(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Talladega Superspeedway
Who Won?
Tyler Reddick, after a rally from early damage and a pit road penalty.
Who Claimed the Stages?
Reddick and Noah Gragson
Top Stories
Bridesmaid No More
One long winter and a change of teams removed from his surprise NASCAR XFINITY Series championship in 2018, Tyler Reddick had spent the opening two months of the 2019 season proving that his title win was no fluke. He had two poles and six top-fives in his opening eight races with Richard Childress Racing, rising to the top of the point standings with a consistent drive.
All was well. There was just one thing missing – a trip to victory lane.
That all ended Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, with Reddick emerging victorious at the end of a drive that included a late rally to the front and brave blocks to maintain the lead. The result was RCR’s only Xfinity Series victory at Talladega, and secured Reddick the Dash 4 Cash bonus.
“I’m really proud to deliver RCR’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega,” Reddick said. “I hate that Richard Childress wasn’t here, but I was able to talk to him on the phone in Victory Lane. Oh, and to win the Xfinity Racing Dash 4 Cash bonus and qualify for the next round at Dover was an added bonus.”
Reddick’s drive didn’t come without controversy. He appeared to be the dominant car early on, holding off strong runs from the field to maintain the lead and claim Stage 1. But a pit road speeding penalty trapped Reddick back in the field, and a mid-race trip into the outside wall left his No. 2 with noticeable damage that required repairs from his RCR crew.
“I don’t know what happened with the contact with the wall,” he said. “I like to run by the wall, and I just ran into it. I don’t understand it. The place I hit, it has a plate on the wall or they have a gate there and that really left a mark on the right side of our car.”
After pitting for repairs, Reddick found himself at risk of falling a lap down. He ran just a few hundred yards in front of the pack, waiting for the field to catch him with the draft and cycle him back through the field as a lapped car. But a fortuitous caution for debris on Lap 66 bailed the Californian out.
“As we were working on the car, it took us longer than planned to repair the damage,” Reddick admitted. “When we came out, we were way behind the leaders and almost went a lap down, but the caution came out and that saved us and put us right back in the mix.”
From there the comeback was on.
Reddick methodically worked his way back to the front of the field after rejoining the back of the pack. He was forced to dodge the Lap 95 wreck involving Cole Custer and former teammates Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier, but after the ensuing yellow Reddick quickly marched to the front.
A late caution pushed the battle for the win down to one final two-lap run, but Reddick got the lead outright with a strong push on the final restart and blocked with all he was worth to hold on to a marquee win for RCR.
The points leader and defending champion finally has a victory. Now he hopes to add many more to it.
“We finally got the monkey off our back and got into Victory Lane,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get a few more as the year goes on.”
Redemption
Reddick’s damaged No. 2 triumphantly storming across Talladega’s start-finish line was the main takeaway from an eventful Xfinity Series race, but just behind the defending champion came a slate of finishes that evoked similar happiness from a few of the tour’s underdogs.
With the equalizing power of restrictor plates and opportunity supplied by a field free of Cup Series interlopers due to the Dash 4 Cash program, a trio of unheralded drivers and teams surged to top-10s in Alabama.
Gray Gaulding survived the crashes and surged in the closing moments to bring home a career-best finish in second. The run was the best in SS-Green Light Racing’s history, serving as a moment of justification and redemption for a team and driver that have faced numerous challenges recent years.
“It means so much,” Gaulding said of the run. “Because you know, you look at our team and you’re like… Well, we’re really not supposed to run with JR Motorsports. We’re not supposed to run with the (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars, or the (Team Penske) cars. But we just put together a great car and a great engine.
“And I feel like I earned a lot of respect today, because at the beginning of the race I had nobody. I was a lone ranger out on an island with no one out there. I feel like I cut my teeth, and showed these guys I can hang in there with the best of them.”
Gaulding’s finish was the first top-five for owner Bobby Dotter in nearly two years, and the 21-year-old’s first top-five finish in any NASCAR-sanctioned series since 2015 in the K& Pro Series East.
“I think it just says a lot for me. It’s great for my confidence,” Gaulding said. “You know, I’ve ran the Cup Series the last two years, cutting my teeth to stay in this sport. Bobby Dotter and Panini gave me an opportunity to run in the Xfinity Series, and I said let’s go do it.
“I think going into it a lot of people thought, ‘man, what are you doing running for Bobby Dotter?’ But I love the guy to death. He puts his heart and soul into racing, and those are the kinds of guys I like to drive for. It’s a big day for the whole crew.”
While Gaulding’s run was the highlight of the underdogs, he wasn’t the only one celebrating a new milestone at day’s end. Former ARCA Menards Series competitor Josh Williams brought home his first top-10 in his 37th Xfinity Series start, strolling home in eighth for DGM Racing.
Chris Cockrum followed in 10th, bringing home an unexpected first top-10 since 2017 for Rick Ware Racing. Cockrum had finished no better than 21st in 16 previous starts.
Other Notes
- Normally Christopher Bell wouldn’t be happy with a third-place run. But given his struggles at superspeedways and the Dash 4 Cash opportunity he’s earned for Dover International Speedway, the JGR star was content with the result. “Speedway racing and on top of that defensive racing whenever you’re out front on speedways is my weakness,” Bell said. “To be able to come out of there with a top-four and be locked into the Dash 4 Cash for next week is something I can be really proud of. I’m excited to go unload at Dover.”
- Chase Briscoe was one of many drivers that had struggled to find comfort on superspeedways heading into Talladega, but advice from Dale Earnhardt Jr. helped the Hoosier find his confidence and secure a fourth-place run on the 2.66-mile oval. “I talked to Dale Jr. before Daytona, and he told me every time you get a run you’ve gotta do something with it here,” he said. “You’ve got to constantly be the aggressor. Anytime he felt like he was patient, he felt like he was never able to make moves and finish well. At Daytona I tried a little bit, but I wasn’t a full 100%. Today I felt like every run I got, I tried to do something with it. And it obviously worked out for us.”
- With his top-five run at Talladega, Team Penske sophomore Austin Cindric is already more than halfway to to matching his top-five (seven) and top-10 (13) totals from 2018, despite being less than a third of the way through the 2019 season. Cindric already had four top-fives this season. At this point last year he had just one.
- Hidden in the midst of the Xfinity title contenders was Landon Cassill, who earned his first Xfinity Series top-10 in four years at the end of a rare return to JD Motorsports. Cassill expressed his happiness with the run in a post-race tweet.
- They didn’t score top-10s like their aforementioned fellow underdogs, but Matt Mills (17th) and Max Tullman (20th) each earned career-best results at Talladega.
- Ryan Sieg suffered his first finish outside of the top-15 this season after sustaining damage in a late crash, but the playoff hopeful still managed to salvage a 16th-place result from the day.
- David Starr didn’t have a top-10 at the end of the day, but a mid-race decision to stay out during a round of caution-flag pit stops allowed the veteran to lead his first laps since 2015.
- One person may not have been too happy with Reddick for his impressive drive to victory – his PR rep, who took a rare weekend off for a wedding.
