In just one week, Tyler Reddick went from flipping his car on the roof for a DNF to clinching his spot in the NASCAR Championship Four with a win.
Tyler’s car sponsor for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday (10/27) was Monster Energy’s “The Beast” drink. It is easy to compare the way Tyler drove to the sponsor’s name on his car.
The first race of the Round of Eight was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway October 20th. Joey Logano won the race to lock into the Championship Four. Tyler Reddick’s car flipped during that race, sliding on the roof and causing him to have a “Did Not Finish” or DNF for the race. Having completed only 89 laps for the week, he left Las Vegas 30 points below the cut line in the NASCAR Playoffs. He could still make the Championship Four on points if others did poorly and he did well. However, if he wanted to keep his destiny in his own hands, he just needed to win.
Tyler started the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway right by winning the pole for the race. He led four times for a total of 57 laps in stage one including the final lap to score the win and max bonus points in the stage. Tyler continued to do well in stage two. However, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney began showing that they were going to have a say in which car would win the race. Denny claimed the win in stage two.
Stage three continued to be a battle between the remaining playoff drivers with both Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney leading the way most of the time. Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott were never farm behind though. Tyler’s team decided to gamble on a different pit strategy than all the other cars he was racing with to try to gain the final advantage. Unfortunately, the yellow flag did not fall when he needed it to for the plan to work perfectly.
However, the yellow did fall shortly after Tyler had to pit for fuel and tires. The restart of the race put Tyler back on the pole because he stayed out. Unfortunately, that meant he had tires with a few laps on them while the others had fresh tires with more grip.
The green flag waived with seven laps to go in the race. The fresher tires allowed a few cars to race past Tyler as he fell back to around third or fourth place on the first lap back under green. Tyler did not give up. He started racing hard and smart. He found a way to push his car for a chance to challenge for the win. When the white flag waived, he was racing right behind Denny Hamlin in second place. Going through turns one and two he passed Denny.
Tyler began gaining on Ryan Blaney in the lead going down the backstretch. Ryan dropped down to the center of the track to go through turns three and four. Tyler stayed high and was “rippin’ the fence” through those turns. It gave him the momentum he needed to take over the lead coming out of turn four and claim the win. This was Tyler’s first win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his first win in the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs, his third win of the 2024 season and his eighth career win in the Cup Series.
The top six spots in the race were claimed by NASCAR Playoff Drivers: Ryan Blaney (2nd), Denny Hamlin (3rd), Christopher Bell (4th), Chase Elliott (5th) and William Byron (5th). The remaining two playoff drivers were Kyle Larson (13th) and Joey Logano (28th). See the complete race results for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 here.
Tyler Reddick joins Joey Logano as the two drivers locked in the Championship Four at Phoenix. Next week two more drivers will advance either by points or one by a win and one by points. See the NASCAR Playoff Standings here. It won’t be easy though. The last chance for the remaining six drivers is short trackin’ at Martinsville Speedway in the Xfinity 500 Sunday, November 3rd.
By: Buck Stevens
