The official box score will show that Tyler Reddick earned one victory on Sunday in the EchoPark Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, but the case can be made that he earned three victories and a runner-up by the end of the day.
First, the obvious reference.
In surviving three overtime finishes, Reddick was made to have defended a race he had already effectively won, having outdueled William Byron in a spirited old-school classic by the end of regulation. Then came 45 minutes of repeated crashing that sent the race into triple overtime.
That he not only dominated regulation, but also had the steely resolve to defend his spot against the likes of Byron, two-champion Kyle Busch and even a late surge from Alex Bowman was reason enough to give him three trophies.
It’s also why Denny Hamlin gave him a lot of money to come to 23XI Racing during the offseason.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s why I went after him as early as I did,” Hamlin said. “I wanted to get the jump on all the other teams because I knew he was going to be the most coveted free agent in a very, very long time. That’s why I got the jump on it. It cost me a lot of money to do it, but it pays dividends.”
Remember that Hamlin signed Reddick last summer, a year and a half before he was set to become a free agent, eventually working out a buyout with Richard Childress Racing so that he could leave early.
That cost Hamlin a lot of additional money, but …
“You have to have that driver that you feel like can carry you to championships and wins for decades,” he said. “I think we have that guy. It’s not going to stop at road courses. Dirt racing, short tracks, speedways, he’s got what it takes on every racetrack we go to.”
But make no mistake, they really needed him road courses especially, at least early on in the development cycle of the Next Gen.
Toyota on the whole really struggled on these types of tracks last year. Further, with Chevrolet taking the early aerodynamic lead on downforce tracks, that sets TRD up against the wall on over two-thirds of the schedule.
Enter Reddick, who won at Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and is viewed as one of the best at this discipline. The hope is that Reddick would get Toyota directionally better.
Crew chief Billy Scott knew Reddick would elevate the manufacturer but a dominant win through three overtimes exceeded their expectations.
“We’ve wondered where we were…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsports Tribune…