Tyler Reddick claimed the lead with a thrilling pass from third position with 31 laps remaining and held off the field to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series SRS Distribution 250 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
It was Reddick’s 10th Xfinity Series victory, coming in only his second race of 2022, and his first trophy since winning the series in 2019.
In an action-packed day, Reddick took the checkered flag 1.825s ahead of fellow NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron, marking the first win for the new Big Machine Racing team’s No. 48 Chevrolet.
The 1.5-mile Texas high banks, however brought out 11 cautions, the second-most in series history, and tight racing on the ensuing restarts, with two-time Xfinity Series winner Reddick pulling off that amazing pass and earning his team’s inaugural victory.
“First off, just a huge opportunity and thank you to Big Machine Racing, it [the car] was just so good,” the 26-year-old Californian said, noting he was motivated to take the drive this week to help the Richard Childress Racing-partnered team improve the Xfinity Series program overall.
“Chevrolet was just so good,” he added.
“Nobody at RCR was really happy with where the cars were at, and I wanted to help and try to make these cars get better and to figure out what we needed to do to get these cars better.”
“Well,” he smiled. “We figured it out pretty quick, I guess.”
Reddick’s triumph ended the JR Motorsports Chevrolets’ three-race winning streak, as they led 118 of the 167 laps on Saturday.
Second-place finisher William Byron, driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, was making his first Xfinity Series appearance since winning the series championship in 2017, and came within two seconds of giving JRM a fourth consecutive win by four different drivers.
Three of the team’s vehicles finished in the top five, and four finished inside the top ten, featuring Byron, Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, and Josh Berry. Berry led the field for 46 laps, Allgaier for 33, and Byron for seven laps.
Gragson, who is second in the series driver standings, finished 36th in the 38-car field after being involved in a chain reaction collision and then damaging the car beyond repair when a tyre problem sent it into the wall only five laps later.
It was a disappointing finish to a fantastic weekend. The 23-year-old Las Vegas native scored his first career pole, led 32 laps, and won Stage 1 – his sixth stage victory of the season, which is more than any other driver.
“I guess the only positive is we got a Playoff point for the stage win,” Gragson said, adding, “Definitely sucks. Good to see the other JRM cars running strong. … hopefully, we can get the company a good finish today.
“Just a bummer. We’ve been doing awesome, just disappointed. We were pretty quick and was just bidding our time.”
Ryan Truex, driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, finished sixth, his best result in five Xfinity Series outings this season. Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing finished eighth, his sixth top-10 result of the season and ninth overall. Landon Cassill of Kaulig Racing finished 10th, giving him his eighth top-10 finish in 2022.
On Saturday, all three championship leaders encountered difficulties. When his No. 16 Kaulig Chasing Chevrolet, current points leader A.J. Allmendinger had a tyre rub racing Allgaier in the final laps, it appeared like his streak would be over. He was nevertheless managed to finish in the top ten for the season, finishing ninth.
On lap 89, Ty Gibbs, who is currently third in the driver standings, was involved in the first Gragson multi-car crash. He’d already had a difficult day, having been sent to the back of the field for an inspection violation.
Despite the struggles they all endured during the race, Allmendinger will lead Gragson by 44 points heading into next week’s Alsco Uniforms 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He leads Gibbs, who is the defending Charlotte race winner, by 52 points.
