Road America win ‘special’ for Reddick
Former Xfinity champ earns 1st career Cup race victory
Tyler Reddick raced to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday, continuing the season-long trend of first-time winners on road courses.
Each of the first three road-course races this year has had a first-time winner, with Reddick breaking through at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, after Ross Chastain won at the Circuit of the Americas and Daniel Suarez at Sonoma.
“What better place than Road America?” the 26-year-old Reddick said. “I love the fans. I love this racetrack.
“Being here Fourth of July weekend is just so special.”
The Richard Childress Racing driver won by 3.304 seconds over defending race champion Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports. All the other drivers were over 21 seconds behind Reddick.
Kyle Larson was third, followed by Chastain and Suarez.
Elliott had the pole position and led for much of the day as he attempted to follow his victory last week at Nashville with another.
Nobody has won more than two races through the first 18 events on the Cup Series calendar. It’s the first year in which the series hasn’t had anyone win at least three of the first 18 races.
Elliott and Reddick were both well ahead of the field before making pit stops with about 20 laps remaining in the 62-lap race. Elliott had a narrow lead over Reddick as they came out of the pits, but Reddick eventually pulled ahead of him as they headed back toward the front of the pack.
“Just waited for the right opportunity and was able to take advantage of it at Turn 65,” Reddick said.
Reddick took over the lead once all the cars that had been ahead of him made their pit stops.
He had a chance to win slip away at Bristol in April. Reddick and Chase Briscoe were dueling for the lead that night when the two cars spun out of control, enabling Kyle Busch to slip past them for the victory.
“This year’s been one mistake away from greatness all year long,” Reddick said. “We finally did it today.”
Family matters at Mid-Ohio: Scott McLaughlin on Sunday picked up his second career IndyCar victory, which may go down as one of the most special wins of his career.
The New Zealander won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, with his nervous parents watching from pit lane. McLaughlin hadn’t seen his family in 31 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his parents finally were able to leave New Zealand in May to attend the Indianapolis 500.
Wayne and Diane McLaughlin booked their trip to maximize their visas and planned nine IndyCar races on their tour of the United States. It took four to see their only son drive his Team Penske entry to victory lane.
When he won his first race in February on the street course in St. Petersburg, Florida, he had to celebrate with his parents via FaceTime.
“I really wanted to get a win here with Mom and Dad,” said McLaughlin, who had won three consecutive V8 Supercars championships in Australia.
IndyCar champion Alex Palou finished second for Chip Ganassi Racing and Honda, and Will Power had a brilliant run to put a second Penske driver on the podium.
Power had been penalized in qualifying, started 21st, spun in the opening laps and charged through the field to finish third.
The race had the potential to upend the IndyCar standings after the top three drivers in the standings — Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, Power and Penske teammate Josef Newgarden — all had poor qualifying efforts. It put Pato O’Ward, who was fourth in the points, on the pole with the chance to close major ground in the title hunt.
Instead, he and Arrow McLaren SP teammate Felix Rosenqvist were two of five Chevrolets knocked out of the race early on, and Ericsson retained his hold on the season standings. He leads Power by 20 points.