(Photo: Ryan Daley | The Podium Finish)
BRISTOL, Tenn. — After 82 races of trying, it seemed Tyler Reddick was on his way toward his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Reddick took the lead from Chase Briscoe to start the final stage and went on cruise control. He led the first 61 laps of the stage and seemed to have the best car.
But, with 38 laps to go, Austin Dillon blew up on a restart. He dropped through the field and collected Kurt Busch to bring out a caution. Before returning green, the rain picked up and cars were brought down pit road for the second weather-related red flag of the night.
Although he led at the time, Reddick told FOX Sports that he wanted the race to continue.
After a 16-minute, 51-second delay, the cars refired to finish the race. Reddick led the field to green with 24 laps to go in a sprint to the finish. Briscoe and Kyle Busch battled for second place and Reddick extended his lead out to nearly a second. Briscoe finally cleared Busch and started to inch away at his deficit to Reddick.
With just five laps to go, Briscoe drew to a car length of Reddick as lapped traffic approached. Reddick drove defensively and kept Briscoe behind him until Turn 3 on the final lap.
Briscoe drove deep into the final corner in an attempt to slide ahead of Reddick but instead hit him. Both drivers tried to save it but spun out. Busch, who was several seconds behind, drove by and won the race despite a late dash by Reddick toward the finish line.
Still thinking about this finish. pic.twitter.com/xCI4dL5LyS
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 18, 2022
“I let him get a little too close,” Reddick told reporters after the race. “He was within reach to really go for it in the last corner and I tried to defend for it. He drove it in from really far back. I kind of knew what was coming.”
Although Reddick was disappointed, he wasn’t upset at Briscoe.
“Well, it’s Easter for one,” Reddick joked. “I just look at it like I could’ve done a better job the last couple of laps to keep a gap between us.”
But, even though Reddick fell short of his first Cup Series victory, Reddick has things he can take away from Sunday’s race.
“There’s a lot of things that can be learned,” he said. “It can be really easy to be frustrated with the final lap, but there’s a lot of things that happened before the final corner as to why he was within range.”
The NASCAR Cup Series returns Sunday, April 24 at Talladega Superspeedway.
