Racin' with Russ | Reddick Races to Win Talladega

Tyler Reddick is not exactly a household name in the world of NASCAR, but that scene is changing starting with the young man's sixth career win at the always tough and huge Talladega Speedway.

The start of the Sunday afternoon race saw a full field of competitors and a nearly sold out grandstand with Austin Cindric and Michael McDowell the early leaders. Did I mention there were 72 lead changes among 23 different drivers. It was a wild one.

Cindric wound up winning the first stage with Chase Elliott not far behind.

Next up at the plate of leaders were the cars of Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ryan Blanney among others as Logano too second stage honors.

Off the final and main stage where two multi-car wrecks sidelined some of the better cars such as Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek.

After numerous messy clean-ups, the race came down to McDowell and Reddick with McDowell getting shuffled out of the top 20 and bringing chaos on his way back through the pack. Reddick won by .208 sec as Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Alex Bowman wrapped up the top five finishers.

Most of your favorite drivers were caught up in one wreck or another ruining their days for sure.

Some names you don't usually see in a top 10 finish would include Anthony Alfredo (6th), Daniel Hemric (9th) and Harrison Burton (10th).

The latest points stats has Larson still on top despite a miserable Dega showing, some 15 points in front of Martin Truex Jr and 22 ahead of Elliott.

Love Takes First Xfinity Win in Dega

No one doubted it would happen, as it was just a matter of when for the young talented driver Jesse Love. Childress teammates Hill and Love shared the lead for the first 30 laps as Love checkered the stage. On to the next stage where just 10 laps in, the big wreck took out 11 race cars, least of all Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Truex among many more. It was ugly.

The rest of this race saw a bunch of leaders, more wrecks and Love earning his first Xfinity trophy ahead of Riley Herbst, Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Brennan Poole.

The points standings here have Chandler Smith just 14 points ahead of Cole Custer and 16 in front of Austin Hill.

China F-1 Race to Verstappen

In usual Max Verstappen circumstances, the German driver took over the lead on the first turn, first lap in China and never looked back en route to his scatty eighth win. It gets old after a few years of nearly winning every single race.

The overall race is to see who can be the highest finishing brand behind the Red Bull Honda of Verstappen and Perez. Lance Norris split the teammates to finish as runner-up.

The latest points standings has Verstappen on top by 25 points over Perez with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc third 34 points in arrears.

Indy Car Race

The famed Long Beach Grand Prix in California is always a big hit and this year was no exception.

Scott Dixon managed to put his car out front for 42 laps, more than any other driver and win the Acura GP of Long Beach. Colton Herta and Alex Palou rounded out the top three finishers.

From Rumorville

- The retired racing series known as IROC with identically matched race cars such as Camaros or Porsches hasn't been around for more than 20 years, but it is about to come back. Details are a little sketchy right now, but their first event will be held at the famed Lime Rock Park, a great small road course venue, which this writer competed on many times.

- Dale Earnhardt Jr is said to be interested in promoting more Late Model drivers in moving up to ARCA or Xfinity competition. Jr is also said to be entered in a few of the larger Late Model venues in and around North Carolina.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the NASCAR racing at the tricky Dover Motor Speedway with more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@gmail.com.