By John Goolsby, Prep Sports Editor
TALLADEGA-Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing won the Geico 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway Sunday. Reddick snuck past Brad Keselowski at the finish line after Keselowski made contact with race leader Michael McDowell.
23XI Racing is owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan, Joe Gibbs, and Denny Hamlin.
The race became a fuel-saving affair, similar to the Daytona 500 in February. By lap 25 the field’s lap times fell by more than a second from the beginning of the race as teams worked to save fuel.
There were 73 lead changes among 23 drivers in the race. Today’s race was only the eighth NASCAR race to have 70 or more lead changes
Austin Cindric won Stage 1 and earned the ten bonus points after the first 60 laps.
Stage 2 saw the teams implement maximum fuel-saving strategies. As a result, the field’s pace was significantly reduced to 175 mph or 54-second laps. Joey Logano won Stage 2 and claimed an extra 10 points.
For the first time since NASCAR instituted stage racing in 2017, the opening two stages did not have caution periods.
The first caution came out five laps after the restart on lap 132. After a backup in the outside lane, Chase Elliott spun Justin Haley, who spun Christopher Bell hard into the outside wall.
A second caution came out on lap 155 when Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, and Denny Hamlin crashed together in Turn 3.
On the restart on lap 161 Michael McDowell, the pole sitter, and Tyler Reddick led the field to the green flag. The two would swap the lead ten times over the next 27 laps.
McDowell pulled ahead of the pack entering Turn 3 on the final lap. McDowell blocked a run from Keselowski to the outside off of Turn 4 and then again on the inside. Keselowski clipped McDowell and sent him crashing into the wall.
Reddick made it through the crash and won by .208 seconds over Keselowski.
Well, [team co-owner] Denny [Hamlin] keeps saying I’m bad luck,’’ Jordan said. “And today we proved him wrong.
“The whole team did a good job,’’ he continued. “I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody always tells me when we win we have a good celebration but this is the first time I’ve been here [for a win].
“As you know this is NBA playoffs right now and to me, this is like an NBA playoff game, I am so ecstatic for the fans who support the sport itself. You know we’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves to compete against all the top guys in this sport. And we’ve done a heckuva job just to be where we are and for us to win and win a big race like this it means so much to me and effort the team has put in.
“I’m all in. It replaces a lot of competitiveness I had in basketball, but this is even worse because I have no control. If I was playing basketball, I’d have total control, but I have no control and live vicariously through the drivers and crew chiefs. I’m very happy for 23 eleven – 110 percent.’’
Reddick was ecstatic about the victory. “Man, it’s incredible,’’ said Reddick, who led 13 laps on the afternoon. “Everyone on this 45 Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position.
“I just have to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex, it was just us Toyotas left and they pushed me with everything they had. Without Martin and Ty and those pushes we don’t win this race.’’
McDowell was disappointed but accepted blame. “We did a good job keeping those Mustang Dark Horses up front,’’ said McDowell, who led a race best 36 laps. “He [Keselowski] did everything right. He pushed me. I was able to get in front of him the first time but when I came back down I barely wasn’t clear. I’ll have to watch the replay. I hate it. I hate it we didn’t make it to the finish line. We had such a fast mustang today. … just came up short and took a lot of guys out and I apologize.’’
1. (18) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 188.
2. (22) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 188.
3. (36) Noah Gragson, Ford, 188.
4. (33) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 188.
5. (12) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 188.
6. (24) Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 188.
7. (13) William Byron, Chevrolet, 188.
8. (3) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 188.
9. (19) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 188.
10. (16) Harrison Burton, Ford, 188.
11. (6) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 188.
12. (26) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 188.
13. (32) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 188.
14. (11) Ryan Preece, Ford, 188.
15. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 188.
16. (29) Josh Berry #, Ford, 188.
17. (35) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 188.
18. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 188.
19. (7) Joey Logano, Ford, 188.
20. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 188.
21. (38) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 188.
22. (15) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 188.
23. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 188.
24. (34) Cody Ware, Ford, 188.
25. (8) Chris Buescher, Ford, 188.
26. (4) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 188.
27. (25) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 188.
28. (17) Shane Van Gisbergen(i), Chevrolet, 188.
29. (30) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 188.
30. (5) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.
31. (1) Michael McDowell, Ford, Accident, 187.
32. (37) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 187.
33. (20) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 184.
34. (27) Justin Haley, Ford, 184.
35. (28) Erik Jones, Toyota, Accident, 154.
36. (14) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 154.
37. (23) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 154.
38. (10) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 132.