TALLADEGA, AL. – Tyler Reddick prevailed in a typically frantic Talladega Superspeedway run to the checkered flag Sunday in the GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race.
He narrowly avoided a multi-car crash in the closing 400 yards and came from third place out of Turn 4 to earn the win by 0.208 seconds when race leader Michael McDowell crashed trying to block competitors approaching the finish line. Reddick maneuvered around in the high lane to motor through to his first victory of the year and sixth of his career.
His margin of victory over second-place Brad Keselowski was .208 of a second.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Noah Gragson finished a career-best third, followed by JTG Daugherty’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman.
There were four caution periods for a total of 21 laps. Thirty of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Kyle Larson remains the championship leader after Talladega with a 15-point advantage over second-place Martin Truex Jr.
Stage 1 Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stewart-Haas Finish:
- Noah Gragson (Started 36th, Finished 3rd / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 26th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 11th, Finished 14th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
- Josh Berry (Started 29th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
Stewart-Haas Racing Points:
- Chase Briscoe (12th with 256 points, 103 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (23rd with 162 points, 197 out of first)
- Noah Gragson (27th with 154 points, 205 out of first)
- Josh Berry (28th with 151 points, 208 out of first)
Gragson’s third-place finish was his career-best NASCAR Cup Series result. His prior best was fifth in August 2022 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
This was Gragson’s best finish so far this year. His best was sixth, earned March 3 at his hometown Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
This was Gragson’s first top-five and his third top-10 of the season. It was also his first top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.
“We were definitely working together as Fords on the bottom – (Michael) McDowell, Brad Keselowski, and myself,” Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “All the Fords worked great all race. It’s coming to the end, and the 6 (Keselowski) and the 34 (McDowell) were blocking coming to the checkers, and, unfortunately, the 45 (Tyler Reddick) squeaked by. I really wanted to see a Ford in victory lane, but the Overstock team at Stewart-Haas did a great job all day. We had clean pit stops, fast pit stops, and a lot of horsepower under the hood. The Mustang Dark Horses and racing with these other Ford guys has been a lot of fun. I haven’t been up here very much in the Cup Series on these superspeedways, but I’m extremely grateful. It’s a privilege to race with guys like Keselowski and McDowell. I mean, they’ve won really big races on speedways, so, overall, I’m really thankful for everyone at Stewart-Haas and this Overstock team, and we’ll keep the momentum going.”
Gragson’s third-place result bettered his previous best finish at Talladega – 19th, earned in October 2022.
This was Gragson’s fourth straight top-20 finish. He finished 12th March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, 20th April 7 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, and 18th last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Gragson led five times for five laps to bring his laps-led total at Talladega to six.
Briscoe earned his seventh top-15 of the season and sixth top-15 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.
“I’m definitely not surprised,” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark HorseThe whole last lap, you just know it’s coming if we got that far, so overall, it just was not a very good day for us. We went a lap down early because of flat-spotting the tires. It seemed like we honestly just rode around 30th all day. I don’t know where we ended up. Someone said 12th, somehow, so I guess that’s better than where we should’ve finished with how the day went. We’ll just go to Dover next week and try to continue running well.”
This was Briscoe’s third straight top-12. He finished 10th April 7 at Martinsville and sixth last Sunday at Texas.
It was Briscoe’s fourth consecutive top-15 at Talladega. He finished 10th in October 2022, fourth last April, and 13th in the series’ prior visit to the track in October.
Briscoe led twice for three laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to five.
Preece earned his fourth top-15 of the season and sixth top-15 in nine career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.
“Ultimately, we put ourselves in that position,” Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I was trying to help Ryan (Blaney) and work with my other Ford teammates, but it’s tough when everybody isn’t on the same page. When you lose track position like that, it is what it is, but moving forward, I’d like to talk to Blaney and figure out what I can do better to help him. That way, we can just not worry about anybody else.”
This was Preece’s third straight top-15. He finished ninth on April 7 at Martinsville and 12th last Sunday at Texas.
This was his second consecutive top-15 at Talladega. He finished eighth in the series’ prior visit to the track in October.
Preece finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.
Berry earned his fourth top-20 of the season.
“I thought Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made some good changes there,” said Josh Berry, the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver. “We took a swing at it just to make me feel better. But honestly, more than anything, really, just the strategy worked in our favor. We ended up on an opposite strategy, which sometimes you have to do to make something happen. That’s when we got up front, and the car drove a lot better. We had an opportunity there, but we just didn’t make it across the finish line. We’ll live to fight another day.”
Berry led once for three laps, and they came in his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Talladega. He was the highest-finishing rookie.
