For Tyler Reddick, 92nd one was the charm. The 26-year-old finally has his first victory in the NASCAR Cup Series after holding off Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson to win the KwikTrip 250 on Sunday in Wisconsin.
Reddick had two second-place finishes this season and also garnered a third and fifth-place finish in other events, but this time, he took the lead with 17 laps to go and never looked back for the first win of his Cup Series career.
Reddick joins Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, and Daniel Suarez on the list of first-time winners this season, tying the modern-era record for the most first-time winners in a Cup season (2001, 2002, and 2011).
“We had to. And what better place than Road America?” Reddick told NBC Sports. “I love the fans, I love this racetrack. Being here on Fourth of July weekend is just so special … We got it done. We won the race.”
Meanwhile, Elliott was left to wonder what could have been and lamented the ways he let Reddick get ahead of him and stay there.
“I didn’t do a very good job there,” Elliott told NBC Sports. “I just let him stay close enough to pressure me there while we had decent tires. … 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.
“Obviously it was super difficult to get to somebody to pass them. I mean, it was impressive that he was able to get up there and capitalize on my mistake. So happy for those guys, I appreciate the effort out of our team. Wish I could have done a better job there.”
The NASCAR world was pretty happy for Reddick and shared that sentiment across social media after the race on Sunday.
Finally Finally FINALLY @TylerReddick is a winner!!!!!
— Ken Carman (@KenCarman) July 3, 2022