In an amazing finish with a torn-up car, Tyler Reddick and team owner Michael Jordan repeated on Sunday.
The 23XI Racing driver overcame the damage, double overtime and Chase Briscoe to win the high-speed, tight-drafting Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday in Hampton, Ga.
After the 10th caution in the first overtime, for Carson Hocevar trying to go through the middle and wrecking Christopher Bell, leader Bubba Wallace went way high, but that move proved unsuccessful.
Reddick took the lead in his No. 45 Toyota and held on to beat Briscoe by 0.164 seconds for his second straight win, becoming the sixth NASCAR driver to claim two victories to start a season.
Ross Chastain, Hocevar and Daniel Suarez completed the top five as Toyota won for the second time in the past three Atlanta races.
Reddick was involved in a wreck on Lap 160 that started with Denny Hamlin. The damage ripped off the right front fender of Reddick’s Camry XSE.
“That’s crazy, ain’t it?” said Reddick, who led a race-high 53 laps. “(This place) puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here, but determination (does too).
“We were back there in 30th after we got collected with the 11 (of Hamlin). … They just kept stacking up in the middle and top lanes, and I just found a way to get back in the top five.”
Hocevar took advantage of Wallace moving too high and clipped him going by. Wallace finished eighth.
“Now I guess we’re really good this year of racing to the white flag and leading,” said Hocevar, who made up two laps after brushing the wall on Lap 31. “Our car is really fast to go from two laps down to getting stage points and finishing fourth. I was taking every run.
“I’m sure I owe people apologies, but I think we were all going for spaces and runs.”
The NASCAR Cup Series’ second race started out with polesitter Reddick losing the top spot to Joey Logano but swapping the point with Logano’s No. 22 Ford and the No. 6 of Brad Keselowski as the blue ovals showed speed early.
The hometown favorite and the sport’s Most Popular Driver, Dawsonville, Ga.’s Chase Elliott gave the locals something to cheer about by moving to the lead at the end of Lap 51.
However, Austin Cindric won the opening 60-lap segment, taking the top bonus points and having Wallace, Kyle Larson, Byron and Elliott in hot pursuit.
The second caution occurred on Lap 81 when Josh Berry’s Ford clipped Ty Gibbs’ Toyota. That allowed the field to pit again and have enough fuel to get to the end of Stage 2.
Entering the race winless in 16 career starts at the 1.54-mile track south of Atlanta, Larson took off with the lead until Lap 103 when Riley Herbst — instrumental in helping Reddick win the Daytona 500 — turned Austin Dillon’s No. 3 to trigger a wreck that damaged the No. 47 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the 500’s runner-up.
Running 13th, Kyle Busch, the winner of Saturday’s truck race, had his No. 8 get away from him as he slid up the track. The single-car incident ended with his Chevrolet going into the backstretch’s inside wall.
Racing to finish Stage 2, Larson drove way down and pinched Shane van Gisbergen, and Larson’s Chevy smacked the outside wall while coming to the segment’s end.
Wallace edged Byron for the stage win, and Briscoe, Reddick and Elliott rounded out the top five.
–Field Level Media
