At long last, Tyler Reddick is a NASCAR Cup Series winner, having closed the deal Sunday at Road America.
Reddick drove to the race lead with 16 laps to go in the Kwik Trip 250 with a pass on Harrison Burton. Burton was one of the last drivers to make a green-flag pit stop, which would have cycled Reddick to the top spot.
Once clear out front, Reddick began stretching his margin over Elliott. The gap was 0.6s with 10 laps to go and 1.2s with two laps to go. The margin of victory for Reddick, in his 92nd series start, over Elliott was 3.3s.
“I definitely knew he was fast, but we could stay with him on the long run, which told me if we cycled through that last pit sequence, we’d be close or get around him, we’d have a great shot,” Reddick said. “We didn’t quite get around; we were within reach. Thankfully, I just waited for the right opportunity and was able to take advantage of it in Turn 6.
“I thought he was going to run me back down. I started to make some mistakes, started to take care of the brakes; apparently, I didn’t need to. [We were in] very good shape there. What a day”
Reddick is the fifth first-time Cup Series winner this season. All three road course races have produced first-time winners: Ross Chastain (COTA), Daniel Suarez (Sonoma), and Reddick (Road America).
He is also the season’s 13th different winner.
Elliott finished second and led a race-high 36 laps. Kyle Larson finished third.
Ross Chastain finished fourth, Daniel Suarez fifth, Chris Buescher sixth, Austin Cindric seventh, Michael McDowell eighth, AJ Allmendinger ninth, and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.
Ryan Blaney finished 11th after winning the second stage. Chase Briscoe, who won the first stage, finished 14th.
There were no natural cautions Sunday afternoon. The only time the yellow flag flew was for the two stage breaks.
