Tyler Reddick won the opening stage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, only for his race to go upside down moments later — literally.
On lap 89, Reddick had a run on the outside and made it three-wide with Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. beneath him. They drifted up and contact was made between Elliott and Reddick, leading both drivers to crash. As they moved across the track, Brad Keselowski was collected, and all three cars spun out of control through the infield grass.
Then, in a surprising flip / roll, Reddick’s car dug in and flipped over as it slid sideways over the transition between infield asphalt and grass. His race was over. Reddick will finish 36th.
Keselowski’s car went back up the track in the final moments of the incident, causing the Team Penske drivers of Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric to slam the outside wall in avoidance. Cindric, Keselowski, and Reddick were unable to continue. Defending champ Blaney went multiple laps down and Elliott went to the garage for extensive repairs after meeting minimum speed.
“You just gotta be aggressive on restarts,” said Reddick after being released from the infield care center. “It’s how this Next Gen racing has been since the beginning. I kind of saw them both have a moment and I had just a split second to make a decision. You gotta be aggressive. You gotta try and get those spots back on a restart. It can be hard to pass after a while.”
“By the time I realized I was in trouble, it was just too late. The No. 19 [Truex] starts sliding, the No. 9 [Elliott] was coming up and I was pretty much already on their outside. At that point, there is nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding. Just be a little more conservative. That would have avoided the incident. Just not who I am, not what we do.
“It’s unfortunate. It took us out of the race. We had a really fast Camry. Thought we would have been in the mix all day long.”
