What Happened?
Tyler Reddick drove to the front and survived two overtimes to win his second race of the season on a Monday (Aug. 19) afternoon in Michigan International Speedway.
Reddick finally turned his summer consistency into victory, beating William Byron and Ty Gibbs to the line in the second overtime. Kyle Busch and Michigan native Brad Keselowski finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
What Really Happened?
Maybe he hasn’t set the world on fire by winning a ton of races like Kevin Harvick in 2020 or Kyle Larson in 2021, but Reddick has been super consistent in the last two months of the summer stretch. For the seventh consecutive race, Reddick finished inside the top six.
This includes five podiums, with three seconds and two thirds. While Reddick has voiced his frustration in past weeks about his seeming inability to convert these solid runs into victories, his consistency has carried the No. 45 to the regular season points lead.
In seasons past, Reddick’s kryptonite is that he drives a little too hard when he has a good car. That No. 45 has been a weekly contender since Reddick joined the 23XI Racing ranks, but the driver — and team — took themselves out of contention for the win on multiple occasions in 2023 with on-track mistakes and pit road penalties.
Even this year, Reddick should have won at Chicago, but an over-aggressive exit of turn 5 damaged the car and kept the No. 45 in second.
While consistent Chase Elliott only has one finish worse than 20th, Reddick has a series-best 15 top-five finishes so far this season.
This consistency stems from Reddick’s resolve to take what the car is giving him and nothing more. You can see this improvement by looking at the finishes from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway.
In both of those races, Reddick had the faster car and was chasing down the leader. While his decision-making process in the final laps of both races could have been better, I believe a younger version of Reddick would have spun out or hit the wall by overdriving one of the corners.
While other top teams have had a rocky summer, Reddick’s patience (and frustration) have vaulted his team to the top.
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