Note: The editorial staff at IMS.com is taking a look back at the 10 biggest moments of 2022 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in this year-end series, with one installment appearing on the site per day in countdown fashion from Dec. 22-31.
Tyler Reddick used composure and pace to capture the second annual Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on July 31 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Driving the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, Reddick fended off all comers in overtime in the NASCAR Cup Series race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course after starting from the pole. It was the fourth career Cup Series victory at IMS for Richard Childress Racing, which won the Brickyard 400 on the oval with Dale Earnhardt in 1995, Kevin Harvick in 2003 and Paul Menard in 2011.
The victory came following a July 13 announcement in which Reddick shared he would leave RCR at the end of the 2023 season and switch to 23XI Racing – co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin – starting in 2024.
This was Reddick’s second career Cup Series victory, both coming this month. He won the road race July 3 at Road America.
“Certainly, it was a little bump in the road, but we’ve gone out and won a race fair and square a couple weeks ago,” Reddick said of his announcement to leave RCR. “If we changed nothing and we keep working really, really hard, we’d find our way back to Victory Lane.
“Just really glad to be able to do it here in Indianapolis. This is one really special place to race. Really excited to kiss the bricks here in a little bit.”
Austin Cindric, driving the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford, ended up finishing second, ahead of Harrison Burton’s No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford in third. Although Ross Chastain crossed the finish line second in the No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, he missed Turn 1 on the final restart and gained track position by taking the access road past Turn 1, which led to NASCAR penalizing him. Chastain was credited with 27th place.
The two-lap overtime session was created when the caution flag flew on Lap 81 of the scheduled 82 laps. On a restart on Lap 80, multiple cars made contact in Turn 4, with the No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet of Austin Dillon getting beached in the gravel trap.
Reddick found the lead for the final time on Lap 62 after Joey Hand, who was on an off-sequence strategy, dove to pit road. On Lap 85, Reddick led the field to the green-white-checkered overtime restart, with AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Chastain and Daniel Suarez in tow.
The field fanned out four-wide on the final restart heading into Turn 1, with Chastain pinned against the outside wall. Chastain decided to avoid a collision and Turn 1, instead taking the access road that bypassed the corner. He rejoined the circuit next to leader Reddick, taking the lead in Turn 6.
“I was just trying not to be in the carnage there in Turn 1,” Chastain said. “I thought we were four-wide and couldn’t go any farther right, so I decided to take the NASCAR access lane out there. Just pure reaction there.”
Reddick then powered past Chastain to regain the lead in Turn 14 with the white flag in the air, with Chastain, Cindric and Burton never making another challenge for the lead. Reddick crossed the finish line .576 of a second ahead of Chastain before Chastain was demoted by the penalty. The official margin of victory between Reddick and Cindric was 1.065 seconds.
“I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’” Reddick said of Chastain passing for the lead. “That was a scenario that had been talked about. If you get bottled up, what do you do when you take the access road? I couldn’t believe he got ahead of me. I was waiting to see if he was going to have a penalty because I didn’t want to move him out of the way. I was really surprised by that, but hey, we made it work.
“Hats off to Ross for trying to do that, but I’m really glad it didn’t end up working out because I would have been pretty pissed off.”
