Reddick wins caution-laden Cup race in Texas heat

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | September 25, 2022 9:56 PM ET

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 [Speedway] 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, where 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.
"How do we get to the end of this race?" – @DaleJr

Martin Truex Jr. crashes from the lead. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/vzvBGYPPRl

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC)

Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell did not finish the race. Elliott led 44 laps but crashed from the race 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.

 

Bell's Cup playoff run takes first hit at Texas after tire woes

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | September 25, 2022 6:49 PM ET

Christopher Bell is feeling the heat in more ways than one after crashing out of Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Under a hot Texas sun, Bell suffered two tire issues with the second one ending his day on lap 136. His Joe Gibbs Racing team could not fix his car in the allotted 10 minutes of the damage vehicle policy, resulting in their first DNF of the playoffs.

The second incident occurred in Turn 4 when Bell spun and hit the wall with the rear of his Toyota and then the right front. He was running seventh.

Bell had felt no pressure in the Round of 16 with an impressive 4.0 average finish while putting his name in the conversation of a contender. He finished no worse than fifth in the first round.

Having been seeded seventh on the playoff grid to begin the second round, Bell will be in a hole for the next two races. He entered Texas four points above the cutline.

“Just the second right rear blown of the day; that was disappointing,” Bell said. “I’m in a pretty bad spot now.”

Talladega Superspeedway is next on the schedule. Had he left Texas with a decent finish, Bell and his team had already decided they were going to play it conservatively at Talladega. That no longer appears to be an option.

“It makes our decision easy on how to play Talladega,” said Bell. “We were hoping to come out of here good and be able to ride around and just survive Talladega. We are going to have to race and get some stage points and be up front all day.”

Bell doesn’t feel like he’s in a must-win situation but said Talladega is going to be tough. His approach now has to be roll the dice before going to the Charlotte Roval for the cut race.

“Roval, I think we will be all right,” Bell said. “Road courses haven’t been our strength, but we have been good at a couple of them. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get out of this points hole, but we will give it our best.”

The first tire issue that struck Bell occurred on lap 78 when the right rear went down in Turns 1 and 2, but he hung on to the car and caught the caution, only having to serve a penalty for pitting before pit road was open.

Most importantly, Bell stayed on the lead lap. He’d regained his track position before the second issue.

“I would get a slight vibration seconds…before the tire went,” Bell said. “When it happened on the straightaway, I was able to get it slowed down before Turn 1, but the second one happened right in the middle of the turn.

“Very disappointing weekend. I was optimistic when they dropped the green flag. I had a pretty poor Saturday but felt like we had a lot of speed in our Rheem Camry to make a day out of it, but unfortunately, tires didn’t work our way.”

 

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