Tyler Reddick Starts Last and Finishes First at Bristol

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BRISTOL, TN – RIS – Tyler Reddick started in last position, but worked his way to the lead and win when Jason Allgaier hit the wall and had to pit.  Due to his car not passing tech before the race, he was not allowed to qualify plus suffer a pass through the pits, which put him in last place and a lap down.  He methodically worked through the field, got his lap back and went on to victory, To add insult to injury, he lost his car chief for the race and was docked 10 points from his championship total.

Reddick took the lead for the third and final time when leader Justin Allgaier had a tire go down with 11 laps to go. Reddick took the checkered flag ahead of Chase Briscoe for his fourth win of the season.

“We had fresher tires than Allgaier there and we came down pit road and got too tight,” said Reddick, who last pitted at Lap 223 versus Allgaier at Lap 175. “I thought we were done for and then I don’t know what happen. Everything happened in the right spot.”

Allgaier, who led 131 laps, is still seeking his first win of the season.

“It’s been the story of the year,” Allgaier said after finishing eighth. “This BRANDT Agricultural team does a great job, we had a great car tonight just typical Bristol. Tyler could make a run a little bit, but I don’t know what else to do. These guys deserve a win, just the tire went down and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“We had a really good Ford Performance Mustang, just proud of all of my guys we easily could have gave up early,” Briscoe said. “We had that damage and the speeding penalty but we showed a lot of perseverance. I feel like that’s how it’s been all year, we’ve struggled at the first part of the race and we keep getting better and better at the end. Still tore up about it, you don’t get many opportunities to win at a place like Bristol, especially the night race.”

John Hunter Nemechek, Jeremy Clements and Austin Cindric rounded out the top five.

Kyle Busch led a race-high 137 laps, but the engine expired in his No. 18 Toyota as he took the Stage 2 win ahead of Reddick. Busch was racing in his sixth series start this season.

“All of a sudden started about five, six laps before the stage ended,” Busch said. “Coming off the corner I got back into the gas and it broke and just tried to limp it home and that was all she had. Tough day for our Juniper Supra. It was really, really fast.”

Christopher Bell and Cole Custer’s night got off to a bad start when they were part of a multi-car crash on Lap 34. It started when Matt Mills swept up high and made contact with Custer, setting off a chain-reaction accident that also involved Erik Jones and Joey Logano.

“It’s unfortunate it’s that early in the race to be pressing,” said Jones after retiring from the race along with Joey Logano, early in the race. “It’s a tough situation. I wasn’t really making any bold moves and there was some bold moves being made up ahead. It kind of is what it is. We had a good car. The iK9 Supra was probably going to be in contention tonight.”

Bell and Custer went on to finish 14th and 22nd, respectively.

“It’s just been a tough few weeks,” Custer said. “We were really fast starting out that race. I felt like we could keep up with Kyle and everybody. We would have had a great shot to win, but guys that don’t deserve to be out there cut our day short.”