning an attaboy.

Who Fell Flat?

It looked like a great opportunity for Bubba Wallace to battle his teammate for the win, especially after Bubba made an awesome three-wide move to take the lead on Sunday. 

However, he had nowhere to go when Larson spun out, erasing his solid run and dropping the No. 23 below the cut line.

With this accident involving both Wallace and Buescher, Ross Chastain could breathe a sigh of relief and try to gain some separation on the cut line. Instead, he became the caution in the first overtime and lost his gains from the race. Chastain holds that final playoff spot by just one point.

Better Than Last Time?

For a Monday Michigan race, this was a solid one, even better than Buescher’s entertaining triumph over a hard-charging Truex. The race had a bit of everything, including a car on its lid.

While it’s unfortunate that the outside grooves seem nearly unusable, tires did matter a little today, which nullified some of the negative affects of aerodynamics and the all-powerful draft and added a little element of strategy. 

On top of that, the weekly overtime finish finally resulted with the righteous, pre-overtime leader, coming out on top with no added drama.

Paint Scheme of the Race

The teams didn’t produce too many new, flashy schemes for Michigan this week. Daniel Suarez had probably the best “new” look, but his car copied the livery from Chastain last week. That doesn’t make it any less fun, but it takes the originality out of the paint scheme, at least.

I know we’ve seen Reddick’s McDonald’s scheme before, but it honestly popped the best under the sunlight. It looked cool racing against its McDonald’s counterpart on the No. 23, and it looked even cooler smoking the tires with ketchup dripping down the side.

What’s Next?

Reddick’s summer consistency is in danger as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Daytona Aug. 24 for its first Saturday night race of the year. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 doesn’t set the playoff field this year, but it does start at 7:30 p.m. as NASCAR returns to NBC.

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!

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4 Comments
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WJW Motorsports

Let’s celebrate with $14 Big Macs for all!

Jeremy

I might if I could get a shake to go with it! lol

Kevin in SoCal

I’ll pass, McD’s sucks.

Bill B

I don’t know why these guys all turn stupid as we near and enter the playoffs.

Hamlin spins out and damages his car in the first stage trying to gain one position. This gives Larson an edge on the season leader points if he just gets a good finish he can gain a bunch of points, but NO!!!, he has to do something equally stupid and wrecks his car.

Big wreck involving a bunch of the bubble drivers. This gives Chastain an edge, just get a top ten and he’ll be at least 12 points above the cut line, but NO!!!!, he has to wreck himself trying to get more.

There were several other similar situations during the race.
What is it about the playoffs that turn these guys mental?

Can’t these guys be smart instead of greedy?

Last edited 5 months ago by Bill B