Tyler Reddick Survives Tire Failures to Win at Texas

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FORT WORTH, TX – RIS – Tyler Reddick was fastest in the end of the NASCAR Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.  In a race where every possible thing could go wrong, Reddick finished strong beating Joey Logano to the checkered flag on a record hot day which was fought with tire problems and driver feuds.  The tires weren't reliable, there was a rain delay of nearly an hour and passing wasn't plentiful. Teams were basically playing roulette with their tires and hoping they wouldn't be the next to crash because of a tire failure. Sunday's race set a Texas record with 17 cautions. Many of them were due to tire failures.

Following Reddick, who won for the third time this season, were Joey Logano, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe.

“I was extremely worried, I’m not going to lie,” Reddick said.  “That last run the right side was vibrating.  I had a good gap over Joey just in case.”

  Three drivers crashed out from the lead because of tire problems. Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick were leading when flat tires sent them into the outside wall. And NASCAR inexplicably didn’t penalize William Byron for spinning Denny Hamlin under caution after Truex crashed because of his flat tire.

It was strange all night.  Hamlin was running second when Truex crashed out with fewer than 75 laps to go. Byron, apparently unhappy with a move Hamlin had pulled on him laps earlier, ran into the back of him after Truex’s crash. NASCAR said that Hamlin didn’t maintain minimum speed and made him line back up outside the top 10. Meanwhile, it didn’t penalize Byron at all for the incident and let him keep his track position.

It seemed terribly strange that a driver that dumped another under caution was rewarded with two positions.  Many thought, as is the usual NASCAR position that Hamlin would have been able to keep his fop five position, but that didn’t happen. 

Mainly the race’s biggest story was tires, which seems to be the issue more often than not.  This was the second consecutive week of tire problems for NASCAR. Drivers and teams struggled to find tire reliability at Bristol a week ago as tire issues plagued drivers throughout the race. The theme continued at Texas despite the tracks’ lack of similarities. Teams and drivers clearly couldn’t count on a tire to be reliable enough to last through a fuel run without having a failure.  Us old timers still remember the 2008 Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway caused teams to run the race with frequent stops for new tires.  This situation was not that bad, but eerily close to that situation.

Truex spoke for most of the drivers after the race.

“You go in there at 183 or184 mph, and that’s where they are exploding,” Truex said. “All I know that (crew chief) James told me that a tire came off and it wouldn’t have lasted one more lap.  We got new tires and we’re running along and poof, it blows out and we’re in the wall.”

In the final laps, after an eventful, dramatic race that saw a track record 16 cautions and a pattern of tire failures, Reddick was able to survive and drive away at the end to win, leaving many wondering what happened.  Tires only lasted 35 or so laps before they began to fail, leaving some to remember the fiasco of 2008 at Indy.

Reddick is not a playoff driver.  Only the Bristol playoff race saw him miss the cut by single digit points, but the string of non-playoff drivers winning shows the competition is fierce and everyone should be looking over their shoulder as we race toward Phoenix and the Cup championship.

Unofficial Results: 18th Annual AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 - September 25, 2022 Texas Motor Speedway

Pos Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Status Tms Laps Pts Stage 1 Stage 2 Playoff Pts
1 4 8 Tyler Reddick Lenovo/ThinkEdge Chevrolet 334 40 Running 3 70 5
2 2 22 Joey Logano (P) AAA Insurance Ford 334 3 8 46 Running 6 15
3 31 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 334 34 Running
4 14 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Menards/Tarkett Ford 334 1 43 Running 2 29 1
5 30 14 Chase Briscoe (P) Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford 334 32 Running
6 27 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 334 31 Running 1 1
7 3 24 William Byron (P) RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 334 6 3 43 Running 5 42
8 1 6 Brad Keselowski RoushParts.com Ford 334 8 4 39 Running 1 31
9 9 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 334 1 38 Running 1 19 1
10 8 11 Denny Hamlin (P) FedEx Office Toyota 334 2 36 Running 1 2
11 5 34 Michael McDowell Love's Travel Stops Ford 334 10 10 28 Running 2 12
12 10 99 Daniel Suarez (P) Aguas Frescas Chevrolet 334 4 5 38 Running 1 1
13 12 1 Ross Chastain (P) Renu Chevrolet 334 5 2 39 Running 1 1
14 29 7 Corey LaJoie Shelton Energy Solutions Chevrolet 334 23 Running
15 11 2 Austin Cindric # (P) Discount Tire Ford 334 9 7 28 Running
16 32 42 Ty Dillon Black Rifle Coffee Company Chevrolet 334 21 Running
17 7 3 Austin Dillon True Velocity Chevrolet 334 6 25 Running 1 3
18 20 21 Harrison Burton # DEX Imaging Ford 334 19 Running 1 15
19 23 4 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 334 18 Running 1 9
20 16 23 Ty Gibbs(i) Monster Energy Toyota 334 0 Running
21 26 16 Noah Gragson(i) Freedom by Ed Morse Chevrolet 334 0 Running
22 35 77 Landon Cassill(i) WearMe Chevrolet 334 0 Running
23 33 15 Garrett Smithley(i) Trophy Tractor Ford 334 0 Running
24 25 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield/IHOP Ford 334 13 Running
25 19 45 Bubba Wallace (P) MoneyLion Toyota 334 12 Running
26 34 78 BJ McLeod(i) Boss Truck Shops Ford 333 0 Running 1 1
27 21 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger/NOS Chevrolet 333 7 14 Running 3 23
28 28 38 Todd Gilliland # First Phase Ford 333 9 Running 1 1
29 17 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 329 8 Running
30 13 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 270 7 Accident
31 15 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 267 9 8 Accident 1 15
32 6 9 Chase Elliott (P) NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 184 5 Accident 3 44
33 36 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 166 4 Accident
34 22 20 Christopher Bell (P) Rheem - Smurfit Kappa Toyota 136 3 DVP
35 24 41 Cole Custer Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford 77 2 Accident
36 18 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 48 1 Accident
(i) ineligible for driver points, (#) Rookie, (P) Playoffs

Race Length: 334 Laps - 501. Miles
Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 21 Mins, 53 Secs.
Average Speed: 114.784 MPH
Margin of Victory: 1.190 sec

Stage 2 Top 10: 12, 1, 24, 6, 99, 3, 2, 22, 19, 34
Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 11, 22, 99, 1, 24, 47, 6, 2, 34

Comments: Tyler Reddick won the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500, his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Prior to the start, the following cars dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 31, 51 and 78 (Unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Cautions: 16 for 91 laps;
Laps: 41-44 (No. 19 Incident in Turn 4 [77]);
50-54 (No. 18 Incident in Turn 4 [45]);
57-60 (No. 42 and 47 Incident on the Frontstretch [51]);
79-83 (No. 20 Incident in Turn 1 [15]);
98-102 (No. 48 Incident in Turn 4 [None]);
107-111 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]);
138-141 (No. 20 Spin in Turn 4 [8]);
169-177 (No. 51 Incident in Turn 4 [78]);
185-191 (No. 9 Incident in Turn 4 [21]);
198-201 (No. 17 Spin on the Frontstretch [48]);
212-223 (Stage 2 Conclusion [Red Flag: 0:56:00] [48]);
243-247 (No. 17 Incident in Turn 4 [48]);
254-258 (No. 4 Incident in Turn 3 [None]);
269-276 (No. 19 Incident in Turn 3 [4]);
301-305 (No. 2 and 47 Incident on the Backstretch [48]);
307-310 (No. 10 Incident in Turn 2 [2]).

Lead Changes: 36 among 19 drivers;
B. Keselowski 0;
J. Logano (P) 1;
B. Keselowski 2-32;
J. Logano (P) 33-41;
W. Byron (P) 42-43;
J. Logano (P) 44-45;
W. Byron (P) 46-53;
J. Logano (P) 54;
W. Byron (P) 55-59;
J. Logano (P) 60;
W. Byron (P) 61-86;
D. Hamlin (P) 87-88;
K. Larson (P) 89-107;
R. Stenhouse Jr. 108-122;
H. Burton # 123-137;
C. Elliott (P) 138;
B. McLeod(i) 139;
C. Elliott (P) 140;
R. Chastain (P) 141;
C. Elliott (P) 142-183;
R. Blaney (P) 184-190;
D. Suarez (P) 191;
R. Blaney (P) 192-213;
M. McDowell 214-223;
E. Jones 224;
M. McDowell 225-226;
T. Reddick 227-243;
K. Harvick 244-252;
M. Truex Jr. 253-267;
A. Dillon 268-270;
W. Byron (P) 271;
R. Stenhouse Jr. 272-276;
T. Gilliland # 277;
R. Stenhouse Jr. 278-280;
T. Reddick 281-309;
J. Logano (P) 310;
T. Reddick 311-334.