After a two-week winless streak following his record-breaking three-race win streak to start the season, Tyler Reddick won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway for his fourth win of the season on Sunday afternoon.
This was Reddick's first win at Darlington following three runner-up finishes in his career.
"I know never to give up," Reddick said in his post-race interview with Fox Sports. "I think it’s very fitting that when we finally get our first win at Darlington, 'The Lady in Black' would test us like that."
With four wins in six races this season, Reddick joins only NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott in his early-season success. Now sitting at 12 career wins, Reddick has increased his win total 50% through only six races.
Reddick started on pole next to his teammate Bubba Wallace, but his path to the victory lane was not straightforward as the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry had issues from the jump and, following the first pit halfway through the opening stage, suffered a failed alternator.
Reddick long pitted on the first and final stages. The long pit strategy wasn't helpful in the first stage with the No. 45 getting stuck on a jack. Reddick was fighting alternator problems throughout the first stage and had issues getting the car fired up on pit road after the long stop. The bad pit stop stuck Reddick deep in the back, but he was still able to rebound and run second to Brad Keselowski in stage one.
Following the opening stage, Reddick came down the closed pit road to work on the alternator issue. The team had to replace the battery with a larger one to support the failing alternator.
The battery problems also meant that Reddick's cool suit was not working, and the water inside it was heating up inside the scorching Gen 7 car. Leading the driver to work at one point to pump it out on a pit stop.
Keselowski would go on to sweep the stages, winning stage two over his teammate Chris Buescher.
With the upgraded battery, Reddick went back to work and, after RFK dominated the end of both stages, battled back through the final stage to make it to the back of Chris Buescher, chasing his boss and teammate Keselowski in the lead.
With under 40 laps remaining, the leaders started to make their way to pit road, with the leader Keselowski committing first.
A lap later, his RFK teammate was called in and was hit from behind by Reddick as he braked to dive to the entry of pit road. The hard hit to the back bumper sent Buescher into the wall with damage, but he rebounded to keep the race green and pitted on the next stop. Reddick was told over the radio by his spotter that the No. 17 team knew they were at fault for not calling out the pit from the spotter stand or Buescher's front window.
Buescher continued to run in the top ten for the remainder of the race but faded lap after lap with his damage, losing a great points day.
Reddick pulled out following his pass on Keselowski with 28 laps to go for a margin of victory of 5.847 seconds.
Ryan Blaney rebounded from problems on pit road for a third-place finish. For the third time in two races, Blaney's pit crew failed to fully tighten a lug nut, forcing the driver to pit down the road in a teammate's stall to have it tightened, then sent to the back of the pack for the infringement.
Blaney took third over Carson Hocevar, who, with changes to his car, started in the back. Penske's Austin Cindric rounded out the top five.
The Hendrick cars had an abysmal day, with William Byron the only one to record a top-ten finish in ninth. Kyle Larson suffered a cut tire with four laps to go, falling back to 32nd, one lap off the pace.
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