Regular-season championship pays dividends for Tyler Reddick at Charlotte Roval
Yesterday at 07:17 PM
The NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship matters. Look no further than the Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Tyler Reddick, one of the series‘ best road course drivers, entered Charlotte with a 14-point cushion over the elimination line. The closest driver below the elimination line was two-time Cup champion Joey Logano, a formidable competitor at the Roval with five top-10 finishes in the first six races at the 17-turn course.
As expected, the Playoff teams racing around the bubble chased points in the opening stage. Reddick won Stage 1, his fourth stage victory of the season. Logano was close behind in second.
Reddick‘s race went awry early in Stage 2. On Lap 31, Austin Dillon got turned entering Turn 7, blocking the race track. Denny Hamlin checked up, and Reddick piled in and caught air, damaging the No. 45 Toyota‘s right-rear toe link. Reddick pitted immediately for his team to assess the damage. When a caution flew four laps later for another playoff driver, Chase Briscoe, crew chief Billy Scott elected to change the hindered toe link.
"I thought I was going to flip," Reddick told NBC Sports of the Turn 7 incident. "I think I was behind [Martin Truex Jr.], trying to work the move into the inside. I got clear of him and saw [Dillon] spun and everyone on the binders coming to a stop. Of course, while that happens, me and my boss get together and it feels like I‘m going to do a front flip."
The No. 45 team completed the right-rear toe link change with seconds to spare of the field coming to the green flag. While Reddick was feeling out the repairs, he was four seconds off the pace. Meanwhile, Logano earned eight more stage points — a race-high 17 on the day — in Stage 2 and was eating into Reddick‘s points buffer.
Entering the final stage, Reddick was below the elimination line and trying to avoid becoming the first regular season champion in Cup history — the format was introduced in 2017 — to be knocked out of the Playoffs before the Round of 8 began. After a pit stop cycle, Dillon‘s left-front wheel popped off the No. 3 car, bringing out the caution. The decision was easy for Scott: pit and put Reddick on offense.
When the green flag dropped to resume the race, Reddick was 14 points behind Logano. He sliced through the field, while road course aces Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger and Shane van Gisbergen passed the No. 22 car, which cost him a few points. Reddick‘s spirited charge led him to finish 11th, while Logano fell to eighth.
Reddick advanced by four points when the checkered flag waved.
"That was a real back against the wall moment and we rose to the occasion," Reddick said to his No. 45 team on the cool-down lap.
Meanwhile, the tradition of Logano advancing to the Championship 4 in even-numbered years is over. When reflecting back on the 32 races this season where Logano could have gained four points on Reddick, one race in particular stood out like a sore thumb.
"I‘m starting to think a little about Richmond right now," Logano said, who was dumped by Dillon in Turn 3 while leading on the final lap at Richmond in August. "But the positive of it is, we‘re in the owner‘s championship, so we can confuse all the fans from here on out about drivers and owners championship. The money is in the owners, so we will keep fighting for the money."
The No. 22 team advanced by one point in the owner‘s championship over Reddick because the No. 45 team didn‘t win the regular season owner‘s championship, falling short of the No. 5 team for Hendrick Motorsports.
Upon climbing out of a mangled No. 45 Toyota, Reddick was greeted by 23XI Racing co-owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan. The trio gathered for a group hug.
"Certainly, they were doing some big damage fixes, so credit to [Reddick] and the team," Hamlin told reporters. "The team gave him a car that he was able to come back to the front with. It ain‘t easy to pass and he did.
"I was really proud of his drive. As hard as it is to pass, generally speaking on road course races, surely, his car is not optimum. For him to drive back to the front like that is pretty damn impressive."
With the points resetting, Reddick is third on the Playoff grid, 10 points above the elimination line.
