Tyler Reddick picked the right spot, drove through a major wreck coming to the checkers, and won the GEICO 500 Sunday afternoon on the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama.
Running fifth off the 2.66-mile superspeedway’s final turn, Reddick kept his No. 45 Camry on the high side as the front group roared toward the stripe.
Meanwhile up front, leader Michael McDowell came down to block second-place racer Brad Keselowski.
McDowell was turned up to the frontstretch wall after contact and Keselowski slowed, allowing Reddick to keep his foot in the gas and zoom on to his first win this season as the field slid and crashed behind him.
Reddick beat Keselowski by 0.208 seconds for his sixth career win in 156 starts and first at Talladega. 23XI Racing — owned by Michael Jordan — enjoyed the win of Reddick’s No. 45.
It was also Toyota’s first win at the Alabama superspeedway since 2021.
The final top-finishers were Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman.
The Fords of McDowell, Chase Briscoe and Justin Haley took turns leading early in Stage 1, but Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Toyota paced the group most of the way.
As pit stops began, Denny Hamlin lost control of his No. 11 Toyota at the back of the group that was pitting, making minimal contact with the No. 42 of John Hunter Nemechek, and continued on unscathed.
Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford edged Chase Elliott by 0.004 seconds for his second stage win of 2024.
Kyle Larson, who started last under penalty and lost a lap due to it, ran side-by-side with Joey Logano after the white flag, but Logano received a huge push from teammate Cindric to beat him and Austin Dillon to the checkers, earning the winless Logano his first stage win in 24 races.
With 56 laps to go, the first incident for cause occurred when the cars of Christopher Bell and Haley were part of a spin on the backstretch. Chase Elliott, the winner last week at Texas, narrowly squeezed past the minor melee.
A worse incident happened with just over 30 laps left when four of the six Toyotas on a promising strategy of pitting early wrecked in Turn 3.
Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones all were knocked out of the event.
–Field Level Media
