Tyler Reddick won the 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway after two overtime attempts Monday, Aug. 19, 2024.

The race was postponed to Monday after 51 laps Sunday after two rain delays.

“It wasn’t really a smooth day,” Reddick said after the race. “We made some mistakes on pit road and put us in a bad spot going into stage three, but put us right behind the wreck, which was good I guess.”

He fell back a bit after pitstops later in the race, but was able to come back from that.

“We had to take more fuel than the 9 and some of those guys, so we had to go up there and pass them back,” he said.

Reddick said an assist from a quasi teammate was the last boost he needed to get the victory on the final restart.

“I got a really good push from Ty (Gibbs) on the last restart and pushed us back to the lead,” Reddick said.

Gibbs drives the 54 car for Joe Gibbs Racing, which Reddick’s team 23Xi has an affiliation with.

“You always hope it’s a teammate pushing you because things just line up better,” Reddick said, talking about bumpers, engine power, and more. “Brad (Keselowski has) always been a good pusher, he’s really good at understanding how these things work as well, so I would have felt good either way.”

“It just worked out really well,” Reddick said.

Denny Hamlin, the winning car owner, spoke to media following the race. He first commented on Bubba Wallace’s day. Bubba had a fast car, leading five laps on the day before being involved in an accident when Kyle Larson spun at the beginning of Stage 3. Bubba, who is fighting for a playoff spot, finished 26th.

“Super unfortunate for the 23,” Hamlin said. “That’s racing, so they say.”

He went on to add that it’s beneficial to have “two bullets in the gun” in two cars, because when Wallace faltered, Reddick was able to rebound and get the victory.

Reddick has been visibly upset with second-place finishes this season when he feels he should have won. Hamlin said that’s one of the things that’s great about having him as a driver — his will to improve.

“He’s always trying to get better,” Hamlin said. “He’s going to come away from this weekend with a laundry list of things he can do better and the team can do better, and that’s what I’m most impressed with.”

William Byron restarted on the final overtime attempt with the lead and chose the top for the restart. He said there was a lot of debate whether to take the top or the bottom.

“I felt like the bottom gives you a chance for sure, but it seems like the leader always takes top here, but it seems like he always gets beat pretty often,” Byron said. “I don’t know, I just feel like lane choice is really difficult here. If you’re the leader, the safe bet’s to take the top, but I feel like I’ll replay the fact that I could have won from the bottom.”

he added that choosing the other lane might not have made a difference in the end.

“He had a better car than us, he was faster on the long run, and he deserved it, but I would have liked to steal one for sure,” Byron said.

Check out some postrace video below and watch for more this week on The SuperSpeedway Podcast.