Tyler Reddick’s fast No. 45 Toyota chased down and blazed by Brad Keselowski’s Ford in the Goodyear 400’s final 50 laps, sending the 23XI Racing driver to his fourth victory of the season Sunday afternoon at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
The Corning, Calif., native took the checkers in the sixth race of the season by pitting with 48 laps go and using the fresher rubber to get by Keselowski’s No. 6 car in Turn 2 on Lap 266 of the 293-lap race and disappear for his 12th career win.
The Cup Series points leader led 77 laps and beat Keselowski, who paced the field for a race-high 142 laps, by 5.847 seconds in the four-caution event.
Ryan Blaney, Carson Hocevar and Austin Cindric rounded out the top five finishers.
Toyota won its third straight Cup race at Darlington.
After winning his 13th career pole Saturday, Reddick led the first 45 laps of the 90-lap Stage 1 at the legendary 1.366-mile track, but trouble on his No. 45 Toyota during the first round of pit stops left him behind Keselowski, who short-pitted as lap times fell off, after service cycled around.
Pitting early worked well for Keselowski as the 2012 Cup champion won the segment ahead of a hard-charging Reddick, whose fresher tires came to life. Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson finished the top five.
However, Reddick (battery change), Wallace (loose lug) and Ryan Blaney (lug) all had problems and had to restart deeper in the field.
The first incident for cause happened on Lap 111 when Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones got together, with the No. 43 of Jones spinning onto the apron at the west end of the track and Hamlin and Wallace each tagging the wall.
RFK Racing’s Fords took control with 160 circuits remaining as Keselowski assumed the point followed by Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece. Larson and Hamlin rode fourth and fifth and stayed within five seconds of Keselowski.
For the second time, Keselowski claimed a stage, swapping the lead with teammate Buescher, who finished second. Larson, Chase Briscoe and Reddick followed the Fords.
With less than 55 laps to go, Reddick hit leader Buescher in Turn 3 as the No. 17 was setting up a pit approach and sent the Ford into the wall, but the race stayed green.
–Field Level Media
