Tyler Reddick Holds on in Overtime Restart to win at Michigan

It was an exciting race in the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, as the race started on Sunday after a weather delay and ran for 50 laps until rain returned, causing the race to continue Monday morning. 

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick earned his second win of the season, sporting the McDonalds colors, after he held off William Byron in the second overtime restart that followed a Ross Chastain spin. This win would break a nine-race win streak that was held by Ford at the 2-mile oval.

“Just great teammate and a fantastic push from Ty Gibbs, the Toyota racing family tries to take care of each other,” said Reddick, who dedicated the win to dirt late model racing legend Scott Bloomquist, who was killed in a plane accident days ago.

“The last couple days have been tough, but this really helps. This win goes to him [Bloomquist] and his family and friends, and all that meant a lot to him. It’s always tough when someone you care about passes away.

“We did a really good job today,” he said of the win. “I think we were the last car on the lead lap starting stage three today so good effort for us.”

William Byron had the lead before the second overtime restart and chose to restart on the high line, while Reddick would restart on the inside with fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs behind him, creating the opportunity to give Toyota a win.

“I will relive that restart and what lane to choose overnight for sure,” Byron said. “It seems like always as the leader you want to take the top, but I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom and I had the lead on the bottom barely over him.”

“But he had a better car than us, he was a little bit faster. Second sucks, but really proud of the effort. I feel like we’ve been trying to put weeks together like this and this is a really good step.”

Kyle Busch had a much-needed result as he led for 24 laps and finished fourth, despite virtually being in a “must-win” situation. He is trying to extend a record 19-year winning streak in the series as well, dating back to his rookie season in 2005. 

“Overall, just net positive on the weekend, being better on speed and up front and having a shot anyways, but we ran top 10 all day,” said Busch, who won the second stage.

“This is how we would expect to run, this how we want to run,” he added. “We want to run up front, have top-10s and have opportunities to excel.”

“Good momentum rolling in the right direction and need to just keep that going.”

RFK Racing continues to improve and make good strides as Michigan-native Brad Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher finished fifth and sixth. These were the best results by any Ford drivers in the field, as Brad is locked into the playoffs, but Buescher, who won this race a year ago, is around the cutline. Buescher sits 15^th in the standings, 16 points above the cutline, after what was a very eventful day. Ross Chastain now holds the 16^th and final spot, just one spot above the cutline over Bubba Wallace.

In a race that had 16 different race leaders and 26 lead changes, Denny Hamlin started from the pole and during the Sunday portion of the race, he was chasing down his 23XI driver Bubba Wallace, when he went for a spin off of turn four. He would recover to a ninth place finish. 

Corey Lajoie had a scary moment when he was battling for position at one point with Noah Gragson, when he made contact with the No. 10, turning Lajoie’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and causing the car to go airborne. Lajoie’s car slid on its roof down the backstretch and flipped back over in the grass in turn three. This follows after Kyle Seig had a similar incident in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Lajoie would exit his car and walk away on his own.

Kyle Larson led the Cup Series championship points standings coming into the race and looked strong early on, however he ended up getting loose off turn 4, triggering a mult-car accident involving Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland, Christopher Bell, and others. Larson would be one of the unlucky ones that would exit the race early and this would cost him the regular season points lead. Tyler Reddick now leads the standings by 10 points over Chase Elliott, who finished 15th.

“Had an extremely fast car so hate I screwed that up for our team as well the others out there that got collected in it,” said Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “Just trying to get what I could, get some stage points and just lost it.”

Despite Lajoie’s scary wreck, the other two Spire Motorsports drivers had a terrific day, as rookie Zane Smith finished seventh and fellow rookie Carson Hocevar finished 10th. 

Two races remain in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, as they head next to the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. This race will serve as a major wild card and perhaps a last chance for a group of drivers to make the playoffs. The race will take place Saturday night at 7:30pm EST.