NASCAR Crash Course: Tyler Reddick states his championship case with win at Michigan

It was no surprise to Tyler Reddick a late caution came out at Michigan, bunching the field as he was cruising to a Cup Series win. What's different is he buckled down, closed the deal and left with the trophy in Monday's rain-delayed FireKeepers Casino 400.

Reddick's win came after surviving two final restarts, failing at the first before a push from fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs sent him sailing away during the second OT. As Reddick crossed the finish line, it capped a stretch of seven straight runs of sixth or better, but Monday was the first time he actually cashed in.

Consider the past few months for Reddick since winning at Talladega in April:

• He won the pole and had the best car down the stretch at Darlington, only to get a little too aggressive and wreck late with Chris Buescher.
• He led 53 laps at New Hampshire only to fade late to winner Christopher Bell.
• He was in the mix in June's crazy Nashville five-overtime finish that tilted Joey Logano's way (Reddick was third).
• He had the best tires and charged hard on Chicago winner Alex Bowman, coming one lap and 2.8 seconds short in that street race after hitting the wall on the white flag lap.
• He won the pole at Indy, led a race-high 40 laps and fell just short to Kyle Larson's incredible march forward on fresh tires down the stretch.
• He was third in the Richmond melee last weekend, one pinball Austin Dillon maneuver gone wrong from winning the race.

If just half of those races go Reddick's way, he's got a series-best five wins instead of two. But this Michigan triumph did earn him the points lead for the first time in his Cup career, setting new career highs in top fives (11) and top 10s (17) with a dozen races still left to go.

"I think having a points mindset is good for me because I like to be more aggressive," Reddick explained Monday. "Probably more than I should be in a lot of situations… When I feel like I'm in that position where I have to think about points and be a little smart, I think it's a good thing for me because I like to be at 105% or 110%. It pulls me back a little bit."

Car owner (and fellow competitor) Denny Hamlin feels like a year's worth of oh-so-close for his 23XI No. 45 driver is on the verge of balancing itself out.

"The numbers are going to come back, right?" Hamlin said about Reddick's win total. "You're going to go through spells where you only win 15% of the time when you have the best car. You're going to have other years where you win 60% of the time… As long as you have a big enough sample size, while it's easy to get down in the moments where you had winning cars and didn't win, if you race here long enough, and he will, it's all going to work itself out."

Reddick now becomes the fourth driver to lead the points since Memorial Day Weekend, joining Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. But he's the first from 23XI to top the standings this late, giving hope to the Michael Jordan-owned operation they've got a driver capable of making their first ever Championship 4 appearance.

"It's awesome to see how tough they are," Hamlin said. "I mean, week in, week out, they're a tough out. It's certainly going to make my path a lot harder. That's what I started the team for. This is part of the crux of being a team owner and a driver, you're going to have to deal with the days they beat you."

Traffic Report

Green: William Byron. Remember this guy? A three-time Cup winner this season, Byron reset his sluggish summer with a runner-up finish at Michigan. It's the first time he's led a race since the Coca-Cola 600 in May as the No. 24 team gears up for the playoffs.

Yellow: Kyle Busch. Busch took an important step in an ugly season for Richard Childress Racing, running fourth for his first top-five finish in three months. But days after teammate Austin Dillon was kicked out of the playoffs , the only way RCR gets back there is by winning. Busch just didn't quite have enough to stay out front after a two-tire stop to gain track position.

Red: Alex Bowman. July's surprise Chicago winner has squandered momentum through a rough three-race stretch: 31st, 28th and then 27th at Michigan after hitting the wall in the first overtime. It's that mistake which led to Ross Chastain spinning out, costing the bubble driver 13 positions and potentially a playoff spot of his own. We'll see.

Speeding Ticket: Cars flipping. Michigan has not been a place we've seen cars barrel rolling recently. That changed this weekend with two ugly wrecks that left bystanders questioning why the NASCAR, with all its safety improvements, couldn't keep cars on the ground.

Crash one came in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race when Kyle Sieg was sent for a ride on the white-flag lap, ending the race under caution.

Sieg thankfully emerged OK with just a few bruises on his right arm. Then, during the Cup race, Corey LaJoie found himself flipping in nearly the exact same spot, unscathed but upside down in his Next Gen car for the second time this year.

As Jeff Burton said succinctly on NBC Sports, "That's unacceptable. There's no way that a car, when it turns like that, should get up in the air that easily. There has been millions of dollars and hours and hours of time spent to prevent that from happening. That's going to catch everybody by surprise."

Oops!

A mid-race wreck toward the end of Stage 2 changed the outcome of the race and perhaps the playoff picture. Kyle Larson lost it in a wreck coming off Turn 4 and collected several contenders, including bubble drivers Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace.

"Restarts are just tough here, with the side drafts and all that…" Larson explained. "Just got myself in an awkward aero spot off of [Turn] 4 and got loose and couldn't save it."

While Buescher recovered for a top-10 finish, Wallace limped home 26th with a car capable of challenging teammate Reddick for the win. He now sits one single point behind Chastain for the final playoff spot with two races left to inch ahead.