Tyler Reddick gives Big Machine Racing 1st Win at Texas

It’s always a special moment for a race team to get their first-ever win. SS-Greenlight got their first win with Cole Custer at Auto Club Speedway back in February, then we saw Ross Chastain give Trackhouse Racing their first two wins in team history. This time, it was the No. 48 Chevrolet out of the Big Machine Racing shop driven by Tyler Reddick. The team formed in 2021 with Jade Buford behind the wheel. For Reddick, this was his tenth career Xfinity Series victory and his first since winning the 2019 Xfinity Series Championship.

“First off, just a huge opportunity and thank you to Big Machine Racing, this Chevrolet was just so good,” Reddick said in his post-race interview. “Nobody at RCR was really happy with where the cars were at, and I wanted to help and try to make these cars get better and to figure out what we needed to do to get these cars better.”

William Byron, driving the No. 88 for Jr Motorsports, finished second to Reddick, as he made his first Xfinity start since winning the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship. Had Byron won, it would’ve been a fourth consecutive win for Jr Motorsports. Sam Mayer finished third, Justin Allgaier finished fourth, and Austin Hill in fifth.

Noah Gragson was the lone Jr Motorsports driver who had a rough day, as he would end up finishing 36th after being involved in a pileup at the start of the final stage. Gragson earned his first career Xfinity Series pole and even won the first stage, but the end result was not what he and his No. 9 team had in mind.

“I guess the only positive is we got a Playoff point for the stage win,” Gragson commented, “Definitely sucks. Good to see the other JRM cars running strong. Hopefully, we can get the company a good finish today.”

Ryan Truex, driving the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing finished sixth, as Josh Berry, Riley Herbst, AJ Allmendinger, and Landon Cassill rounded out the top 10. After the race ended, AJ Allmendinger now holds a 44-point lead over Noah Gragson, as the Xfinity Series heads to Charlotte next week on Saturday, May 28th for a 1 PM EST green flag.