Early in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, Tyler Reddick was mired back in the field after his 23XI Racing team elected to pit prior to the end of stage one, putting the No. 45 Toyota on a three-stop strategy.
While Reddick knew his car had pace after topping Friday’s lone practice session, patience became the key to let the strategy play out.
“Some concern just the initial first couple laps. Joey (Logano) got back. Austin Dillon got by. Re-centered myself,” Reddick said. “I remember A.J. (Allmendinger) literally getting stuck behind Aric Almirola yesterday (Saturday’s Xfinity Series race), stopped on the race track, fought back from it and won.
“I looked at how that played out, thought we could make it happen. For the most part, as the race was playing out at the end, it was the right calls, the right strategies I think.”
Despite the early concern, Reddick quickly picked his way through the field once the green flag waved and romped to a seven-second victory in the second stage.
“Having a strong car really helps, whatever strategy you go with, work,” Reddick said. “But with the pace fall off and everything, the strategy we were on was going to work out better. Yeah, it was enjoyable for sure.”
After chasing down leaders William Byron and A.J. Allmendinger shortly after his second pit stop, Reddick asserted himself as the dominator, closing a gap of more than eight seconds at one point to retake the lead on lap 39 of the 3.41-mile road course.
Tyler Reddick (45), battles William Byron during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. (HHP/Tim Parks)
A caution for dirt on the track erased any ideas of a simple Sunday drive for Reddick and placed other contenders back on the same strategy as Reddick.
What proceeded for the 27-year-old, was a classic door-to-door fight with Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet while navigating the twists and turns of COTA.
After finally getting the best of Byron with 23 laps to go, Reddick appeared en route to victory. However, a caution flag with four laps to go reset the race for Reddick, with a plethora of restarts to come.
Reddick, who moved from Richard Childress Racing to 23XI Racing during the offseason, was unfazed despite having to restart in the sixth row after pitting, due to a handful of drivers electing to stay out. Within one corner, Reddick was back on top.
More chaos led to numerous late-race restarts, but one thing remained constant — Reddick’s No. 45 machine was out front.
“I honestly wasn’t doing the best job on those restarts,” Reddick said. “A few of the times I gave up one, two spots. All but that very last one I’m having to battle for position down into the esses, which is a very tricky area of the race track, considering track limits, all those things,” Reddick said. “One bump, one thing goes wrong, you might be getting penalized. We were definitely putting ourselves at risk there.
“If I have one thing looking at the whole weekend I wish I could have done better would have been qualifying and cleaned up those restarts a little bit.
“Yeah, there is things to learn, for sure. But it all went really well. The last one, got off of turn one without any real threats.”
In the end, Reddick led the most laps with 41, securing his fourth career victory and first since joining 23XI Racing.
Keyword: Reddick Stays Cool Under Pressure