Today’s Kwik Trip 250 presented by JOCKEY Made in America comes at an opportune time for Chase Elliott. His second win of the year last week at Nashville Superspeedway locked him securely into the NASCAR Playoffs. He comes to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as the Cup Series points leader with a chance to add to his 30-point-interval over Ross Chastain.

As the defending champion of the race, Elliott can focus on picking up playoff points with Stage wins, and if he is able to repeat he will add five more points to his tally that carries over to every round of the postseason. In addition, Elliott start on the pole today next to Chase Briscoe. Elliott, the seven-time road course winner leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are tied for second with four wins each.

In the early 1950s, sports car races were being run on the streets in and around Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, but the state legislature banned racing on public roads soon after. A man named Clif Tufte organized a group of local citizens and leaders of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). This group developed plans and sold stock to build a permanent racecourse.

The overall vision of Road America grew out of the dreams of Tufte, a highway engineer, who chose 525 acres of Wisconsin farmland outside the Village of Elkhart Lake for the track. Ground broke for Road America in April of 1955 and the track’s first SCCA national race weekend was held later that same year (September 10, 1955).

At 4.048-miles in length, with 14 turns, the track is virtually the same today as it was when it was first laid out. The natural topography of the glacial Kettle Moraine area was utilized for the track, sweeping around rolling hills and plunging through ravines making it one of the most challenging tracks in the world.

The first, and up until last season, the only, NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America was on August 12, 1956. An estimated crowd of 10,000 braved terrible weather to watch the event. And in an unusual ruling, NASCAR limited the cars to 10 gallons of fuel at the start of the race.

That first race in 1956 was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock, driving a Mercury for car owner Bill Stroppe. Flock led 17 laps of the 63-lap event, making just two pit stops en route to his win; his fourth victory of the 1956 season. Flock won with an average speed of 73.858 mph and did it in 3 hours, 29 minutes, and 50 seconds. He won the race by a 17-second margin of victory over second place. Bill Stroppe’s cars actually finished one-two in the race with Flock winning and his teammate Billy Myers finishing second.

With the length of the race course, it will only take 62 laps to complete the 250.98 miles that make up today’s race. Stages are 15/15/32 laps. After Road America, only eight races will remain in NASCAR’s regular season.

Currently, 12 drivers have won in 2022 leaving just four positions available for drivers trying to make the playoffs on points alone. A win by another driver, not already visiting victory lane this year, will throw the top 16 into more chaos.

Chase Elliott(9) battled briefly through the first few corners of the race as Chase Briscoe(14) tried to take the top spot away. Once clear of the #14 car, Elliott pulled away and led every lap until his pit stop.

Kyle Busch(18), who started in the rear after an engine change, got tangled up with Kevin Harvick(4) on lap five and lost all the track position he had gained. Busch, eventually got his car righted, rejoined the race, and recovered to finish 13th in Stage One.

Most of the field opted to stop for fuel and fresh tires as the laps in the Stage wound down. Surprised at the number of cars that took advantage of stopping to gain track advantage at the beginning of Stage Two, Elliott pitted just before the pits closed with two laps to go in the Stage. Giving up the sure Playoff Point the win would have provided Elliott chose to try and maintain his spot on the track and compete for the win. A decision that may be debated when the Playoffs get underway.

Briscoe took advantage of Elliott’s decision and grabbed the Stage win by default. Elliott managed to return to the track in time to finish 10th. Settling for a single-stage point to add to his season’s total.

Clearly, Elliott has the fastest car in the field, can he keep it at the front through another break at the end of Stage Two? After drivers that opted to stay on the track for points made their pit stops, Elliott returned to the lead. He started Stage Two with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson(5) beside him on the front row.

Elliott and Larson raced for the lead with the #9 car prevailing. Another on-track incident had Joey Logano(22) locking up the brakes and knocking Bubba Wallace(23) off course on lap 25. Both recovered quickly and continued with minimal damage.

Again Elliott chose to give up the lead in favor of a stop before pit road closed near the end of Stage Two. Ryan Blaney(12) became the beneficiary this time, taking the Stage win. Road racing expert, Joey Hand(15), placed second in his substitute role driving the Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang.

Elliott returned to the point for the start of the final Stage, with Tyler Reddick(8) joining him on the front row. Ross Chastain(1) and Daniel Suarez(99) continued their streak of strong runs by Trackhouse Racing holding down the third and fifth positions. With Kyle Larson(5) sandwiched between the pair.

Bubba Wallace was involved in another racing incident as he tried to out-brake Brad Keselowski(6) into a corner. Keselowski tapped the rear of Bubba’s car sending him spinning into the gravel trap dropping the driver of the #23 car back to the 33rd position with 28 laps to go.

Chastain, who has been involved with a number of instances of bumper tag this year, got a taste of his own medicine when Larson moved him out of the way to move into the third spot with 26 laps remaining.

Green flag pit stops began with twenty laps to go as many of the cars outside of the top five came in for what is likely their final service stop. The move forced the hand of the leaders. Elliott and Reddick pitted together and exited pit road nose to tail.

The race for the lead may well be the race for the win as the two drivers have checked out on their pursuers. With 17 laps to go Reddick made a pass for the lead, Elliott tried to respond to the challenge but Reddick opened up a quick five-car length lead.

After leading the dirt race at Bristol on the final lap, before getting spun by Chase Briscoe(14), Reddick has seen his chance to win a Cup Series race be snatched from his grip on several occasions. If he is able to hold off Elliott and capture his first series win, Reddick will also join the list of 2022 winners and likely lock up a spot in the playoffs.

In the longest run of the afternoon on a set of tires, handling may be the determining factor in who drives into victory lane at Road America. With 10 laps to go Elliott closed the gap to just two car lengths.

Both drivers were cautioned by their spotters to not overdrive the corners and burn up the rubber remaining on their tires. Easier said than done when you are in the heat of the battle for a win. Neither driver can afford to make a mistake.

With five laps to go, third-place Kyle Larson trailed the leaders by over 15 seconds. Reddick opened the gap back to five cars over Elliott. A late caution or a mechanical problem appears to be the only bullets Reddick will need to avoid to get that first Cup win.

With two laps to go Reddick’s teammate, Austin Dillon(3), blew a left front tire. Rather than try and make it back to pit road, Dillon drove off the course to avoid a caution. Thereby securing the win for Tyler Reddick as he took the white flag and essentially coasted through the final corners to take the checkered flag.

Reddick had five runner-up finishes before earning his first Cup win. Someone who knows something about that is Chase Elliott, he finished second eight times before his first trip to victory lane.

The race was completed without a “caution for cause” all day. Next week the Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway, the reconfigured superspeedway produced an exciting race in March. It is a safe bet there will not be a repeat of an accident-free event.

Tyler Reddick’s win dropped Kevin Harvick 20 points below the cut-line. Christopher Bell now sits on the bubble. Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon have likely fallen into the must-win category if they expect to be one of the 16 drivers to race for the Cup Series Championship.