CONCORD, N.C. — Yes, this car finished in 11th place.
It wasn’t pretty, but it counts all the same. Even when it looked like everything was going wrong, regular season champion Tyler Reddick fought and clawed his way back from early damage that nearly ended his Sunday (Oct. 13) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL to finish 11th and score enough points to advance to the Round of 8.
Reddick entered the ROVAL 14 points above the playoff cut line. Not a comfortable margin by any means, but he qualified second and had the speed to advance, as long as he scored stage points, posted a solid finish and avoided trouble.
Well, two out of three. Not bad.
Reddick stayed out to win stage one and collect the 10 stage points, but he was relegated back to 26th for the start of stage two. The new turn 7 had been calamity corner throughout the weekend, and the stage two restart saw Austin Dillon get spun in front of the field in turn 7.
There was a traffic jam at the back of the pack, and Reddick was unable to slow down and collided with Denny Hamlin so hard that it launched his No. 45 car into orbit.
The right rear toe link needed to be replaced after the hit. Reddick managed to stay on the lead lap for the rest of stage two, but his car was turned into a jalopy, running laps several seconds off the leaders.
“This thing was destroyed with the contact with my boss, Denny Hamlin, in the hairpin,” Reddick said.
But the No. 45 crew made progress with repairs, and the No. 45 car had great speed for the final stage.
“I’m just thankful we had an opportunity to battle back, have the opportunity to drive back,” Reddick said. “I really thought it was over there for a minute. It was just so killed and just undrivable, but they kept working on it and got it better.”
The final caution on lap 82 for Dillon’s runaway wheel saw split decisions on pit road, and the No. 45 team rolled the dice by sending Reddick to pit road for four fresh tires. The stop dropped him back to 24th, and with 26 laps of racing left, Reddick had to gain 12 spots against Joey Logano, who ran fifth with older tires, in order to advance.
“It can all seem really complex on the outside looking in, but it’s pretty simple for me,” Reddick explained. “I just asked how many cars I need to pass, where I was to the cut line, and I just focused on running the best laps possible, trying to be aggressive and timing the passes.