Tyler Reddick Captures First-Career NASCAR XFINITY Series Win At Kentucky Speedway

by September 24, 2017 0 comments

SPARTA, Ky. – Tyler Reddick spoiled the party for NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff drivers by dominating the second-half of the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday evening to claim his first victory in the series. Reddick is the fourth driver in 2017 to claim their first series win.

Before this race, Reddick had not lead a lap in XFINITY Series competition, but a pass for the lead on fellow part-time driver Ryan Preece with 74 laps remaining propelled him to win by 14.5 seconds. Reddick is the sixth first-time winner at the track, joining drivers David Gilliland (2006), Stephen Leicht (2007) , Joey Logano (2008), Austin Dillon (2012) and Ryan Blaney (2013).

“Me and Brennan (Poole) were really fast all night. He was able to finish second,” Reddick said in Victory Lane. “They had a really fast car last weekend. The mile and a half program has just been unreal. Mike Shiplett (crew chief) brought me from ground zero all the way to here. All of the guys at Ganassi have gone above and beyond in helping me become a better driver. To be here today is surreal.”

This capped off a nice couple of weeks for the ex-dirt racer after announcing he would replace William Byron at JR Motorsports in 2018. Reddick is also a two-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

This was a one-two finish in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for Chip Ganassi Racing with Brennan Poole securing a career-best second place finish. Justin Allgaier started in the rear and battled back from being two laps down, after suffering a right front tire failure on lap 20, to finish third. Preece, who missed his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Loudon, New Hampshire, claimed his third top-five in three starts for Joe Gibbs Racing this season. Rounding out the top-five was Cole Custer who won the first two stages of his career.

Rounding out the top-10 is Elliott Sadler, Daniel Hemric, Brian Scott, Matt Tifft and Ryan Reed.

Kyle Benjamin led the first 41 laps of the race from the pole, but the Easley, South Carolina native fell too far back in the mid-stages to recover, eventually finishing twelfth.

Championship favorite William Byron struggled with the handling of his car and was mired back in traffic after an unscheduled stop to finish eighteenth.

Allgaier and Custer are currently tied for the championship lead and have a slender two-point gap to regular season champion Sadler.

The second race of the first round of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs will be at the Monster Mile, Dover International Speedway, on Saturday, September 30. Live coverage will broadcast on the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

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