CONCORD, N.C. – On a scorching Saturday afternoon that saw many of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ top contenders wither, Tyler Reddick withstood the heat to win the Alsco 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Reddick dominated the event after taking the point for the first time on a lap-72 restart, pacing 110 of the 200 laps en route to his second Xfinity Series win of the season and the fifth of his career.
The defending series champion won the second stage handily, and then only gave up the top spot briefly due to various pit strategies and cycles the rest of the way.
Though he restarted outside the top seven after pitting for the final time with 42 to go, Reddick charged through traffic quickly on four fresh tires. He advanced to third in just three laps, and then regained full command with 35 laps left with a diving turn-three pass of John Hunter Nemechek.
A brief interruption following a restart with 23 to go, when Brandon Jones didn’t push Reddick on a restart and allowed Cole Custer to shoot out to the race lead, didn’t faze Reddick at all.
He patiently bided his time until the race’s 10th and final caution flew for a spinning Josh Williams with 20 to go, then powered away from the field on the race-deciding restart with 15 circuits remaining when Custer spun his tires and couldn’t get up to speed.
From there, Reddick drove off to a 2.102-second victory over Justin Allgaier at the checkered flag.
“Hats off to all of Richard Childress Racing,” Reddick said in victory lane. “We were pretty good going into the two off weeks, but we weren’t really happy with where we were and they worked really hard and worked on a couple of things. We’ve been really good since we’ve been back to Charlotte. I’m just so pumped by all the work ethic by all the guys back at the shop.
“The guys here with me today … they just worked their tails off on our Tame the Beast Chevrolet, and to hold off Justin Allgaier – who is very hard to beat – to win at Charlotte is a big deal for us.”
Allgaier looked as though he might have something for Reddick down the stretch, staying with the No. 2 Chevrolet for a couple of laps following the final restart, but couldn’t mount a challenge in the end.
“My biggest issue at the end was (turns) one and two,” noted Allgaier. “We were really good on the other end, in turns three and four, on the bottom … because he was giving up a lot of time on the bottom, but he could roll so much speed on the top and my car was too tight. I hit the fence early, trying to push it, but we could just never get the balance where I wanted it.
“It’s disappointing to finish second, but at the end of the day, Tyler had the best car. Hats off to him.”
Jeffrey Earnhardt rallied from a spin with 60 to go to post a NASCAR career-best third-place finish for Joe Gibbs Racing. Series rookies Noah Gragson and Justin Haley completed the top five.
Michael Annett finished sixth, ahead of Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Austin Cindric and Brandon Jones.
Christopher Bell won the first stage from the pole, but shredded a tire coming to the finish of the second stage and retired from the race due to the extensive damage to his Toyota. Bell was credited with 31st.
Leaving Charlotte, Reddick holds the regular-season points lead over Bell by 65 markers.