Who… should you be talking about after the race?
There were crashes, fires and rain. 500 miles at a sweltering Texas Motor Speedway seemed like a thousand and made it a race of perseverance. And persevered, Tyler Reddick did, taking the checkered flag in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 five hours after the green, white-knuckling the closing laps just hoping his tires would hold out.
It’s a shame that Reddick’s win will be overshadowed by the numerous tire failures that marred the race and contributed to most of the Texas record 16 cautions, because he ran a smart race and avoided trouble—that’s all you can ask from a race winner (and usually why they win in the first place). He led three times for a total of 70 laps, the most of any driver Sunday.
Reddick wrested the lead on lap 218 from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and had to battle Joey Logano for the top spot for a few laps, with Logano briefly leading one lap in the middle of it, but Reddick quickly took command back and from there it was more a race against his own equipment and the track. It’s Reddick’s third career win and third of 2022.
And following his elimination from the playoffs last week at Bristol, Reddick makes it a fourth week in a row in which a title contender has not won a playoff race.
And don’t forget Justin Haley. Haley finished a solid third for Kaulig Racing on Sunday. It’s Haley’s second top five of 2022. He hasn’t been a threat for wins, but he’s shown growth, and he has a little momentum, coming off a 12th place at Bristol, and now the Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway, a track where Haley has two wins in the Xfinity Series. If he can avoid trouble, he has a shot at a very good finish there. He and his Kaulig team are quietly having a decent Cup debut season.
What… is the buzz about?
Texas Motor Speedway has taken some flak from fans recently for providing racing that’s…not very good. And this weekend, the drivers chimed in.
And they don’t like it either.
Kyle Larson suggested tearing the track down and starting from scratch, and well, that should be a terrible idea. It’s expensive and that level of demolition and reconstruction within the year between race dates could be tight.
But it’s not a terrible idea. The track should not become another Atlanta Motor Speedway—if you like guaranteed crashes, that’s a great place to see them but six attempts a year at big pack…
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