By LARRY LAGE, AP Sports Writer

BROOKLYN, Mich. — BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — Tyler Reddick capped an emotional week with his second NASCAR Cup Series win this year.

Reddick’s mentor, Scott Bloomquist, died in a plane crash just three days before he won at Michigan International Speedway on Monday.

“I can’t help but sit here in victory lane and think of Scott Bloomquist,” he said. “Huge mentor to me, and an incredible role model and legend of dirt racing and motor sports.

“The last couple of days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him, his family and friends.”

Reddick moved past Kyle Larson into the top spot in the Cup standings, and his win opened another spot in the playoffs because he was one of 12 drivers who had already earned an automatic bid with a victory.

That leaves four spots available with races remaining at Daytona and Darlington.

Reddick also won at Talladega four months ago in his No. 45 Toyota for 23XI, the team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan. The Basketball Hall of Famer and former Charlotte Hornets owner was at Michigan on Sunday, when the race was stopped after 51 laps because of rain.

“This is a fun hobby for him, fun business for him,” said Hamlin, who was on the pole in his No. 11 Toyota and finished ninth. “This fills a lot of gaps of the competitiveness that he has lost by not being part of the Hornets anymore.”

Martin Truex Jr. got loose in the No. 19 Toyota on lap 194, bringing out the yellow flag and a restart with six laps to go.

Reddick was out front on the first restart and the race went to a second overtime when Ross Chastain was running 11th and was part of a crash that brought out another yellow.

William Byron led the second restart but Reddick passed him for the 26th lead change of the race. Byron was second in the No. 24 Chevy and Ty Gibbs was third in the No. 54 Toyota, improving his chances of making the playoffs even if he doesn’t win one of the next two races.

Larson, who was the BetMGM Sportsbook favorite to win the race, lost control of the No. 5 Chevrolet on lap 115 and several cars were tangled up in the mess.

A few laps later, Joey Logano took his damaged No. 22 Ford to the garage and Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota took a hit to stunt the relative success the on-the-bubble driver was having in the race.

The pileup led to Logano finishing 33rd, with Larson one spot behind and Wallace 26th, pushing him from No. 15 to 17 in the playoff standings for the 16-car field.

Austin Dillon was 17th, a week after he wrecked Logano and Hamlin on the final lap to win at Richmond and had his automatic spot in the playoffs revoked by NASCAR. Dillon’s appeal is scheduled for Wednesday.

Kyle Busch won the second stage, the first for him and Richard Childress Racing this season. Busch became the 19th driver to win a stage in 2024, setting a single-season record, and became the sixth to win a stage in every year since NASCAR added the wrinkle in 2017.

Busch finished fourth.

“This is how we would expect to run,” he said. “This is how we want to run.”

Corey LaJoie, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet, went airborne after some contact and slid a considerable distance on the hood before rolling over on grass.

“There were sparks, dirt and all sorts of stuff coming in,” said LaJoie, who was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

Hamlin said he would rather wreck like LaJoie did than the alternative.

“I would rather roll one over than to hit a wall at that speed,” Hamlin said. “We have a pretty safe car.”

Ford had won nine straight races at Michigan, a track record, until Reddick’s Toyota ended the run.

Chris Buescher, who won last year, was seventh. Brad Keselowski finished sixth for Ford.

Haulers had more than 1,000 miles of highway to transport cars to Daytona Beach, Florida, where qualifying was scheduled Friday for Saturday night’s race.

The regular season wraps up the following week at Darlington.

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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Source: wralsportsfan.com