Tyler Reddick takes victory ahead of final lap wreck

After Hendrick Motorsport took back-to-back wins in the last two weeks, this week it was Tyler Reddick from 23 XI Racing who took victory in Talladega Superspeedway.

This is Reddick’s first win of the season in the tenth race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.

After 188 laps of the 2.66-mile circuit, it became a race of fuel and tyre saving due to the camber of the circuit and the high fuel usage at Talladega.

Brad Keselowski and Noah Gragson finished in second and third place just behind Reddick, and in fourth and fifth place were Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Alex Bowman.

Rounding out the top ten were Anthony Alfredo, William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Hemric, and Harrison Burton. With Championship leader Kyle Larson finishing in 21st.

In a rather strange grid for the race, it was Michael McDowell who claimed pole position ahead of Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland.

The opening laps of the race were dominated by fuel saving at the superspeedway as all the drivers were lined up in threes along the track. The first driver to fall victim to fuel saving was B.J. McLeod as he had to dive into the pits as he had no fuel pressure

All drivers then came in for pit stops before the end of the first stage between laps 40 and 50. One of the worst pit stops of these stops was from Denny Hamlin as he spun during his first stop of the race.

After the first restart, Ryan Blaney grabbed the lead of the race with stage winner Cindric behind on Lap 68 of 188. The race had been rather processional due to the fuel saving but there had also been 34 changes for the lead of the race.

36 laps to go and six cars dived into the pits while McDowell led the way. The drivers who came to the pits came out of the pack and had to work together to catch the pack.

Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin and John Hunter Nemechek, four of the six drivers who pitted just laps ago all came togethe. Three of the four drivers wrecked out of the race with only 32 laps to go. The only Toyota’s in that group of cars who survived the crash were Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr.

The first stage of the race lasted 60 laps and was widely competitive with all the drivers bunched together. However, it was Austin Cindric who came away with the stage victory and an extra 10 points. During the caution for the end of Stage One, every driver jumped back into the pits once again.

The second stage of the race went on until lap 120 and continued to see excess fuel savings. But Joey Logano took the stage victory and claimed an extra 10 points.