Who… should you be talking about after the race?
It was only a matter of time. When a driver gets his first runner-up finish, it starts to look like a win might be in the cards. When he finishes second five times, it becomes a matter of time, and for Tyler Reddick, the time came Sunday (July 3) in the Kwik Trip 250 at Road America.
Reddick started fourth and finished 10th in stage two. But his final pit stop set up a battle for the lead with Chase Elliott, a driver that looked like he couldn’t be touched for most of the race. Reddick closed on Elliott after their last stops, and when Elliott made the slightest bobble on lap 47, Reddick pounced. He held off Elliott for the remaining laps to score his first NASCAR Cup Series win.
Reddick becomes the fifth first-time winner in 2022, the most since the Cup Series’ second season. He’s the third driver to win his first in three road-course races this year and the 41st driver to go to victory lane in all three NASCAR national series.
And don’t forget: Michael McDowell. McDowell made headlines last year, winning his first career race on NASCAR’s biggest stage, but he’s quietly having an even better year in 2022. He hasn’t won, but his eighth-place finish Sunday is his seventh top 10 this year, a career high at just halfway through the season.
McDowell is a dark horse pick for a playoff spot because he’s always in the conversation at the superspeedways and Daytona International Speedway is yet to come, as is the pseudo-super at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But he’s also an outstanding road racer, and with two road courses also between now and the playoffs, he has a shot.
What… is the buzz about?
By the time the Cup race rolled off on Sunday, the weekend at Road America already had its share of excitement. The Xfinity Series race on Saturday featured a fantastic finish, but also an incident that many wondered if NASCAR should have addressed differently.
Noah Gragson was understandably upset with Sage Karam after Karam bumped the No. 9 a couple of times on track … but his reaction was way over the top. Gragson turned hard right into Karam, spinning the other driver out and triggering a multi-car pileup as many other drivers could not see the incident until they were on top of it. The end result was ugly: 13 total involved with multiple cars too damaged to continue. Brandon Brown climbed from his car and collapsed against the retaining wall; he was OK with time to recover a bit, but it was…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…