Reddick was ahead as the race neared its end, but Brad Keselowski helped Michael McDowell take the lead again as they went into Turns 1 and 2.
As they approached the tri-oval, McDowell blocked Keselowski on the outside, so Keselowski tried to pass on the inside. McDowell tried to block him too, but he was a bit slow, and instead, his car was pushed into the wall.
As cars scattered everywhere because of the crash, Reddick passed Keselowski and won the race by a really close 0.208 seconds, marking his first win of the 2024 season.
Reddick said after the race, “Man, it’s incredible. Everyone on this No. 45 Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy, guys? Was that crazy, fans, huh? That was chaos. That’s Talladega for you.”
When asked how he stayed ahead, mostly surrounded by Ford drivers, Reddick credited Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr., saying, “Just got to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex. It was just us Toyotas left, and they pushed me with everything they had. So here’s credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes, we don’t win this race.”
Earlier in the race, on lap 156 out of 188, a crash took out four Toyota cars. Corey LaJoie’s car even ended up on its side, but luckily, nobody got hurt.
Noah Gragson came third in the race, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in fourth and Alex Bowman in fifth.
The top 10 finishers also included Anthony Alfredo, William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Hemric, and Harrison Burton.
McDowell, who had started in first place, ended up finishing 30th and had led the most laps, 36 in total.
During the different stages of the race:
– In Stage 1, Austin Cindric just beat Chase Elliott to win.
– In Stage 2, Joey Logano held off Austin Cindric to win.
– In Stage 3, after a break, Logano was ahead again, but there was a crash that took out several cars, including Christopher Bell’s.
As the race continued, a group of seven Toyota drivers made their final pit stop with 36 laps left. Later, on lap 156, there was another crash involving Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones, among others.
When the race restarted with 27 laps remaining, Reddick and McDowell were side by side, but Reddick eventually pulled ahead and won the race.
