EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix: Tyler Reddick wins in triple OT at COTA
The NASCAR Cup Series' March schedule wrapped Sunday with Tyler Reddick coming out victorious in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuits of the Americas after three overtimes and a wake of bent sheet metal.
With the win, Reddick, who was the fastest car all day long, picked up his fourth career win and his first at 23XI Racing.
The normally 68-lap race ended up taking 75 laps to complete and was made up of a 15-lap opening stage, followed by 17 laps in the second stage and 26 in the third and final stage before the three ensuing overtimes.
We had you covered with all the action from start to finish in Austin, Texas, exclusively on FOX and the FOX Sports App.
Here are the top moments!
Green!
It was a smooth, clean start for these drivers.
Pole-sitter William Byron got a good jump to lead the opening lap, while Reddick and Austin Cindric battled for second.
Early contact!
Things weren't smooth sailing for long, however. The caution came out for a crash between Turns 19 and 20 involving Brad Keselowski, Ty Dillon and Jimmie Johnson.
Down and out
Johnson exited to pit road with a ton of right rear damage, which ultimately ended his race early.
Dillon's day was also cut short after his front end got destroyed in the collision.
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Chaos unfolding
The green flag was back out on Lap 6, as Cindric took the lead.
Meanwhile, Jordan Taylor almost took out Erik Jones on the entry to Turn 11, while Chase Briscoe took a spin in Turn 1 but avoided drawing a caution. Elsewhere, Corey LaJoie and Denny Hamlin were penalized for cutting the course.
The chaos continued with a big crash in Turn 12. Bubba Wallace's brakes apparently failed entering the corner, picking up Kyle Larson and Jones in the aftermath. Cody Ware also spun out in that sequence, which drew a caution.
One down, two to go!
Stage 1 went to Byron, who had led the most laps on the day at the time, thanks to a nice jump in the restart zone.
More drama quickly unfolded, as Ryan Blaney sent Keselowski for a spin, followed by Larson sending around Blaney.
After the dust had settled, Byron was running first, followed by Cindric, AJ Allmendinger and Daniel Suárez.
Happy feet
Reddick opened up his lead to over eight seconds to claim the win in Stage 2, grabbing both 10 points and a playoff point in the process.
Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five in the second stage.
Spin!
Christopher Bell got turned around after running through some dirt that got kicked up, drawing a blue flag.
The blue flag is only used on road courses to warn drivers of problems ahead that are hard to see, such as if a car had spun off the course, but the race remained under green-flag conditions.
Pulling out all the stops
The restart came with 25 laps to go.
It was a battle at the front, as Reddick and Byron raced side-by-side down the straightaway toward Turn 12. Defending champion Ross Chastain also got into the mix, with Alex Bowman right there as well.
Trouble ahead
Elsewhere, Larson's day got even longer when the rear toe link on his car broke late in the race.
All-out effort
Suárez began closing in on the top three, while two Trackhouse Racing cars put late pressure on Reddick and Byron.
With 10 laps remaining, Suárez took the lead by 0.799 seconds after 12 lead changes between six drivers.
Anyone's race
A restart came with nine laps to go, but immediate chaos resulted in another late caution after Chastain's car stalled.
Man on a mission
The green flag returned with seven laps to go. Byron was running first, followed by Reddick in second and Kyle Busch in third.
Eyes on the prize
Byron held a solid gap a couple of car lengths long on Reddick, as things wound down with five laps remaining.
Battling late
Reddick took the lead in Turn 11, which caused Byron to spring into action.
Byron tried to set up a divebomb in Turn 12, but Reddick shut it down. Both were racing nose-to-tail with four laps to go.
Not over yet!
Just as Reddick was starting to drive away from Byron in the race's final few laps, NASCAR called a caution for debris on the back-straightaway. Just like that, things headed to overtime.
Overtime
Reddick held the lead while a big pileup unfolded behind the leaders exiting Turn 1. Ryan Preece triggered the crash and started dropping debris and fluid from his car.
Reddick wasn't able to get back to the white flag before the cation came out. With that, things headed to double overtime.
Double OT
It was more of the same as the second overtime got underway — spin after spin to draw yet another caution.
Triple overtime
Finally, things came to a close when Reddick began pulling away again from the field en route to the white flag.
Busch, Bowman, Chastain and Byron rounded out the top five finishers after a whirlwind race.
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