Tyler Reddick opens his account at Road America

If cars NASCAR set foot on the asphalt of Elkhart Lake in 1956 during a catch-all race open to other disciplines, it was surprisingly necessary to wait until 2021 for the event to officially enter the Cup Series calendar. A natural, fast and hilly route of 4,048 miles (6,515 km), it is an old-fashioned track where you have to know how to turn left as well as right. An ideal playground for Chase Elliott who worked hard to write his name for posterity by winning this inaugural round. Elliott quickly found his feet to take pole position and take control of the race from the start.

Chase Elliott converts his pole position at the start © Sean Gardner/Getty Images

The first two segments were ultimately quite poor in lessons, the leading drivers preferring to anticipate their refueling with a view to the end of the race rather than chasing the points allocated to the first 10 of each section. We thus saw two drivers struggling in the championship win with Chase Briscoe in the first segment and Ryan Blaney in the second. The pressure was slowly building, and with 20 laps to go Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick found themselves bumper to bumper after their final refueling. If Elliott managed to keep the lead for a while, he had to give in after 3 laps to attacks from Reddick, who was particularly comfortable at the wheel of his Chevrolet Camaro.

Reddick without shaking

Their closest pursuer Kyle Larson pushed back more than 10 seconds, Elliott tried, as a great road circuit specialist, to spare his tires while keeping his opponent in his sights. He certainly did not expect Reddick to control his end of the race so well because the 2018 and 2019 Double Xfinity Series Champion managed to maintain a comfortable gap before unleashing his last strength in the last 5 laps to win his opponent. A surprise, it must be admitted, because Reddick is far from being a road circuit specialist who has never managed to win on this type of track since his beginnings in the NASCAR divisions. Seeing him evolve on this ultra-technical track, we can guess the room for improvement for the Childress Racing nugget. Without trembling, he crossed the finish line to become the 13th^rd different winner this season and validate their ticket for the playoffs.

Chase Elliott can console himself with a good operation in the general classification © Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

If Chase Elliott failed to offer another victory to Hendrick Motorsport, he delivered another potential championship race. While Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon traveled to Le Mans during the 24 Hours to prepare for their entry in 2023 as part of Garage 56, it is certain that the performance of their foal cannot leave them indifferent…

Kwik Trip 250 standings at Road America: