By STEVE MEGARGEE, AP Sports Reporter
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (AP) — Tyler Reddick needed a little longer than expected to win in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The circumstances of his triumph were worth waiting for.
Reddick won on Sunday at Road America, edging out Chase Elliott, the defending on-course champion and current points leader. The win came on the 92nd start of his Cup career, which has included five second-place finishes.
“It was just a huge sense of relief,” Reddick said.
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Richard Childress Racing driver won by 3.304 seconds over Elliott, who took pole position and led for 36 of the 62 laps. Elliott was looking for his eighth career Cup road circuit victory to tie Tony Stewart for second place – one behind Jeff Gordon’s record.
“He’s the guy who’s won more road races in the last two years than anyone,” Reddick said.
Kyle Larson finished third, followed by Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez.
Both Elliott and Reddick were well ahead of the field before making pit stops with around 20 laps to go. Elliott had a narrow lead over Reddick coming out of the pits, but Reddick eventually got past him as they came back to the front of the field.
Reddick took the lead definitively on lap 47 once all the cars ahead of him made their pit stops.
“I just let him stay close enough to put the pressure on me there when we had decent tires and could never get enough of a gap,” Elliott said. “I made a few mistakes. I was gaining a gap there a few times and made a few mistakes and let it come back close enough to get me out of sync and then after that I started to struggle.
Elliott took pole position and led for much of the day as he tried to follow up his victory last week in Nashville with another. He was aiming for his third victory of the season.
No one has won more than two races in the first 18 events, the first time there has not been at least one triple winner this late in the season.
Instead, Reddick became the fifth winner for the first time this year.
Each of the first three road races this year had a first-time winner, with Reddick breaking through at Road America after Chastain won Circuit of the Americas and Suárez at Sonoma.
Other first-time winners were Austin Cindric at Daytona and Chase Briscoe at Phoenix.
Reddick, who won the Xfinity Series in 2018 and 2019, looked set to earn his elusive first multiple win ahead of Sunday.
Perhaps the most notable example came in Bristol in April. Reddick and Chase Briscoe were battling for the lead that night when both cars lost control, allowing Kyle Busch to pass them for the win. Reddick also led for 90 laps at Fontana earlier this year but finished 24th after William Byron hit him against the wall.
“This year has been a fall short of greatness all year,” Reddick said. “We finally did it today.”
Team owner Richard Childress sensed the breakthrough was imminent and made it clear during a Sunday morning pep talk with the driver.
“I said to him this morning, ‘You’re going to win this race. We just can’t fight and (have to) be strong,” Childress said.
Reddick made sure his boss’ prediction came true.
The Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday. Kurt Busch won last year.
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