Tyler Reddick survived a hectic and long day at Texas Motor Speedway to claim a statement win in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500.
Reddick, eliminated from championship contention in the Round of 16, led a race-high 77 laps en route to the win — his first on an oval in the NASCAR Cup Series, but his third of the season.
Upon taking the checkered flag, the Richard Childress Racing driver radioed that after a tough week, a victory was how the team responds. He followed that up by saying it shows everyone they aren’t done just yet and have more races to win.
“I was extremely worried, I’m not going to lie,” Reddick said of his tires. “Unfortunately, just about every time we’ve had fast cars, we’ve had some tire problems and that last run, the left sides were vibrating really, really hard. I was just trying to maximize and just use the advantage, the gap that I’d built over Joey, just in case. Every time we’ve had a strong car, we’ve been bit by something, man.
“Just really proud to be able to get this Chevy to victory lane. At Auto Club earlier this year, we were so fast with this car and they deserve to get to victory lane, and we got them there.”
Reddick was leading in California when he had a tire go down and was hit by William Byron. He also had a tire go down while leading at Kansas Speedway in the first round of the playoffs.
The No. 8 beat Joey Logano to the finish line. Logano was the highest finishing playoff driver with his runner-up effort.
Justin Haley finished third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Chase Briscoe fifth. Erik Jones finished sixth, William Byron seventh and Brad Keselowski, who started from the pole, finished eighth.
Kyle Larson finished ninth, with Denny Hamlin completing the top 10.
Six playoff drivers finished outside the top 10.
Daniel Suarez finished 12th, with Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain in 13th. Austin Cindric was 15th.
Cindric might have finished a bit better had he not lost his track position when he spun on the backstretch avoiding Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The No. 47 had a tire go down that resulted in a spin in Turn 2, w here he hit the wall and slid back down the track. Cindric barely missed being clipped by Stenhouse but, in the process, spun himself.
Alex Bowman finished 29th. He was five laps down at the finish after he spent much of the afternoon in a hole after crashing from eighth place on lap 97.
Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell did not finish the race. Elliott led 44 laps but crashed from the r ace lead when a tire came apart on lap 184. Bell had two tire failures, with the second knocking him out of the race on lap 136.
It was a day of survival for teams. Multiple tire issues resulted in crashes and a total of 16 caution flags. Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. all crashed from the race lead due to tire issues.
There were 36 lead changes among 19 drivers.
Full results to come.