Tyler Reddick’s Star Is Just Beginning to Rise

It was the finest performance of Tyler Reddick’s still-young career.

With his back against the wall entering the Straight Talk 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Reddick, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season champion, wasn’t mathematically in a must-win situation to contend for the series title. But for all intents and purposes, he might as well have been.

Reddick started on the pole and handily won the first stage, maximizing his points haul. He finished fourth in stage two, but it didn’t look like it would be enough to elevate Reddick to a position where he’d be in striking distance of the top four heading to Martinsville Speedway, a track where Reddick has struggled in the Cup Series with zero top fives and an average finish of just 19.3 in nine starts. 

There was only one way Reddick could avoid entering a track where he’s never led a single lap with a double-digit points deficit.

He could win.

As good as Reddick’s car had been to start the day, the speed had dropped off just enough that he’d need some luck on his side. It was still a top-five car, but his 23XI Racing team owner Denny Hamlin and defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney were faster. So was Kyle Larson, who had pulled himself up by the bootstraps after a cut tire earlier in the day.

Teams would have to make a pit stop for fuel in the final stage, but tires were the true commodity. Conventional wisdom would say that pitting among the first cars to come in was an advantage, and that played out throughout the cycle. Blaney and Larson pitted early. Hamlin waited a few more laps, hoping that fresher tires would allow him to run them down as he had in his stage two win, but they opened up a gap that would be difficult to overcome.

Had he come in with Blaney, Reddick simply didn’t have the car to beat him on the long run to the finish. Had he come in with Hamlin, he’d have risked being too far back to mount a charge.

So crew chief Billy Scott left Reddick on track when the rest of the field pitted, leaving him with a big lead but old tires and not enough fuel to contend. Scott knew that if the caution came out after everyone else had pitted, Reddick could pit from the lead and they’d all pit again for tires, putting Reddick at or near the front for a late restart.

But the yellow flag didn’t fly, and Reddick finally had to give up the lead to come to pit road.

And just as Reddick was returning to the fray, Larson spun. 

With just…