Tyler Reddick prevails at Michigan
Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Certainly, the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway was not lacking in action or drama. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick claimed his second victory of the season – seventh of his career – while the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings shifted dramatically yet again in Monday’s weather-delayed double-overtime finish to the race.
Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota pulled away from William Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the second overtime restart – holding off Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs to claim the win by a slight .168-second and break a nine-race winning streak at the historic two-mile track for Ford.
“Just great teammate and a fantastic push from Ty Gibbs, the Toyota racing family tries to take care of each other,” said Reddick, who immediately dedicated his win to longtime family friend and late model racing legend Scott Bloomquist, who was killed in a plane accident this week.
“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.”
Byron, a three-race winner and the 2024 Daytona 500 champion, second-guessed the decision to start his Chevrolet alongside Reddick on the high-side of the front row on that final re-start after starting on the bottom lane previously.
“I will re-live 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.”
Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch finished fourth and led 24 laps in the race, one of his better showings of the season. The two-time series champion still sits more than 100-points out of the Playoff standings and is trying to extend a record 19-year winning streak in the series but Monday’s showing marks his second consecutive top-five finish – answering a fourth-place at Richmond, Va. last week.
“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, whose win in Stage 2 marked his and the RCR team’s first stage win of the year.
“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.
“If I had to say, maybe an eighth, 10th-place car today and we got a fourth out of it. Good pit calls and making a couple good moves on the late restarts got us that. … good momentum rolling in the right direction and need to just keep that going.”
Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates, owner-driver Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher were fifth and sixth place – the top finishing Fords. Keselowski was hoping to win at his home-state track for the first time in 28 starts there. For Buescher that sixth-place finish may have felt a little like a win after two days of dramatic ups and downs.
It improved his place in the championship standings to 15th out of the 16-drivers currently Playoff eligible – now 16 points up on the cutoff line. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain moved into the 16th and final position – only a single point ahead of Reddick’s 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace.
Chastain, who brought out a caution flag in the first overtime, had been 12 points to the good inside the Playoff standings taking the first overtime green flag.
It was indicative of the non-stop action from Sunday’s green flag and red flags to Monday’s checkers. The race resumed Monday on Lap 52 and so did the aggression with 16 different race leaders and 26 lead changes in all.
On Sunday, polesitter, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin spun out while trying to pass Wallace for the lead early. His No. 11 JGR Toyota was largely undamaged despite a slide through the infield grass and he ultimately battled his way back up through the field Monday to secure an impressive ninth-place finish.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who led the NASCAR Cup Series championship points standings coming into the race, was sidelined early after triggering a seven-car accident on Lap 116 after misjudging a pass on Wallace as well.
The defending Michigan winner Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Todd Gilliland were all involved in the incident in varying degrees. Although Larson, Bell, Logano and Gilliland’s cars were sidelined, Buescher’s Mustang was able to continue with an assortment of challenges. His team called him in for two new tires on the final caution period and he was able to race back to that sixth-place finish.
Larson’s miscue had a major effect on the Regular Season Championship with race winner Reddick now taking the lead by 10 points over Chase Elliott, who led laps but finished 15th.
Hamlin’s race recovery moves him into third place, 28 points back and Larson has dropped to fourth place, 32 points behind Reddick with only two races remaining to decide who will earn the regular season title and receive that all-important 15-point Playoff bonus.
“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.”
Rookie Zane Smith finished seventh, followed by Daniel Suarez, Hamlin and rookie Carson Hocevar.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to competition in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Buescher is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 24
Race Results for the FireKeepers Casino 400 - Sunday, August 18, 2024
Michigan International Speedway - Brooklyn, MI - 2. - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 206 Laps - 412. Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Monday, 8/19/2024 @ 01:27 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 45 Tyler Reddick McDonald's Toyota 206 40 Running 3 15 5
2 9 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 206 3 4 50 Running 2 20
3 19 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 206 3 42 Running 1 2
4 13 8 Kyle Busch Lucas Oil Chevrolet 206 6 1 48 Running 3 24 1
5 15 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Edge Ford 206 7 6 41 Running 1 2
6 18 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 206 5 37 Running
7 27 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 206 30 Running
8 12 99 Daniel Suarez Jockey Infinite Cool Underwear Chevrolet 206 29 Running 1 7
9 1 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 206 28 Running
10 11 77 Carson Hocevar # Premier Security/Zeigler.com Chevrolet 206 27 Running 1 3
11 26 41 Ryan Preece United Rentals Ford 206 26 Running
12 25 10 Noah Gragson Overstock.com Ford 206 25 Running
13 30 47 Ricky Stenhouse Country Crock/Minute Rice Chevrolet 206 24 Running 1 2
14 34 21 Harrison Burton Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 206 23 Running 1 5
15 6 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 206 2 31 Running 2 29
16 28 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 206 8 24 Running
17 10 3 Austin Dillon DOW MobilityScience Chevrolet 206 5 26 Running
18 8 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 206 1 10 30 Running 2 15 1
19 17 34 Michael McDowell Martin Transportation Systems Ford 206 18 Running
20 29 51 Justin Haley Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford 206 17 Running
21 36 15 Cody Ware Parts Plus Ford 206 9 18 Running
22 16 4 Josh Berry # Overstock.com Ford 206 15 Running 1 4
23 32 31 Daniel Hemric Poppy Bank Chevrolet 206 14 Running
24 24 19 Martin Truex Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota 206 8 7 20 Running 2 28
25 7 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Peach Chevrolet 205 10 2 22 Running 1 4
26 5 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald's Toyota 205 4 18 Running 1 5
27 22 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 205 9 12 Running
28 23 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 204 9 Running
29 33 42 John Hunter Nemechek Mobil 1 Toyota 202 8 Running
30 35 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 200 0 Running
31 21 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 157 6 Suspension
32 31 7 Corey LaJoie Garner Trucking Chevrolet 135 5 Accident
33 14 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 117 4 Accident
34 4 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 115 3 Accident 3 41
35 3 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 115 2 Accident
36 20 38 Todd Gilliland Grillo's Pickles Ford 114 1 Accident
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 12 Secs. Average Speed: 135.675 MPH Margin of Victory: .168 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 12, 9, 24, 23, 17, 8, 6, 19, 48, 1
Stage 2 Top 10: 8, 1, 54, 24, 3, 6, 19, 43, 15, 12
Caution Flags: 7 for 41 laps; Laps: 39-42 (#11 Spins Turn 4 [4]); 47-55 (Stage 1 Conclusion [Red Flag: 17:15:18] [None]); 110-115 (Debris Turn 4 [11]); 117-125 (#5, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 38 Incident Turn 4 [None]); 137-141 (#7, 10 Incident Backstretch [34]); 196-199 (#19 Incident Turn 4 [15]); 201-204 (#1 Spins Backstretch [51]).
Lead Changes: 26 among 16 drivers; D. Hamlin 0; K. Larson 1-34; B. Wallace 35-39; R. Blaney 40-47; C. Elliott 48-57; K. Busch 58-65; M. Truex 66-92; R. Blaney 93-99; T. Gibbs 100-101; B. Keselowski 102-103; K. Larson 104-105; M. Truex 106; K. Larson 107-111; R. Chastain 112-115; K. Busch 116-126; W. Byron 127-141; C. Elliott 142-160; T. Reddick 161; K. Busch 162-166; D. Suarez 167-173; C. Hocevar # 174-176; R. Stenhouse 177-178; H. Burton 179-183; J. Berry # 184-187; T. Reddick 188-199; W. Byron 200-204; T. Reddick 205-206.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: August 24, 2024 - Daytona International Speedway
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