Tyler Reddick Works Overtime at Indianapolis for Wild NASCAR Cup Win

• One of the year’s most entertaining races saw Tyler Reddick hold off a swarm of challengers down the stretch and into overtime.

• In a Chevrolet from Richard Childress Racing, Reddick led the last restart with AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez jammed behind him.

• Reddick briefly lost the point to Chastain on the next-to-last lap, wrestled it back, and took the checkered flag several car-lengths to the good.

Tyler Reddick led most of the early laps from the pole, was mostly an afterthought in the middle stages, then dominated the final portion of Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

If it sounds easy, be assured it wasn’t.

One of the year’s most entertaining races saw Reddick hold off a swarm of challengers down the stretch and into overtime. A late caution pushed the race from 82 to 86 laps, from 200 to 210 miles, and set up a spectacular finish between Reddick and Ross Chastain. Turns out, it wasn’t that spectacular after all.

In a Chevrolet from Richard Childress Racing, Reddick led the last restart with AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Chastain and Daniel Suarez jammed behind him. He suddenly had to fight off Chastain for the lead after Chastain took an illegal shortcut on an access road to gain several positions exiting Turn 1. Reddick briefly lost the point to Chastain on the next-to-last lap, wrestled it back, and took the checkered flag several car-lengths to the good.

NASCAR promptly penalized Chastain 30 seconds for the illegal shortcut and dropped him to 27th, the last driver on the lead lap. Publicly, at least, he took the penalty well. “I was just trying not to be in the corners there in Turn 1,” he said. “I thought we were four-wide and I couldn't go any farther right. I decided to” (skip the tight right-hand, left-hand corner altogether) “and take the NASCAR access lane. It was just pure reaction. I didn’t want to get hit.”

The penalty moved Austin Cindric from third to second, with Rookie of the Year hopeful Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland, and Bubba Wallace in the top-5. The back-5 in the race that went 86 laps and almost 210 miles were Joey Logano, a heat-exhausted AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Cole Custer, and Chris Buescher.

The victory was the second in Reddick’s career, both this year on road courses. Ironically, shortly after his breakthrough victory at Road America in early July, he announced he was leaving RCR after next year to drive in 2024 for Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing. If that “lame duck” status is a distraction, it hasn’t shown.

“We just know what we’re capable of, and we did that at Road America,” he said. “Certainly, (the announcement) was a little bump in the road, but we went out and won a race fair and square a couple weeks ago, and if we change nothing, we keep working really, really hard, we find a way back to Victory Lane.

“I’m just really glad to be able to do it here in Indianapolis. This is one really special place to race, and really excited to kiss the bricks here in a little bit.”

Childress has been careful with his words about Reddick, sticking mostly with the understandable position that “this certainly comes at a bad time.” But winning at Indy soothes a lot of hurts, and this one didn’t disappoint, especially that way Reddick stood up to every challenge down the stretch.

“This is great,” the long-time team owner said after his 111th career victory. “This is our fourth (Indy) win. We won with Dale Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, and today with Tyler. It's always great to win at Indy. There's no better place… Daytona, maybe.”

Seven drivers swapped the lead nine times in a race slowed five times for 15 caution laps. Reddick led three times for 38 laps (including the first 12 and the final 25) and Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney each led 17. Gilliland, Custer, Chase Briscoe, and Joey Hand combined to lead the other 14 laps.

Other than to strengthen Reddick’s position in the Playoff lineup, the results didn’t significantly alter the Playoff situation. The same 14 winners who were eligible before Sunday afternoon remain eligible: Chase Elliott, Chastain, Logano, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Cindric, and Alex Bowman.

Blaney and Martin Truex Jr., are currently 15th and 16th, the highest-ranked winless drivers and very much on the Playoff bubble. The tour has a 200-lap, 400-miler next weekend at Michigan Speedway, near Brooklyn.

NASCAR Cup Series Race

29th Annual Verizon 200 at the Brickyard

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

1. (1) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 86.

2. (2) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 86.

3. (13) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 86.

4. (9) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 86.

5. (19) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 86.

6. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 86.

7. (20) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 86.

8. (7) Michael McDowell, Ford, 86.

9. (24) Cole Custer, Ford, 86.

10. (16) Chris Buescher, Ford, 86.

11. (10) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 86.

12. (4) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 86.

13. (38) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 86.

14. (15) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 86.

15. (35) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 86.

16. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 86.

17. (26) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 86.

18. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 86.

19. (17) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 86.

20. (12) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 86.

21. (25) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 86.

22. (32) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 86.

23. (3) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 86.

24. (33) Cody Ware, Ford, 86.

25. (37) Josh Williams(i), Ford, 86.

26. (6) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 86.

27. (21) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 86.

28. (11) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 86.

29. (27) Joey Hand, Ford, 85.

30. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 85.

31. (23) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 79.

32. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, DVP, 65.

33. (18) Kevin Harvick, Ford, Accident, 64.

34. (30) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 60.

35. (22) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 57.

36. (36) Daniil Kvyat, Toyota, Suspension, 43.

37. (34) Loris Hezemans(i), Ford, Drivetrain, 34.

38. (14) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 24.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 78.511 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 40 Mins, 18 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.065 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 15 laps.

Lead Changes: 9 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: T. Reddick 1-12;C. Briscoe 13-17;R. Blaney 18-32;C. Bell 33-49;T. Reddick 50;R. Blaney 51-52;A. Allmendinger(i) 53-55;T. Gilliland # 56-59;J. Hand 60-61;T. Reddick 62-86.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Tyler Reddick 3 times for 38 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 17 laps; Christopher Bell 1 time for 17 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 5 laps; Todd Gilliland # 1 time for 4 laps; AJ Allmendinger(i) 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Hand 1 time for 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 14,12,24,22,9,38,5,18,21,19

Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,18,23,9,42,11,14,41,43,51