INDIANAPOLIS – Tyler Reddick was in the lead and heading to victory when he nailed the final restart of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard.
All he had to do was complete the final three laps around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile oval and Reddick would have his second NASCAR Cup Series victory in the month of July.
Then, out of nowhere, he saw Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet pop up alongside Reddick’s Richard Childress Racing Chevy.
This was the same car that Chastain drove too deep into Turn 1, couldn’t make the turn, and used his natural instinct to drive into the runoff lane to keep from causing multi-car mayhem.
Reddick couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“It didn’t seem like real life,” Reddick said afterwards.
Back on Reddick’s timing stand, cooler heads prevailed. Crew chief Randall Burnett knew that Chastain’s bold move of racing through the runoff area and rejoining the field next to the leader was not going to stand with NASCAR’s Race Control.
“I was trying to watch on TV and then flashed away and was showing the cars wrecking and they flashed back to Tyler and the 1 (Chastain) is right there, I’m like, ‘Where did that guy come from?’,” Burnett recalled. “I saw one car go blowing through the whole thing. I didn’t realize that’s where he came out. I was trying to get caught up. Where did he come from?
“That was pretty entertaining. I don’t know if he got a penalty or what for that, but yeah, glad him and Tyler didn’t get together and ruin our race. That was more what I was worried about than anything at that point.”
Derek Kneeland is Reddick’s spotter and relayed the message to the pit stand that NASCAR was going to penalize Chastain for the move. It took him from second place, battling for a possible victory, to a 27th-place finish.
“Well, Derek spoke up pretty quick and he’s like, that’s going to be a penalty on them,” Burnett continued. “He informed him pretty quick to not put himself in a bad spot, but we also had the 2 right there and Ross was still racing us hard. It was important for us to get by the 1 to gap to the 2 because if we messed around with him and let the 2 by us — it was quite a mess right there for a minute, and pretty stressful situation.
“Fortunately, we were able to get by the 1 and just get away from it clean and not have to worry about it.”
Behind the wheel of the No. 8 Chevrolet, Reddick had to fight off the challenge of Chastain and the third-place car driven by Austin Cindric from Team Penske. He needed to make sure Chastain didn’t impact his race so that Cindric would catch up at the end.
“I was waiting to see what was going to happen in that situation. I was told he was probably going to get penalized, but that wasn’t good enough.
“I needed to know if he was going to get penalized or not. It was a complex situation for a couple of sections there.
“Thankfully I was able to get momentum on Ross in a pretty convenient spot and make the pass for the lead and then check out from there.”
As for the restart that won the race for Reddick, he knew he had to time it perfectly.
“I’m not going to lie, I saw drivers like Austin Cindric and a few others in practice do some mock restarts,” Reddick recalled. “As the race progressed, I thought I found the limit on the restart braking zone. It’s much different than the normal braking zone on a green flag lap.
“I never overexerted or went past that mark. We had aggressive brakes on our car.
“I got a push on the last restart by Ryan Blaney. He was doing a good job timing the restart on me and then defending on what was happening to him as well. But he got turned around and the rest was history. But Ryan gave me a good push and that got me to the inside. We stayed together and got a push, and it worked together very well.”
It’s been quite a month for Reddick. He opened July with a victory at Road American on July 3, informed his team owner Richard Childress that he was leaving the team after the 2023 season to join 23X11, and closed the month with a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 31.
In the process, he proved that despite the ill-feelings that may exist between himself and team owner Richard Childress, he is committed to winning races and battling for the championship in both 2022 and 2023.
“Well, after they made their announcement, I met — I thought about it a lot that night, gave it a lot of thought, and it’s more than just about one person; it’s about a team,” Childress said. “I stayed up most of the night thinking about what I should do, how I wanted to handle it.
“I went in the next day and told the whole team it wasn’t a perfect circumstance the way it went down, but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got this year, and we’ll see where we go next year.”
Reddick realizes he has placed himself in a tough situation, but he is determined to let his racing quiet the skeptics and the critics.
“Thankfully, winning smooths some things over, I think,” Reddick said. “I’ve told him that as long as I’m racing here, I’m going to do everything I can to win races for this team, and I would love to win a championship or two with this team.
“I’m just going to give them everything I’ve got.
“I’m glad to add to his (Richard Childress’) Brickyard collection of rings and wins. He’s already had a couple of them before me and I’m glad to help add to that. I want to add to everything I can possible with him before my time is up.”