Has Tyler Reddick solidified himself as an elite road racer in the NASCAR Cup Series?
With dominating near-wins at Auto Club Speedway and the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track at the beginning of the year, it would seem weird at the start of the season to think that Tyler Reddick‘s first two Cup wins would come on road courses. But here we are.
Reddick has a force on the twisties in 2022. He started off the season by running top five all day before finishing fifth at Circuit of the Americas in March. Reddick’s race at Sonoma Raceway has been the lone outlier of the season so far, as he finished 35th after a midrace crash. He then followed up that disappointment with back-to-back road course wins at Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
At Road America, he straight-up passed and defeated a dominant Chase Elliott for his maiden Cup victory. At Indianapolis, he won the pole, led the most laps and held off all challenges in overtime for the second win of his career.
So has Reddick established himself as a favorite on road courses for the foreseeable future?
If last Sunday was any indication, absolutely. He is already tied with Elliott for the second-most road-course wins since the start of 2021 with two, only trailing Kyle Larson‘s three.
Even more impressive is that Reddick appears to have been the fastest learner on road courses with the Next Gen car. He’s won two of the four, and he contended for the win in another. Larson has struggled to contend on road courses with the Next Gen car, and while Elliott was the best car at Road America and a top-10 car in all the others, he has not been unstoppable as he was with the Gen 6.
That said, Reddick still has a long way to go before he can be called the best road racer in the series. Elliott may only have two road course wins in the last 11, but with seven career road course wins — good enough for the third-most all time — Reddick has a long way to go before passing him.
Nevertheless, Reddick is now one of the heavy favorites to win road course races until he proves otherwise.
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