Reddick suffers first stumble of the season with Michigan DNF

Tyler Reddick is not invincible after all.

The championship point leader in the NASCAR Cup Series suffered his first DNF of the season Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Reddick was in the right place, the top five, when he was collected in a multicar crash that broke out on a lap 83 restart. He was clipped by Toyota teammate Ty Gibbs in a chain reaction that started when Carson Hocevar got into the back bumper of John Hunter Nemechek.

Reddick was the second car in line on the outside lane. Gibbs was to Reddick’s inside. Nemechek, who was behind Gibbs, was hit by Hocevar and bounced off Bubba Wallace. Wallace then hit Gibbs, who started to spin, and clipped Reddick.

When all was said and done, Reddick’s car hit the inside wall going into Turn 1 with the rear of his Toyota. He then came back across the racetrack and bounced off an incoming Austin Dillon.

“I’m alright, just a bummer for our Rockstar Energy Drink Toyota Camry,” said Reddick. “I felt like we had really good speed. We were set up with a good restart to get second there, and maybe race for the lead there, and just an all-around bummer. I wanted to come in here and have a good points day.

“We had really, really good speed yesterday and it showed again today. All-in-all, it’s a bummer. It’s a race I felt like we could have won, got away from us.”

The incident ended Reddick’s afternoon. Prior to Sunday, when he will be credited with a 35th-place finish, Reddick had finished outside the top 10 only three times in 14 races. Reddick leads the Cup Series field in wins (five) and top-10 finishes (11).

Reddick had won the first stage of Sunday’s race.

“All year long, we’ve done a really good job at staying out of messes like this, so it’s unfortunate to have it happen,” Reddick said. “At least we got a couple of stage points. … It’s not going to be great going out early next week in qualifying; we will have our work cut out for us starting early in Pocono.”