Tyler Reddick claimed his first win in the NASCAR Cup Series prevailing over Chase Elliot in what proved to be a straight duel between the pair at the Trip 250 at Road America race.
Reddick, who is a two-time NASCAR Xfinity champion, had secured five-second places leading up to the event but never managed to win in the Cup Series. However, the Richard Childress driver battled current series leader and pole-sitter Elliot to claim his first win with the pair leaving the rest of the chasing pack behind.
Reddick’s win means there have now been five different first-time winners during the 2022 season, and with eight races left until the Play-Offs, with the championship still wide open.
Reddick relieved after claiming the win
The Road America race track in Wisconsin is a road course and Reddick faced the unenviable task of beating Elliot, who has eight wins on road courses throughout his career.
However, despite coming out behind Elliot after the final round of pit stops, Reddick managed to find a way past the reigning champion and secure the win by 3.304 seconds.
“It was just a huge sense of relief,” Reddick told Fox Sports.
“He’s [Elliot] been the guy that’s won more road courses the last couple of years than anybody.”
Reddick was also delighted that his first win in the Cup Series came at the Road Atalanta circuit and on the 4th of July weekend.
“I love the fans. I love this race track,” Reddick stated after his win.
“Being here on 4th of July weekend is just so special, and just a huge shoutout to (sponsor) 3Chi and the special paint scheme we had this weekend.
“Love that they’re coming on board this year and taking a chance on a young guy like me, and we got it done. We won a race.”
Elliot disappointed to have not secured back to back wins
Pole man Elliot looked on course to become the first driver to win three events during the 2022 season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has looked in imperious form this year but atrributed his loss to a few mistakes he made while battling Reddick.
“I just let him stay close enough to pressure me there while we had decent tires and never could get enough of a gap,” Elliott stated.
“[I] Made a couple mistakes. I was gaining a gap there a couple times and made a couple mistakes and let him get back close enough to get me out of sync, and then after that just started struggling.”
Reddick and Elliot the class of the field
Kyle Larson would finish third some 21 seconds behind Reddick with Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top 5.
The result meant that Chevrolet locked out the top 5 positions with Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger and Kevin Harvick completing the top 10.
All three road courses see a first time winner
In addition to the result at Road America, the races at the Circuit of the Americas and the Sonoma Raceway also saw first time winners in the series with Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez prevailing in those races.
Austin Cindric at Daytona, and Chase Briscoe at Phoenix, are the two other drivers who claimed their first win the Cup Series this year.
With everything to play for the Cup Series will now head to the Atalanta Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart in a week’s time.
