Reddick becomes the 6th driver to start the season with b2b wins
By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
The Fords have dominated qualifying at Echo Park recently, but with inclement weather at the speedway, the Daytona 500 winner, Tyler Reddick’s Toyota starts out front. Winds are whipping around at 30 mph and are affecting the machines with a tailwind going into the already tricky Turn 3. Add dirty air and a turn with little grip and it being the entrance to pit road, it may very well be calamity corner.
Tyler Reddick leads the field to the green flag
Stage One Laps (1-60) Top 8
Logano quickly goes out in front of Tyler Reddick, who quickly dispatches Logano to second. Brad Keselowski joins the mix by lap seven. Two wide racing dominates the early laps of the stage and a third lane opens by lap 20. BK takes the lead on lap 22 and 21 machines are within two seconds of the leader. Halfway through the stage, it’s BK, Reddick, and Chase Elliott trading the lead, racing three-wide. Carson Hocevar has a right front flat and he goes into the wall and then misses pit road to go multiple laps down.
Logano’s lead by lap 40 over Josh Berry and Elliott is one of 12 lead changes in the STAGE. Hocevar has fresh tires and he has made up one of two laps lost with a free pass lurking. Elliott takes the lead on lap 44, with Reddick and Logano 2-3. Kyle Larson enters the party and takes second and then on lap 54, the race lead. Keselowski’s handling goes away and he sinks to 22nd. Austin Cindric started 30th and he is in the Top-5. The craziness continues as 18 drivers lead the Stage. Cindric continues his assault through the field and takes the ten points. There are no cautions in the opening stanza.
Stage Two (Lap 61-16 S2 Top 8
The field comes to the narrow pit road and mostly take four tires. Chase Elliott overshoots his pit box and loses valuable spots. Cindric’s stop is less than stellar and he cycles to fifth. Larson is your new race leader at the dropping of the green flag. Within lap 76, it’s Bubba, Byron, and Cindric. Lap 83 brings contact wity Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry connected in the backstretch. Gibbs is out of the race and Hocevar gets the free pass. Larson cyclesto the lead during the caution. Bubba Wallace goes to the lead on lap 101 with Reddick and Larson 2-3. Lap 104 finds a three-car accident. Austin Dillon gets tapped from near 18th position and spins in Turn 2, triggering a multi-car accident. The incident involves Austin Dillon, Todd Gilliland, Riley Herbst, Zane Smith, Cole Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and BJ McLeod.
The race restarts on lap 110 with Reddick and Wallace running up front. Kyle Busch won the Craftsman Truck race on Saturday, but goes into the wall after going high with Noah Gragson with 67 laps completed in S2. With the race resuming with 30 to go in S2, Larson, Wallace, and Reddick are challenging for P1. Briscoe rides out front with ten to go in S2. Handling is an issue as most machines are overdue for tires. A crazy finish as Larson’s 5 machine connects with SVG and he totals his car. Wallace wins the Stage over Byron.
Final Stage
Briscoe and Hamlin take turns with the lead as Wallace slides back with 80 to go. SVG spins, bringing a caution and the field pits and takes Sunoco fuel to finish the race with most taking four tires. Hocevar cycles to the lead with Blaney second and Reddick third. Toyota teammates Reddick and Hamlin are 1-2 with 49 to go. Two-wide racing behind a stable of leaders and then Logano miscalculates and takes out the right rear quarterpanel. Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano make contact running near ninth off Turn 4, triggering a multi-car accident. The incident collected several drivers including AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell, and Connor Zilisch.
Austin Cindric started the race 30th and leads at the restart with Blaney and Bell 2-3 with 25 to go. Hocevar drifts up the track and takes out Logano who makes a great save on his 22. The restart with 17-to-go cycles Bell to the lead with Cindric 2 an.d Wallace third running 1-2-4. Hocevar finds no drafting partner and The Hurricane momentarily takes the lead when Byron has a failed part. An accident ensues and we have overtime.
Double overtime – Wallace leads Hocevar and Reddick and the leaders go three wide. Briscoe goes to the lead and then Reddick takes the checkered flag.
Taking the Auto Trader 400 Checkered Flag is… Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick was on the pole and led 53 laps. Reddick held off charges from Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar. Reddick is the season points leader. Reddick becomes the sixth driver to win the first two races of the season and the first since Matt Kenseth in 2009. For the second week in a row, you grab the checkered flag. How did you do it with this beat up race car? “That’s crazy isn’t it. This place over the years – it just puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here but, I guess determination outweighs handling. Thank you everybody for coming out. It is cold, but cheers to everyone here. Y’all motivated us to pull off some crazy stuff like that.”
They Said It…
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on his contact
“I just didn’t have the best of exits off of Turn Two and I was a little crooked getting to the wall. I just got rammed by the No. 4 (Noah Gragson); no check-up or anything. He didn’t give me an opportunity to make sure I was straight before hitting me or get into me gently to just try and get the momentum back going again. He just drove right through me. It sucks for this No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet team and everyone at Richard Childress Racing. I thought we had a really good Chevy. We definitely would have finished better than where we were.”
Tale of the Tape /Final Race Results
Fantasy Results
One of the largest NASCAR pools is TMD NASCAR with thousands of players and after Daytona, we arein the 95.8 percentile of players. Not bragging. We scored only 172 points. While Ford’s dominate qualifying, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez, both driving for Toyota, have won. Still, we have no Toyota’s in our lineup. Hocevar finished second and led early in the final lap at Daytona beforebeing spun out. Kyle Busch is due. BK is due. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and the fall 2024 winner Joey Logano are all driving well and are driving Fords. So, how did we do?
Best Move was Carson Hocevar who finished fourth. Worst pick was Kyle Busch who crashed out early. Blaney was brought in for Stenhouse Jr. The team finishes with 120 points plus 30 for the pick ’ems. We expect to tumble badly. Biggest wienie omission was not taking Daniel Saurez after having him in my lineup.
Factoids that May Interest Only Me
Tyler Reddick has won 9 races on 9 different tracks and now ten on ten different tracks after Echo Park.
Chase Elliott has 3 of his last four wins on last lap passes.
Kyle Larson has no wins in 17 attempts at Echo Park
Ford has won 11 of the last 16 stages and and more than a thousand laps in that time.
